Can anyone help me make some awesome silage out of fava beans?

[soarwitheagles]

Hi again everyone!

Well, we are trying another experiment [never ending process here].

We have large numbers of dairy farmers in our area. I constantly see them create massive silage piles [200ft. x 80ft. and 20-30 ft. hight] and I believe they are using the field corn they grow and maybe throwing in some of their hay too.

To be honest with you, I am not sure what is in their silage, but I see them creating massive amounts of silage year and after year.

Last year our feed bill was over $1200, as in, say good bye to any and all profit, and waking up to discover much more money went into the sheep than came out of the sheep. The most expensive time of the year for us was summer, when everything here dies and we had to purchase large numbers of hay and alfalfa and clover bales.

So this year, I am experimenting with some perennial pastures with the hope of lowering our feed costs.

I am also deeply interested in creating a supplement for the sheep that is either low cost or no cost.

Hence, the experiment with fava beans. Last year we planted 100 plants and had an incredible harvest of approximately 20-30 pods per plant. We also discovered the sheep love eating the beans, the leaves, the pods, yep, everything except the wood stock. I also believe the fava plant with the beans is providing approximately 16-24% protein. After doing a little reading, I understand protein is important for sheep.

Now the million dollar question:

How do we create silage out of fava beans?

I asked a local and they told me a number of interesting factors:

1. Silage must be semi dried to a specific percentage of moisture to facilitate fermentation.
2. Silage must be "compressed" before being covered with the plastic.
3. Silage has specific percentages of various ingredients [for dairy farmers].
5. Silage must be cut up and they use a special machine to do so [I have watched when they harvest the field corn and the entire plant along with the corn is immediately and instantly shredded to tiny 1/4" pieces].

Can anyone help me make some awesome silage out of fava beans? I have no clue what I am doing!

I am attaching a pic of 1000 fava bean plants we planted in November [October planting would have been much better].

Here is the good news so far:

1. Fava beans can be purchased for only $25 per 50lbs of seed. 50lbs could easily cover a half acre.
2. Our water bill to grow fava beans is zero [we are growing during the rainy season].
3. Our winters are mild enough to grow all winter long [Fava's are the only "legume" which we can overwinter successfully in a maritime climate, as they are frost hardy to about 7̊F].
4. Each plant when fully ripe has approximately 2lbs of eatable silage [so this would equate to 10 tons of silage per acre (5 tons on dry biomass per acre].
5. We have the land to plant a number of acres of fava beans and would like to make use of the land.
6. Sheep love the fava beans [they love the leaves, the pods, and the beans themselves].
7. If we can figure a way to make this work, our supplement feed cost would go to nearly zero.
8. Fava beans will fixate 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre into the existing soil.

Here are some ideas that have come to my mind so far but not so sure about implementing them:

1. Could I use our large wood chippers to cut up the fava beans and plants?
2. Could I repeatedly run over the chipped fava beans and plants with my large tractor to provide the "compression"?
3. What about simply harvesting the plants with the beans still intact and simply letting them dry out on concrete, then chop them up and place in storage?
4. In the future, would it be ok to plant a clover "cover crop" in between the 3ft. rows of fava beans?

Ok, as you can see, I have no clue what I am doing, but most certainly want to discover a way to make this work.

Thank you!

 

[Bossroo]

Before you make the fava beans into silage, I would first go to one of the dairies and buy some silage and see if your sheep even eat the fermented silage feed. Then, if they do, ask them if they would make your beans into silage and the cost for doing it. Years ago, there was a company that sold silage feed and advertised it's benefits. I bought several bags from our feed store, guess what NONE of my animals would eat it, not even after not feeding them any hay or pasture for 2 days. I gave the silage to my neighbor who fed it to his sheep. No go. So he gave the rest of the silage to a hog farmer. His pigs did eat it. So, put on your waders and visit a dairy.

 

[soarwitheagles]

Before you make the fava beans into silage, I would first go to one of the dairies and buy some silage and see if your sheep even eat the fermented silage feed. Then, if they do, ask them if they would make your beans into silage and the cost for doing it. Years ago, there was a company that sold silage feed and advertised it's benefits. I bought several bags from our feed store, guess what NONE of my animals would eat it, not even after not feeding them any hay or pasture for 2 days. I gave the silage to my neighbor who fed it to his sheep. No go. So he gave the rest of the silage to a hog farmer. His pigs did eat it. So, put on your waders and visit a dairy.

Awesome advice again Boss! I was thinking about visiting them and asking some questions, but never thought about asking to try their silage for dairy cows for my sheep. I will definitely have to ask them their advice on this and hopefully try it without any adverse effects on the sheep!

Boss, last year we were very happy when we experimented by giving the entire plants to the sheep. They devoured the leaves, the pods, and the beans and cried for more. We conducted this experiment using freshly cut fava plants, partially dried fava plants, and fully dried fava plants. Same result: the sheep loved it. BUT, we never tried the fermenting process. This could be an entirely different ball game.

I am now trying to figure out how to measure moisture content. University data reveals moisture content should be between 12-16% to achieve maximum protein levels and healthy storage conditions.

