  Oxygen free storage is a concept that has hit the United States farm market recently, although the concept has been around in other parts of the world in recent history for about 40 years, and also dates back to time B.C. But what exactly is oxygen free storage? Lets get scientific. Inside a grain bag is your grain, and whatever it goes in looking and smelling like is what it will come out looking and smelling like. The moisture level will be the same as the day you put it in. How does this occur? First, aerobic bacteria that is on your grain will use up the free oxygen available in the bag. While it does this, the bacteria are expelling Carbon Dioxide, which increases C02. Because of this, there is a decrease of deterioration in your grain, as well as controlling mold and insect infestation-because bugs cannot live without oxygen. There is no decrease in grain grade due to shrink (like in a grain bin) or oxygen degradation. So essentially there is not much going on inside the grain bag except protection from the outside world, which is just what you want. This way, you can store your grain when you want to and sell when you want to-resting assured that your grain will come out just as it went in. Oxygen free storage can be stored up to 24 months. the storage is conveniently right on your farm, in the field, or wherever you choose to place them. This gives you the leverage to sell the grain when the market is right and it saves you money on fuel prices back and forth to the bin because you can bag right where you are harvesting, if you wish.
 The right baler can increase the carrying capacity of your farm per acre; more efficiency equals less wasted fertilizer and lower costs of production. What is a farms carrying capacity? “Carrying capacity describes the number of grazing animals a management unit is able to support without depleting rangeland vegetation or soil resources.” (globalrangelands.org) In what ways are McHale V8 balers more efficient than other balers? 1.They pack more hay into a bale. The more hay you have for a given size of bale the less oxygen there is and less mold will occur, it will also shed water better even if it’s not wrapped. 2.Chopping balers create less waste. Since you can determine your desired chop length,your cattle doesn’t have to work as hard to chew the hay. Long stem hay creates waste because a lot falls on the ground when cattle eat it. It also makes other processes run better like a TMR mixer because the bale is already chopped, so it takes less time to grind it with other ingredients in your TMR mixer. 3.They make your hay stay fresher longer. Tightly packed bales means cattle will want to eat it as opposed to loose bales. Looser bales have more decay which cattle don’t like. 4.They use less fuel. McHale Balers are 15 seconds faster than other balers. While 15 seconds might not seem like much, that’s a quarter of an hour, a quarter of your day that will be saved in time and fuel! Think a chopper baler might be right for you? Check out more info below!
 Harvest 2024 has started in many parts of the country, and a record corn crop is reported. But corn prices and storage remain low, leaving many farmers looking for alternatives for grain storage. We have been bagging grain with Richiger on our farm in Missouri for 14+ years and have worked with farmers around the country who use grain bagging as a way to take back control of their grain until prices recover. What is grain bagging? Richiger Flexi-Grain Storage is an integrated method whereby different kinds of grains can be stored and handled on-farm or in any suitably located site in a simple, secure and economical way by containment in large airtight plastic bags, with no constraints on the tonnage that can be stocked in this way. A large bumper crop or simply more grain to be put in storage after a good harvest means more bags to be filled, an auspicious state of affairs and a task easily handled by sturdy and reliable grain baggers in either 9 or 10ft wide forms. The system comes full circle when the formerly complicated and work-intensive job of transferring grain contained in the bags to truck or wagon is done swiftly and effortlessly with grain bag unloaders. What happens inside a grain bag? Once your grain is stored, nothing happens to the quality of your grain and let me explain why. ( See diagram below) First, aerobic bacteria uses up free oxygen that is available in the bag, and the bacteria are expelling Carbon Dioxide, which increases C02. This decreases the risk of deterioration in your grain and also controls mold and insect infestation (animals cannot smell your grain from outside the bag, so unless you puncture a hole there is no need to worry about pests). There is no decrease in your grain grade due to shrink or oxygen degradation. So the quality of grain you put in your bag is what you will get out. The grain bags we sell (Plastar) are recommended for storage up to 24 months. All types of grain can be stored in our grain bags including soybeans, wheat, rice, corn.
