baling soybean stalks

[worthabit]

Has anyone seen or done this? We have a soy stalks that are 4 feet high and was wondering if they could be used for bedding or even feed for the cows. We have a baler with netwrap so keeping them together shouldn't be a problem.

 

[C-CROSS]

Up here we have done it for years, especially in drought and ground it and fed in the cattle diet.

 

[Cattledog]

We have used it for bedding in the past.  It makes good bedding but it is really itchy to work with!  We haven't fed it before.

 

[Cowboy Up]

We bale both Corn and Soybean stubble a lot around our area. Our main source of feeding in the winter is ground prairie hay, alfalfa, corn stubble, and bean stubble all ground together, with a little corn. The corn stalks work GREAT for bedding, we put one bale on our mounds about once a week, it helps absorb the moisture, and gives the cattle a place to lay that is dry. I've never heard of using soybean stubble for bedding, but imagine it could work.


CU

 

[kanshow]

I've always heard that it takes more energy to consume soybean stalks than what they get out of it. 

 

[aj]

I've heard it is hard on balers(round). I don't know if its hard on belts or the pickup or what though.

 

[Steer Boy 101]

My dad has worked at John Deere for years and its no harder on balers than corn. WE have around 70 75 cows and we ares short on hay. we run our cows on most of our corn ground till about christmas. We bale all of our bean ground especialy with the new Bullet Roter on the new combines it kicks the bean pods wtih all the toher stuff and or cows really liked it and tehy actuayl gained on 2 of those and one corn stalk bale a day for 70 75 cows. so i would defently bale them up. we have found u can usualy get them cheaper becuase ppl dont really know that they are that good. they also make nice beding

 

[showsteerdlux]

Bean hay has gotten real popular here in the south. If you have it I'd definitely be baling all of it I could. If you have a mixer I personally think that you can't beat a good ration with bean hay as far as protein goes. With the drought the way it is here, I'd love to have the option of soybean hay.

 

[mooch]

Cows seem love it and do well on it .If you can get the combine to turn of the chopper it is a lot easier to handle the big round bales.

 

[oakview]

Really like bean straw for bedding, tried to feed it to cows in the past with limited success.  Our neighbor fed his cows only bean straw last year and didn't get along very well at all.  I like it better than corn stalks for bedding because it seems to break up easier when cleaning out, doesn't roll up for me so much in front of the skid loader.

 

[worthabit]

Thanks for all the respones. Will try it this week.

showsteerdlux, we have more water than we can handle, the potato crop is severly damaged as many fields laid in water earlier this summer and now the crop is rotting in the fields. Wish I could help you out!