For many, the answer is baleage
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Silage has been a staple feed on farms for generations, but it requires some specialized and expensive harvesting, storage, and feeding infrastructure. For the haymaker, it’s always difficult to see the neighbor’s hay crop safely tucked away in a silo while their hay, which was cut the same day, is getting washed in the windrow.
In the past 15 years or so, many of these disgruntled haymakers have moved their production system to baleage without having to make a huge capital investment in new storage and feeding facilities.
Shelby Gruss, an extension forage specialist with Iowa State University, describes baleage as a fermented, higher-moisture forage product made in wrapped bales. “Compared to dry hay, baleage typically requires only six to 24 hours of wilting, which reduces exposure to weather risk,” she writes in a recent Growing Beef newsletter.
June 23 2026 08:00 AM
By Mike Rankin, Senior Editor
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