How will I save on Labor Costs? No additional staff is needed to bag grain, 1 person can run a grain bagger How will I save on Fuel Costs? You will save on fuel costs because you can bag grain directly in the field where its being harvested, no unnecessary trips back and forth to grain bins miles away. How will I save on Electric Costs? Grain in grain bags does not need fans like grain stored in bins, saving on electricity fees.   Learn More: Grain Bagging Frequently Asked Questions 20 Reasons Grain Bagging Can Help You Real Farmers Testimonial about Richiger Grain Baggers  McHale R5 Bale Grabber: A Game-Changer for Bale Handling Mastering the Art of Bale Management If you're involved in hay or forage production, you know that bale handling can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. Enter the McHale R5 Bale Grabber, a piece of equipment designed to revolutionize the way you handle round bales. What is the McHale R5 Bale Grabber? The McHale R5 is a front-mounted tractor attachment specifically engineered for efficient and safe handling of round bales. Its robust construction and clever design make it a reliable companion for farmers and ranchers alike. Key Features and Benefits:
How the McHale R5 Can Improve Your Operation
The McHale R5 Bale Grabber is a valuable tool for any operation that handles round bales. Its versatility, efficiency, and durability make it a worthwhile investment for farmers and ranchers looking to optimize their bale handling processes.  McHale Rakes: Rake Hay the Right Way For farmers, hay season is a crucial time. Getting the most out of your harvest requires reliable equipment, and that's where McHale rakes come in. McHale is a leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery, and their rakes are known for their efficiency, durability, and gentle crop handling. Building on their comprehensive range of grass machinery, McHale now introduce their R 62-72 centre delivery rake. McHale R 62-72 & McHale R 68-78 The McHale R 62-72 & 68-78 can be used to combine multiple mower rows or to row up grass, which is left on the flat. McHale centre delivery rakes are powerful but gentle on the crop, delivering the perfect swath preparation. The rotors on the McHale centre delivery rakes are suspended centrally and both rotors operate at equal ground pressure across the adjustable working width to deliver the perfect swath. McHale Rakes: Built to Last McHale offers a range of center delivery rakes, These rakes are designed to handle even the toughest conditions. McHale boasts that their rakes are tested "in the world's most difficult conditions," meaning they can handle whatever your farm throws at them. Here are some of the key features of McHale rakes:
This one-stop shop approach can simplify your equipment purchasing and streamline your haying operation.  Via Jaylor.com. Dr.Alan Vaage Let’s explore the benefits of vertical TMR (Total Mixed Ration) mixers for feeding beef cows during different stages of the production cycle. Due to the high cost of forage, and feed production in general, as well as ever decreasing profit margins, cow-calf producers are increasingly recognizing the benefits of owning a TMR mixer, especially a “vertical” TMR mixer that is capable of processing baled forages to decrease feed waste and increase animal performance. Forage selection meets requirements, but creates waste: Beef cattle have a limited capacity to consume forage fiber to meet their nutritional requirements, and thus have an instinctive drive to compete for the most palatable and nutrient rich feed available. This selection behavior also acts to ensure the nutritional composition of the consumed feed is sufficient to meet requirements when the average composition of the feed is insufficient, as is often the case when “beef quality” hay is fed. Fortunately, most baled forage contains a mix of plants with a range of maturity and nutritional value. Furthermore, among the plants, leaves tend to have higher nutritional value than the stems; this is especially true for alfalfa (Table). By avoiding the coarser, lower quality material (older plants and stems) and concentrating on consuming younger and leafy material, individual animals “re-balance” the feed offered into a diet that meets, or even exceeds, their immediate nutritional requirements. The lower quality material is left behind as waste. Meeting needs with a TMR mixer: Moving from free-choice forage feeding to TMR feeding transfers the responsibility for “balancing the ration” from the cow to the producer, as the goal of using a TMR mixer is to minimize the ability of the animal to select or sort the feed ingredients. Thus, for optimal TMR feeding it is important for all ingredients, and especially from different fields and cuttings, to be analyzed for nutritional composition. In many areas feed company representatives or extension agents are happy to assist with this step, which is recommended even if feeding baled forages free-choice. Once the forages have been analyzed, bales that are nutritionally the most appropriate for feeding to a group of animals at any given stage of production can be selected and combined to make a mix that meets the requirements of the animals. With a vertical mixer, they are then processed down to a particle size that will minimize sorting and selection and fed out in a way that will ideally permit all animals to eat at the same time, with a minimum of ground loss (e.g. simple stationary or moveable feeders). In this way one can expect almost complete consumption of the bales that are fed. To improve efficiency further, one can formulate a mix at about 110% of requirements and then restrict feeding to 90% of the normal intake. As long as the cows can all eat at the same time, rate of eating will be increased and the potential for waste essentially eliminated due to competition, even with ground feeding. If the quality of the forage is less than required, cost-effective energy and/or protein supplements can be added to meet requirements and make efficient use of the poorer quality forages. If forage quality is greater than needed, it can be diluted with poorer quality forage such as straw, or limit fed according to requirements, to minimize cost and prevent waste. This demonstrates one of the greatest benefits of a TMR mixer, its scale system, which enables accurate weighing and batching of ingredients, and delivery of feed according to nutritional requirement. It provides the first requirement for improving nutritional and economic performance, for as it’s often said “if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it”.  