Dexter Cattle For Sale Discussion Board

Is anyone else having the same problems as me. For the first time ever nearly everyone of my silage bales have been attacked by either field mice or voles. Neat holes and the silage (its as near haylage as you can get) has been nibbled for about an inch or 2 inside the bales and then they seem to move onto the next bale. Its definitely not rats, which is a plus and the stuff it shrink wrapped so it hasn't resulted in much wastage but it does mean we won't be able to keep any over as the further we have got into the stack the more holes they have made.

Are you sure it isn't squirrels, they are well known for it? I think you can get special netting to keep squirrels off a stack of silage bales.

Stephanie

Yes Ann i am having the same problem for the first time. It is only the bales that make contact with the floor that have been attacked. It must also be fairly recent as the bales have started to go off around the areas the mice have been at but it has not ruined the whole bale.
Why should it be this has happened this year i wonder?

My small round bales are stacked on their ends, all the ground under them is a nework of tunnels, I would think voles. Vole populations go in cycles, usually 7 years or so between "plague" years. Maybe this is a plague year. But fortunately I have very few, probably less than 1% of bales where they have damaged the wrap. Maybe the ends of round bales whatever size are less vulnerable.

Duncan

Glad to hear there are lots of voles around but very sorry to hear they are eating everyones silage, I didn't realise they were a problem with silage bales!

Stephanie

Hi
we had over 1000 bales in a stack in the yard first time we had stored silage/haylage in the yard it is a mess holes every where and with 30 farm cats who really hunt we could not work it out but the woods nearby are full of grey things and I dont think cats eat them.This year the stacks will go back into the fields.

We get the opposite, in the fields they get ruined so I store them in the yard near our buildings. I think the key in our case though is storing them on concrete. We don't get any problem then but move a bale onto soft ground just a few feet away and they get attacked by something, no idea what.

I always put rat bait blocks under my silage bales and it seems to protect them. I use home made bait boxes made from the centre tube from bale wrap spools with a hole drilled across the centre of the tube. I push a nail through the holes in the tube and the bait block. Keeps it safe for cats and dogs