Article: Note that there may be some discrepancies with best practices for producing baleage or baled silage based on moisture content; this is all depending on your location. Most recommended moisture content to put baleage up at is 40 to 60% moisture, particularly in locations where winter and freezing is common. Bales that are wrapped up at a higher moisture content do not keep their heat for long and will freeze into fermented popsicles that are difficult to handle, feed out, and for livestock to eat. Baleage at higher moisture (above 60% moisture) is best for locations where freezing temperatures are less common. Several days of temperatures below -10C or lower can freeze high-moisture-wrapped bales to literal popsicles. Once the bales are done, they must be wrapped or put in a tube no longer than 10 to 12 hours after baling; 5 hours or less is more preferable. This will prevent them from heating, which can cause spoilage and even spontaneous combustion, especially if they're baled at 40% or lower in warm conditions. There are actually several options available to do this: One, you can have a bale wrapping machine hitched behind your baler so that it catches the bale and wraps it up in plastic. This eliminates extra time and extra labour needed to get another machine out to wrap up bales behind you. Two, you have another tractor unit that carries a wrapping unit to go in and wrap the bales after the baler has dropped them off. For either method, the machine used spins the bale around--regardless if it's a round bale or a square bale--and wraps it in plastic to the desired thickness. Recommendations range from 4 to 8 mil; higher values are recommended if you plan on carrying over these bales into spring and summer. Three, gather up the bales after baling and put them through a tubing machine that wraps plastic around each bale, but bale faces are together in a long line. You can make bale tubes that are about 100 feet long. Plastic thickness recommendations range from 4 to 8 or 10 mil. Square bales in a tube will need to be put together in a multi-bale system. Put them together so that you are putting them in as much of a square face configuration as possible. You will need to experiment to see what will fit best. Each bale exposed when the tube is opened up will only last for 1 to 2 weeks before spoiling. The bales further down in the tube will not take nearly as long to spoil as that exposed bale. Stacking is a fourth option to use, and is best for large round or large square bales. Large round bales can be stacked in a pyramid formation (two on the ground and one at the top, and square bales should be stacked so they form a square-face configuration, as with wrapping. They must be covered immediately to avoid potential loss, and as with haylage piles above, the plastic weighed down with tires and other hay bales. Use a double layer of 6 mil plastic for this system. Small stacks makes covering with plastic easier, and will use up excess oxygen within the plastic--as long as the plastic is sealed well with no holes in it--quickly, creating an anaerobic void within that preserves the bales. Stacks, once opened, will begin to deteriorate and develop mold and spoilage issues. They must be entirely fed out by 1 week in the summer, 2 weeks in the spring, and 4 weeks in the winter, generally.

What is a summary?
Follow the same steps for wilting forage as in step 1 of the Harvesting as Chopped Haylage section above. Wrap the bales or put them in a tube as soon as possible.