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Southeast South Dakota | My favorite topic - cornstalk utilization - I will throw in my couple things.....
timing is everything.
if you follow the combine (within a couple of days) and get any or very many stalks - the stuff will be wet and pack great and ensile very quickly - a better feed additive - but not worth a crap for bedding
then as the stuff dries out, it will take HUGE amounts of space to transport - the chopper just fluffs up a dry product - a roof is ESSENTIAL - I figure in the wagon I am only getting 7 to 8 lbs/ cubic foot - of wagon space - but - if the bagger will swallow the fluffy stuff it will pack back down and be great stuff.
I use a pull type Hesston with hay head and alfalfa recutter screen - I can get a relativle short chop - even though with all the loose stuff and short pieces going in the feedrolls can't really hold the mat of material going in real well so length of cut is kinda variable.
this year i tried chopping some dry stuff - went OK until the stuff was super dry one afternoon - then it wouldn't feed in the rolls very good - but usually that is not a problem - then I added water and packed it into a pile - feeding that to the small herd now - they eat every last crumb - but hopefully I have enough hay now -
Side comment - my forage harvester manual says that chopping dry stuff can really dull knives fast - I don't do enough in a year to worry about - but just a thought
I guess in conclusion I would say a couple things - I think it would be easier to make a feed additive than a dry bedding product, and baling would be faster than the forage harvesting operation (square or round), but yes, then there is grinding expense...... My next experiments are to try to ensile a baled product (the cattle seem to like to eat the ensiled stuff a lot better)
One more comment - if you are looking for bedding - I would think the best way would be round bale it dry and run the bales into a inline wrapper - shouldn't take a lot of plastic = a minor hole or 2 wouldn't be the end of the world like a feed product.
Couple mor ecomments after I looked at the photo -
I use a sickle mower and clip the rows where the windrow is going to be placed now - much easier on the pickup -
a wider pickup head would help things along - a lot of times the stuff just kinda gets kicked forward a few times before getting pulled in - and some stuff gets spilled out each side of the head......
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field chopping and agbagging straw and fodder
