Plenty of guides tell you how to make baleage — cut it, wilt it, wrap it tight. Far fewer tell you what to do with it once those heavy, shiny bales are sitting in the yard. It's a fair question, and a common one. As one South Dakota producer about to try it put it: "Never made baleage… not sure how to feed it after it's made. How do you feed yours?"
The good news: feeding baleage is "really not much different than feeding cows" dry hay, in the words of one producer who fed it for years. The differences that do matter — feeding it fast enough, watching for spoiled spots, and not getting fooled by the weight — are the ones that wreck a batch if you ignore them. Here's the whole feed-out side, from producers who do it daily.
Quick answer: Feed baleage in a standard ring or cone feeder, by unrolling, or in a TMR/bale processor — the same ways you feed dry round bales. Three rules separate good results from bad: (1) once a bale is opened the clock starts, so size your feeding to your herd — feed it within a few days (faster in heat) before air spoils it; (2) watch for moldy spots — spoiled baleage can carry Listeria, which is dangerous to sheep and goats especially, so processing or mixing to dilute bad spots is safer than whole-bale feeding; and (3) don't compare wet and dry bales by weight — a wet bale is roughly half water, so it takes nearly two baleage bales to equal the dry matter in one dry bale. Always pull the net and film off first.
How do you physically feed it?
However you feed dry round bales will work for baleage. The most common setups producers report are a hay ring, an unroller, or a processor/TMR:
"I feed mine in a regular round bale feeder. Just like dry bales the better the hay the less they waste."
— joethefarmer75, AgTalk · Feeding Baleage
Ring feeders work fine — and good baleage gets cleaned up surprisingly well:
"I feed baleage in standard hay rings. They somehow figure out how to clean up the whole bale… With good baleage, somehow it ends up looking like you used a vacuum cleaner where the bale was."
— Jim, AgTalk · Feeding Baleage
You can unroll it too, though it handles a little differently than dry hay, and a TMR is the move when you're blending it with other feeds:
"Baleage will work ok to unroll… Somewhat less handy to unroll than dry hay but not terrible. I only put it in a TMR when mixing with something else to provide more protein."
— turbo diesal, AgTalk · Feeding Baleage
One caution with the heavy-built "haysaver" style feeders: cattle can dig into a wet bale unevenly and jam it. As one Ohio producer noted, "they can eat the bale away unevenly and get it stuck, which requires a machine to loosen." For the broader feeder comparison, see round bale feeder types compared and how to reduce round bale feeding waste.
Feed it fast enough to beat spoilage
This is the rule that's genuinely different from dry hay. A sealed baleage bale is an oxygen-free package; the second you cut the wrap, air gets in and aerobic spoilage — heating, yeasts, mold — begins. The fix isn't a preservative, it's disappearance rate: match how much you open to how fast your animals clean it up.
"Silage open, or not in a controlled inert atmosphere is a disaster waiting to happen. So with small numbers silage is at best not easy."
— dabeegmon, AgTalk · Feeding baleage to sheep
"If you have enough animals so that your disappearance rate is way ahead of the spoilage rate and you have decent feed… should be no problems."
— dabeegmon, AgTalk · Feeding baleage to sheep
Practical rule of thumb: open only what the group will finish in a few days — sooner in warm weather, when spoilage races. If you have a small herd and big bales, that's the hardest part of baleage; smaller bales, or processing into a mix, helps you keep ahead of it. (Many "baleage disaster" stories really trace back to a bale sitting open too long — as one producer asked, how many came from "waiting until the goats had eaten everything down to bare dirt before someone gave them a bale?")
Watch for moldy spots — this is the safety part
Most baleage is excellent feed. But any wet, ensiled forage can develop spoiled or moldy pockets — at a tear in the wrap, a poorly sealed end, or anywhere air got in — and those spots aren't just lower quality. Spoiled baleage can harbor Listeria (the cause of listeriosis, sometimes called "silage sickness"), and that risk falls hardest on sheep, goats, and pregnant animals. One Ontario shepherd put the stakes plainly:
"It helps some if you can chop the bales or put them in a TMR. If one sheep hits the wrong mouldy spot it can kill them, if you process the bale any bad spots get diluted."
— DaleK, AgTalk · Feeding baleage to sheep
What to do: don't feed visibly rotten or strongly off-smelling baleage to small ruminants. For cattle the risk is lower but still real with badly spoiled feed. Processing or mixing into a TMR dilutes the occasional bad spot so no single animal gets a concentrated mouthful — which is exactly why producers feeding sheep lean on chopping or a mixer.
Pull the net and film off first
It's easy to forget on a cold morning, but the net wrap and the stretch film both have to come off before the bale goes in the feeder. Livestock that eat netting or plastic can pack it in the rumen, and it doesn't break down. If you process or grind, the wrap absolutely has to be removed first. See how to remove net wrap safely and the cautionary cattle eating net wrap for why this matters. (Good, clean-cutting net wrap peels off in one piece, which makes this a lot less of a chore than fighting a shredded roll.)