In summary, a vertical TMR mixer can virtually eliminate the costly waste and performance limitations of feeding forage as bales, potentially reducing forage needs by up to 50%. Though this may seem high, it is the number most often quoted by Jaylor customers that switch to using a TMR mixer for feeding beef cows. TMR feeding creates a more uniform nutritional intake across the herd, and in doing so can be expected to increase both health and performance of the cow-calf herd … Because Nutrition Matters. Unless sufficient forage is provided, more of the coarse material will be consumed, at the expense of meeting nutritional requirements, and reproductive and growth performance suffer. Assuming nutritional requirements are to be met, it will take an increasing amount of waste to meet requirements as forage quality declines, up to one-third when feeding full bloom alfalfa (Table). Levels of waste with grass hays can be even greater because of a smaller difference in quality between leaves and stems in grasses versus alfalfa. When forage selection losses are combined with palatability losses due to weathering and mold, as well as ground losses due to feeding method, it is easy to see how overall, nutritional waste from bale feeding easily ranges from 30 to 50 percent. Further losses occur due to variable intake between animals which reduces aggregate reproductive and growth performance; this will be discussed in a subsequent article. Table: Alfalfa composition by stage of maturity, and feeding rate required to permit animals to equalize intake TDN composition by selecting against consuming stems.   Already thinking of Spring '23? We have new McHale mowers to consider! To achieve the maximum performance and results from a front and a rear or combination mower the cutter bar and mower suspension works together to deliver uncontaminated forage. As a result McHale have developed unique patented ground adaption technology which deliver 3 dimensional ground contour tracking for its Pro Glide range of rear and combination mowers which allows an arc of movement from left to right and forward and back movement adjusting to changes in the contours of the ground. The Pro Glide range of rear and combination mowers is fitted with patented ground adaption technology which allows the bed to move back and up if the bed encounters small obstacles. This saves time and maximizes throughput as it means the obstacle does not trigger the main break back protection. This results in higher mowing speeds being able to be achieved without the interruption of having to reset the break back. If the mower hits an immovable object, it is fitted with mechanical break back which will be triggered.  The Pro Glide rear suspension springs react instantly to ground contours which results in high quality cut even when working at high ground speeds. This allows the mower to easily mow on rough or undulating terrain and still deliver optimum results. On the Pro Glide rear and combination mowers the cutter bar ground pressure can be set from the tractor cab. The working pressure is visually displayed on the clock which is mounted on the headstock. Once the desired pressure is selected the cutter bar working pressure can be isolated from the tractor hydraulics with a mechanical tap. On the McHale Pro Glide range of rear and combination mowers the gearbox powering the cutter bar is located behind the first mower disc which allows the operator to mow into corners and over rough terrain with no problems occurring. For transportation, the McHale Pro Glide folds vertically to position itself behind the centre point of the tractor for safe transport. The transport height of the machine is reduced thanks to the positioning of the mower bed at 110 degree angle on the Pro Glide R3100 to measure at a height of 3.9 metres while the Pro Glide B9000 is positioned vertically in transport to measure at a height of 4.2 metres. This position allows for the center of gravity to be close to the tractor which ensures even weight distribution and stability during transport at high speeds on the road or in uneven fields. This position allows for the mower to distribute its weight across the tractor for ease of transport on the road while also providing the driver with a clear view from his rear-view mirrors.  Heard about McHale Balers, Balewrappers and Hay handling equipment? We have a facebook group dedicated just to Owners of McHale products where customers can get help with parts and service questions as well as community where you can share pictures and video! Below are a few examples of our members posts as well as a link to the group if you are a McHale owner and wish to join!  Many industries, including Agriculture are experiencing issues with a labor shortage. If you are wondering how you could speed up harvest without investing in more help and more trucks, there’s something you should consider. Oxygen free grain storage, or grain bagging, can help. With grain bagging you will be able to harvest now, store grain for an extended period of time with no degradation to your grain quality. But what exactly is oxygen free storage? Lets get scientific. Inside a grain bag is your grain, and whatever quality it goes in at, is what it will come out at. How does this occur? First, aerobic bacteria that is on your grain will use up the free oxygen available in the bag. While it does this, the bacteria are expelling Carbon Dioxide, which increases C02. Because of this, there is a decrease of deterioration in your grain, as well as controlling mold and insect infestation-because bugs cannot live without oxygen. There is no decrease in grain grade due to shrink (like in a grain bin) or oxygen degradation. So essentially there is not much going on inside the grain bag except protection from the outside world, which is just what you want. Why wont I need extra labor? You wont need extra labor if you add a grain bagger in your mix because one person can run a grain bagger, and they don’t even necessarily have to be running just the bagger, the help you already have running the tractor with a grain cart can hop off and run the grain bagger while its getting dumped into. Why wont I need extra trucks or truck drivers? Grain bagging allows you to bag wherever you are harvesting, along the side of the field or your place of choice. This way, you can dump from your grain cart right near where you are harvesting. This allows you to keep your combines running, not sitting waiting on trucks which seem to be getting harder to come by. You also don’t have to drive back and forth to a bin and waste fuel.
What other benefits can I expect from bagging grain?
Listen to an Iowa Farmer discuss the value of bagging his grain with Richiger:
 Hay season is rolling in the Midwest! We have had lots of customers send in their videos and pictures, so we wanted to share some of those with our community.
(Left Image: Magsig Farms in Macedonia, Illinois running their Tubeline TL50 balewrapper. Right Image: Customer with Kuhns Equipment, Lovington, Illinois using their McHale Vario Baler/Wrapper Combination Machine. ) Video: Customer in Illinois using their W2020 Stacking Balewrapper from McHale.
(Left image: Round Top Ag in Thomas, Oklahoma running 2 McHale V8 balers. Right image: Dammann Farms in Clarinda, Iowa wrapping dry hay with a Tubeline TL50 Balewrapper. ) Video: Demo in Vandalia, Missouri with hay products Teagle C12 processor, Schaffer Wheel Loader & McHale 691 Bale Handler. |
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