 

[Bossroo]

I would hazard to guess that you will be hard pressed to get anyone to come to your ranch to make silage out of the small plantings of the fava beans. Their costs would be just to high in $$ and time. I would consider to harvest them and make hay yourself. Then there is the issue of storage to keep the hay dry. I would contact your local County Ag. Extention Office and / or UCD for advice.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

Awesome advice again Boss! I was thinking about visiting them and asking some questions, but never thought about asking to try their silage for dairy cows for my sheep. I will definitely have to ask them their advice on this and hopefully try it without any adverse effects on the sheep!

Boss, last year we were very happy when we experimented by giving the entire plants to the sheep. They devoured the leaves, the pods, and the beans and cried for more. We conducted this experiment using freshly cut fava plants, partially dried fava plants, and fully dried fava plants. Same result: the sheep loved it. BUT, we never tried the fermenting process. This could be an entirely different ball game.

I am now trying to figure out how to measure moisture content. University data reveals moisture content should be between 12-16% to achieve maximum protein levels and healthy storage conditions.

Faba beans are so high in protein it's not even funny; try closer to 30%! And for feeding to sheep, yes the protein is important, but so is limiting how much they get, which I think is your intention as a supplemental feed.

Did you plant these by hand? That's a crazy amount of space between the plant rows, you could easily have fit another row in between each of those rows with more fabas (I call fava beans "faba" beans; same beans, just different spelling. And no I'm not full of beans! ), if not two!

The silaging process is going to be a bit of a challenge. Faba beans, like most broad-leafed forages, aren't the easiest to silage. They work best if sown in a cover crop of a cereal like barley or oats, just to help with that ensiling process. A wood chipper will work for chopping up the plants, but you'll need to set it so that chop length is around 1/2 an inch (1/4" is, IMHO, probably too small). Pack if it's in a nice pile that you can use a tractor on, otherwise don't and instead find a bagging system to pack the chopped plants in instead. They need to be wilted down to around 60 to 70% moisture, not really dried. You'd be making faba bean hay at 12 to 16% moisture; faba beans won't ferment at that!

To measure moisture content, get yourself a different microwave, preferably a cheap one that doesn't have the rotary unit inside for the shop. And get yourself a weigh scale. Now I'm not sure with what you're comfortable with, whether using the plant itself or putting it in a container, that's up to you, but the container is good if you can weigh the container then tare the scale before adding the faba bean plant that you've had wilting before putting it through the chopper. Record the weight, then throw it in the microwave with a small bowl of water (the bowl of water must be separate) for one or two minutes. Take out, weigh, record, then repeat until the weight of the plant doesn't change. Take the final weight and divide that by the initial weight to get your moisture content.

DO NOT use the good microwave in the kitchen. You don't want to anger your other half by them wondering why it's being used or why it stinks so bad.

 

[soarwitheagles]

Faba beans are so high in protein it's not even funny; try closer to 30%! And for feeding to sheep, yes the protein is important, but so is limiting how much they get, which I think is your intention as a supplemental feed.

Did you plant these by hand? That's a crazy amount of space between the plant rows, you could easily have fit another row in between each of those rows with more fabas (I call fava beans "faba" beans; same beans, just different spelling. And no I'm not full of beans! ), if not two!

The silaging process is going to be a bit of a challenge. Faba beans, like most broad-leafed forages, aren't the easiest to silage. They work best if sown in a cover crop of a cereal like barley or oats, just to help with that ensiling process. A wood chipper will work for chopping up the plants, but you'll need to set it so that chop length is around 1/2 an inch (1/4" is, IMHO, probably too small). Pack if it's in a nice pile that you can use a tractor on, otherwise don't and instead find a bagging system to pack the chopped plants in instead. They need to be wilted down to around 60 to 70% moisture, not really dried. You'd be making faba bean hay at 12 to 16% moisture; faba beans won't ferment at that!

To measure moisture content, get yourself a different microwave, preferably a cheap one that doesn't have the rotary unit inside for the shop. And get yourself a weigh scale. Now I'm not sure with what you're comfortable with, whether using the plant itself or putting it in a container, that's up to you, but the container is good if you can weigh the container then tare the scale before adding the faba bean plant that you've had wilting before putting it through the chopper. Record the weight, then throw it in the microwave with a small bowl of water (the bowl of water must be separate) for one or two minutes. Take out, weigh, record, then repeat until the weight of the plant doesn't change. Take the final weight and divide that by the initial weight to get your moisture content.

DO NOT use the good microwave in the kitchen. You don't want to anger your other half by them wondering why it's being used or why it stinks so bad.

WildRoseBeef,

Thank you so much for replying! I was starting to wonder if using the fava beans for silage even had a chance of working out! So thank you for sharing your excellent ideas.

First, please let me answer your questions...

Yes, we did plant the fava beans by hand! I actually used a digging bar to punch the holes in the ground, then we popped one or two seeds per hole. We planted most of the fava beans in November and December...but now I wish we had planted all of them in October or early November. Seeds planted toward the end of December did not germinate at all...so we learned our first lesson already!

