FOR this edition of the annual Spring Cleaning Feature I thought I’d tackle the ever-painful old round bale conundrum. You can’t burn it or bury it in the bog as some people suggest was farmer protocol in days gone by. You’re not supposed to bury bales due to run off into the water table. I mean what do you do with all half a ton of mouldy fodder?

I rang 12 people who have equine farms and asked them which things they find most difficult to deal with after a long winter of horses. All 12 said rotten haylage bales.

The first thing I though was, I’ll ask the Department what the official line is on large bale disposal. Turns out there isn’t an offical line. Next port of call for me is always the agri-font-of-knowledge that is Darren Carty of the Irish Farmers’ Journal.

Darren told me that the only associated official line is around the storage and spreading of farm yard manure, i.e. adhering to buffer zones where storing and spreading on lands and having it applied by November 1st 2024. He also said: “What most farmers do when it comes to round bales of silage is take the silage wrap and netting off and then incorporate the substandard silage into the dung heap with some farm yard manure.

“It takes silage a while to rot on its own and incorporating it with farm yard manure will get bacteria working better to break it down. Then it is land spread in due course.”

Looks like a good plan for large haylage bales that are past their best or were damaged by bird beaks, or made incorrectly in the first place, is to follow the silage suit.

My interest was still piqued though, so my next port of call had to be the farmer and horse online forums, what have they been doing with their bales dare I ask? Here are some of the repeatable suggestions I found:

  • Give it to pigs, they like to play with it and it eventually gets mulched with their dung and can be used to spread on land.
  • Apparently, some mulching companies in Ireland will take the bales, one man in Tipperary was even paid €10 a bale for them. On investigation however, I couldn’t find a company who would take it (if you do own a company who will take old round bales of haylage, do let us know!).
  • You can roll them out and use them as the bottom layer of bedding for cattle with straw on top, then put on a muck heap or spread when it’s all mixed with the cattle dung.
  • Old bale fodder is apparently good for compost for growing vegetables.
  • Some people reach out to other farmers who will take it for their cattle because they say cattle can sort through poor quality feed to a degree. Free fodder for them, your big bale problem gone. Maybe check that with a nutritionist though!

    • All fodder for thought! There are three mouldy bales sitting at my yard as we speak, staring at me every day as I drive in. I’m not sure which of the above I’ll go with but I have always rather fancied a few Gloucestershire Old Spots.