Cool cow pond, baleage detailed at Walk-About

By DAVY MOSELEY | East Texas Edition

August 16, 2001 -- The place to be on July 20 was wading in a cooling pond at Allen and David Screw' dairy in Pickton - at least if you were a dairy cow.

And that is where most of the dairy's cows were; walking in and out of cooling ponds to stave off the triple-digit heat.

Area dairy producers, along with Extension agents from surrounding counties, were on hand to see the convection cooling process in action during what was the second East Texas Dairy Walk-About, organized by the Hopkins County Extension Service.

According to Allen Screws, the 40-foot by 100-foot-long wading ponds do not promote mastitis-causing bacteria, nor has he noticed an increase in somatic cell counts since he installed the first of three ponds three years ago.

Additionally, the dairy herd has not developed foot problems as a result of standing in the wading pool. The Screws' attribute this to the fact that the cooling ponds are filled with fresh water that is recirculated. As the water evaporates off the top, it is replenished by a piped-water source to maintain a constant water level.

The cooling ponds are cleaned out each year to prevent them from silting in, Screws added.

Another topic covered at the event was the use of balage on dairy farms as opposed to alfalfa, or other costly forage options.

"Balage is cheap to produce and the cows like it. We get as much tonnage on rye and ryegrass as we do no our coastal meadows. We used to shred the early ryegrass to make room for the coastal," Screws said.

If you set a dry hay bale next to a bale of balage in the summer, cows will eat the balage to the ground before they start on the hay. In the winter, though, they prefer the dry hay," Screws said.

Consequently, Screws said he likes using balage in the summer.

"The cows eat more of it than they do dry hay."

According to Screws, balage is cheaper than alfalfa and has a higher digestibility.

Balage may be cheaper than buying alfalfa, or making silage, but it does require some extra labor.

"You can't do this by yourself. It does require more labor at one time," said Dr. David Kee, Texas Cooperative Extension agronomist.

Timing is important in making good balage. When the forage is ready, it must be cut, raked, baled, hauled and wrapped quickly to retain the desired quality and moisture level.

Screws prefers to make his own balage. "If you hire someone to do it, they are going to bale it too dry so it will be easier on their equipment."

The Screws use a belt baler and makes 4-foot-tall bales which weigh around 1,500 pounds and have a moisture content of 40 percent.

"Our bales are tight all the way through," Screws said.

Once the forage is baled, they are hauled to the wrapping machine where the bales will be stored in long, wrapped rows. Screws estimates five wraps per bale is approximately $2.50.

"One huge advantage to putting up balage is that you can make it in the spring when you can't make hay," Screws said. "This year was an exception, and many people baled hay very early. But last year when it rained so much, we were making balage when our neighbors were waiting for the sun to shine to cure the hay."

Another advantage is that since the bale will be encased in wrapped plastic, untreated sisal twine can be used to make the bales, which is less expensive than nylon and will not rot while encased in the plastic wrap. When the bale is fed in the pasture, sisal does not have to be removed from the bale as it is biodegradable. However, the plastic wrap, once cut off of a row of bales, still must be collected and disposed of, but is easier to collect because it stays where the balage is stockpiled.

According to Screws, when they made the move to balage, the only piece of equipment they bought was the wrapping machine.

"I don't believe in buying a lot of equipment. The only thing we bought to make balage was the wrapper and the wrap," Screws said.