Satu & Petri Hyvönen own a beef farm located in Rantasalmi, Finland. The farm originally produced milk, but when Petri took over the farm from his parents in 1999, it became home to 160-175 cattle, reared for meat. The heard is made up of a variety of breeds including Ayshire, Holstein, Blonde, Charolais, and mixed breeds. Satu is responsible for feeding the cattle and Petri does the machine work for the farm, alongside working as an excavator contractor.
The cattle on Satu & Petri Hyvönen’s farm are fed on a grass silage diet, which is ensiled in bales. The farm has 50 hectares of land used for fodder, from which Petri produces around 1500 bales annually using a McHale Fusion 3 plus baler.
When it comes to wrapping, Satu & Petri choose to use 5 layers of BaletiteGo net replacement film, for their first cut of grass, and 3-5 layers of netwrap for the second cut. For their balewrap, they choose to use 6 layers of SilotitePro. Satu & Petri commented that the BaletiteGo film gives better protection against birds damaging the bales and there is less mould in the silage.
For feedout, bales are opened in the yard manually with a knife. They commented that the advantages of BaletiteGo are that the bales are easier to open, since the film peels away cleanly from the silage and the BaletiteGo film does not need to be separated from the balewrap for recycling. The used film is stored in empty feed sacks and is then sent to the waste recycling centre.
Silage quality on Satu & Petri’s farm is analysed both visually and in a lab. They commented that the silage quality is better from the F&F bales.