Don't get fooled by the weight: the dry-matter math
Here's where new baleage feeders miscalculate. A baleage bale is heavy because it's full of water, not because it's full of feed. Compare like-for-like and the picture is clear:
"If you make the balage at 50% water vs 10% water… in dry hay, your 1500# balage bale is only about 750# of dry matter and 750# of water weight. Your dry hay bale would be 150# water weight and 1350# of dry matter. It takes almost 2x the baleage bales to get same dry matter as dry hay."
— Baby Robin, AgTalk · feeding wrapped silage bales
"I have two 4x5 bales next to each other, one dry, one wet. Both bales have the same amount of feed value. One just weighs 1,800 lbs, and one weighs 800 lbs."
— featherfarmer, AgTalk · feeding wrapped silage bales
So plan your winter supply on dry matter, not bale count or bale weight. Cattle will also eat more of the wet feed — "cows will consume more of the wetter feed," and the palatability is better — but as one producer summed it up, "wet feed won't go as far as dry bales lb for lb. You make up for it in quality… the major benefit is being able to put up more feed in a shorter weather window." If you're sizing rations, our how much hay does a cow eat guide works in dry-matter terms.
Sheep, goats, and starting animals on it
Despite the old "goats can't handle baleage" rumor, plenty of producers feed it to small ruminants successfully — the key is quality and feed-out rate, not the species:
"We used to have 200 ewes and fed baleage all the time and got along great. Some people prefer the drier stuff but we used to feed all moistures 20–60% with no issues. Really not much different than feeding cows."
— Scott (OSU), AgTalk · Feeding baleage to sheep
Animals new to baleage may need to learn to like it — they "can be right bloody stubborn," as one shepherd warned — so introduce it gradually. And when you're moving stock onto wrapped forage you've never fed before, test it rather than guess. As a North Dakota producer asked when he got his first wet alfalfa, "How careful do I have to be starting anything on it?" The answer from the thread was unanimous: "Don't guess, a test is best" — sample the forage, get an analysis, and balance the ration so animals can't sort out just the rich part.
Waste: good baleage wastes little
Done right, baleage feeds clean. Producers report near-zero waste — "feeding baleage to my ewes right now and they love it… my waste is almost zero." But results vary with feeder and bale quality; another producer "tried it one time and they wasted more than dry hay… pulled it all out of the feeder." The pattern matches dry hay: better forage and the right feeder mean less waste. The palatability edge actually helps here — cattle treat good baleage like "candy," so there's less sorting and refusal.
If you're still on the production side of this, start with our first-time baleage guide and wrapping wet hay. Get the make-side right and the feed-out side is mostly common sense.
Frequently asked questions
How do you feed baleage to cattle?
The same ways you feed dry round bales: in a ring or cone feeder, by unrolling, or processed into a TMR. Baleage unrolls a little less neatly than dry hay but works fine, and cattle clean up good baleage well because they find it very palatable. Always remove the net wrap and film first.
How fast do you have to feed baleage once it's opened?
Quickly — within a few days, and sooner in hot weather. Cutting the wrap lets oxygen in and restarts spoilage. Match how much you open to how fast your group eats it; small herds with big bales struggle most, so smaller bales or processing into a mix helps you stay ahead of spoilage.
Can baleage make animals sick?
Spoiled or moldy baleage can carry Listeria (listeriosis), which is especially dangerous to sheep, goats, and pregnant animals. Don't feed visibly rotten or strongly off-smelling baleage to small ruminants. Processing or mixing into a TMR dilutes occasional bad spots so no single animal gets a concentrated dose. Well-made, properly sealed baleage fed promptly is safe.
Is a wet baleage bale worth the same as a dry hay bale?
Not by weight. A baleage bale is roughly half water, so a 1,500-lb wet bale may hold only about 750 lb of dry matter — it can take nearly two baleage bales to match the dry matter in one dry bale. Plan your feed supply on dry matter, not bale count. Animals do eat more wet feed and it's often higher quality, but it won't go as far pound for pound.
Do you take the net wrap off baleage before feeding?
Yes — remove both the net wrap and the stretch film before feeding or processing. Netting and plastic don't break down in the rumen and can cause serious problems if eaten. Clean-cutting net wrap that peels off in one piece makes this much easier.
This guide is maintained by the XES Netting team — a bale net-wrap manufacturer. Producer comments are quoted verbatim with a thread link so you can read the originals. Feeding and animal-health decisions should be confirmed with your veterinarian or nutritionist for your operation.
Related guides
Featured photo: Field with large round bales in white plastic (wrapped baleage stored for winter feeding) by DutchColours, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