I read in several places that the recommended spacing between plants was 6"-12" down the rows, and 3 feet for space between rows. Wow, if I had known 18" rows would work, I would have tried it! Double harvest! Wow!

I wanted to plant crimson clover in between the rows to suppress weed growth...but simply ran out of time. Also, wanted to plow the ground...but could only shallow disc it. We finally found a really nice plow and hope to use it this year for the first time.

What an amazing method to discover the moisture content! We have an old microwave oven...so my wife should be ok with it. Presently the plants are only 4"-14" tall [this is one reason why I wish I had planted the fava beans in October]. We are hoping they will reach their full height of about 4-5 feet tall by harvest time.

Yes, we would like to harvest the entire plant with the mature beans, and run them through a chipper. During our tiny experiment last year, we planted a 20'x30' area and then fed the entire plants [some fresh and wet, some sun dried] to the sheep and they absolutely loved it! And yes, we hope to be super careful not to over dose the sheep on protein.

I suppose our biggest concern is to be able to accurately "cure" [dry to a proper moisture content] so we can store this fava plant and bean for use all year long. I think proper curing will determine success or failure in this endeavor. So thank you very, very much for sharing your ideas with us WildRoseBeef!

If this endeavor is successful, we were thinking we may plant a few acres of the fava beans next year. A local rancher recently found a seller that is selling the fava beans for $25 per 50lbs.

I just finished reading a UC Davis Small Farm report that indicated we could have planted one seed per square foot for cover crop! OUCH! I suppose most of the articles I read were addressing planting for purposes other than a cover crop...

http://sfp.ucdavis.edu/pubs/brochures/favabean/

Well, live and learn!

I hope you wouldn't mind if we ask you more questions in the near future!

Looking forward to learning a lot more about the fabulous faba beans!

PS We discovered too late that most people plant the smaller fava bean for animals, the larger fava beans for human consumption...we planted the large version...oops!

 

[babsbag]

How much irrigation will the plants need once the rains are over? Or will they be ready to harvest by then?

 

[Mini Horses]

So this is interesting as I have goats and would feel fine using these plants as a hay product, to mix with grass hay. Have to check to see if bloat is an issue with these & goats. For me, I would not silage but have read where small homesteaders have used plastic bags to silage. Personally, failure & mold would scare me, so hay would be my choice. Could also offset some cost of the alfalfa hay. Then, need to check calcium levels, etc.

Here in VA you see rolls of P-nut hay after harvesting the P-nuts. But, it can be very dirty, depending on soil conditions (wet, etc) and that makes some years great, others bad. Good protein.

So, guess I will check out hay values for this.

Can you grow Vetch in your area? Another forage idea as well as Australian peas.

Your feed bill was ONLY $1200 for the year?? I would think I had won the lottery!! I am trying to GET to only 1200.

 

[babsbag]

Your feed bill was ONLY $1200 for the year?? I would think I had won the lottery!! I am trying to GET to only 1200.

No kidding. I spend WAY more than that. About $600 a month at a minimum.

Vetch grows here and my goats love it. We also have star thistle that the goats like before it gets to the thistle stage. I heard of someone that hays the thistle but like the peanut hay it is very very dusty. I would love to find a way to reduce my feed bill.

 

[soarwitheagles]

How much irrigation will the plants need once the rains are over? Or will they be ready to harvest by then?

In the 2015 trial, the watering was very minimal. We watered twice after planting the seed, then twice before harvest in April. Each watering was approximately two weeks apart. This year, we haven't watered at all and I think it is possible we will not have to water at all...even up to April.

So this is interesting as I have goats and would feel fine using these plants as a hay product, to mix with grass hay. Have to check to see if bloat is an issue with these & goats. For me, I would not silage but have read where small homesteaders have used plastic bags to silage. Personally, failure & mold would scare me, so hay would be my choice. Could also offset some cost of the alfalfa hay. Then, need to check calcium levels, etc.

Here in VA you see rolls of P-nut hay after harvesting the P-nuts. But, it can be very dirty, depending on soil conditions (wet, etc) and that makes some years great, others bad. Good protein.

So, guess I will check out hay values for this.

Can you grow Vetch in your area? Another forage idea as well as Australian peas.

Your feed bill was ONLY $1200 for the year?? I would think I had won the lottery!! I am trying to GET to only 1200.

Not sure about cultivating vetch, but I do see some wild vetch that grows throughout our property every year. $1200 was a lot for us and we started the adventure with only 12 or so sheep, but the flock quickly grew to over 30 with all the lambs. At one point, we were considering having over 100 sheep, but now, not so sure.

No kidding. I spend WAY more than that. About $600 a month at a minimum.

Vetch grows here and my goats love it. We also have star thistle that the goats like before it gets to the thistle stage. I heard of someone that hays the thistle but like the peanut hay it is very very dusty. I would love to find a way to reduce my feed bill.

$600 per month? Wow! That would put us out of business within a couple of months...sure hope you are able to recoup most of your costs through sales!