weatherproofing hay bales

Muckit

http://www.youtube.com/user/wrapide

seen this in the IFJ. Good idea but needs a bit of tweeking IMO.

What about developing a wrap that could be fitted and applied by the baler?

moy83

Looks a bit slow alright . I think youre right about the baler applying something . Maybe a waterproof net shouldnt be too hard to make

bob charles

visqueen have a plastic replacer for net if im not mistaken. I dont think its aimed at the hay market

reilig

The concept is at least 20 years old,

Archway had a similar wrapper in the 1990's. Yer man appears to have made a copy of it - possibly archway's patent has run out. Anyway, it wasn't a success then and probably won't be now. We hired the wrapper for our hay 1 year, but never again. There were 2 problems:

1. If you handled the bales too much, there was so little wrap on them, they would burst. It was therefore difficult enough to put them into a stack.

2. If you stacked them on their ends, you had to cover them on top to stop water flowing down through them - why wrap them if you also have to cover them.
If you left them flat, any rain that fell on them ran down the unwrapped end and got caught by the lip of wrap, causing the base of the bale to rot and the bale to soak water half way up through itself thus losing half the bale to fusty stuff.

A better solution is to completely wrap a bale of hay with 4 layers. It works perfect and at least yo won't lose any of your crop.

Just my twopence worth

sh1tstirrer

reilig wrote: »

A better solution is to completely wrap a bale of hay with 4 layers. It works perfect and at least yo won't lose any of your crop.

Just my twopence worth

Better still build a shed;)

reilig

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

Better still build a shed;)

I Should have said "If you don't have a shed"

ZETOR_IS_BETTER

Speaking of a more weather proof net..
This farmer in NZ has modified a krone Comprima to wrap a bale with a waterproof film instead of using net.
Then he puts a few rounds of silage wrap on the bale to close up the sides of the bale.
Also he has a very comfortable wrapper

interesting video....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPEDSp_MgAk

49801

ZETOR_IS_BETTER wrote: »

Speaking of a more weather proof net..
This farmer in NZ has modified a krone Comprima to wrap a bale with a waterproof film instead of using net.
Then he puts a few rounds of silage wrap on the bale to close up the sides of the bale.
Also he has a very comfortable wrapper

interesting video....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPEDSp_MgAk

what is the point/advantage of doing 2 wrapping operations with plastic?
is there a cost/labour saving?

ZETOR_IS_BETTER

49801 wrote: »

what is the point/advantage of doing 2 wrapping operations with plastic?
is there a cost/labour saving?

According to Robert Folkerts.. (Inventer)

Baletite gives 10% denser bales than net. Bales only require 4 layers of prestretch film for perfect silage quality. If wrap becomes punctured there is virtually no deterioration of the silage as air can not affect more than the size of the hole..

Question great job robert. how do you find the cost difference between net and plastic, would be great to save on amount of wrap needed.

Answer Baletite + prestretch x 4 is cheaper than net + wrap x 6, and much better! The baletite setup puts plastic where it is useful. Customers are seriously excited with this concept.

In the video it took the wrapper 26 seconds to wrap a bale because it has been partially done by the baler im assuming that will save time on wrapping and stacking with amount of bales some of these farms do in NZ

reilig

ZETOR_IS_BETTER wrote: »

According to Robert Folkerts.. (Inventer)





In the video it took the wrapper 26 seconds to wrap a bale because it has been partially done by the baler im assuming that will save time on wrapping and stacking with amount of bales some of these farms do in NZ

It certainly looks like a good idea. The film protests the bale on the parts of the bale that are most likely to get damaged during transport.

sh1tstirrer

reilig wrote: »

A better solution is to completely wrap a bale of hay with 4 layers. It works perfect and at least yo won't lose any of your crop.

Just my twopence worth

I checked this out and like I thought you could end up with stack of mouldy hay on your hands unless the crop is close to 100% dry, which it never is. Hay needs to breathe and if it is covered in plastic it can't. Also if you were going to wrap it in plastic why not cut out a lot of turning and tossing and make haylage of it instead? Your idea works great with straw that is bone dry

reilig

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

I checked this out and like I thought you could end up with stack of mouldy hay on your hands unless the crop is close to 100% dry, which it never is. Hay needs to breathe and if it is covered in plastic it can't. Also if you were going to wrap it in plastic why not cut out a lot of turning and tossing and make haylage of it instead? Your idea works great with straw that is bone dry

If you didn't toss and turn it, you'd have ordinary silage. Haylage is hay which has been wrapped. I've wrapped enough hay in my time to 100% guarantee you that no matter how dry it is, it won't mould!!

sh1tstirrer

reilig wrote: »

If you didn't toss and turn it, you'd have ordinary silage. Haylage is hay which has been wrapped. I've wrapped enough hay in my time to 100% guarantee you that no matter how dry it is, it won't mould!!

I said cut out a lot of the tossing and turning not all of it. Haylage made in Ireland is too dry when wrapping it is recommended to have a moisture content of 50-60% when baling and wrapping. Any thing below 45% moisture and you will get moulds.

cfextension.ifas.ufl.edu/agriculture/crops/documents/Haylage08.ppt

reilig

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

I said cut out a lot of the tossing and turning not all of it. Haylage made in Ireland is too dry when wrapping it is recommended to have a moisture content of 50-60% when baling and wrapping. Any thing below 45% moisture and you will get moulds.

cfextension.ifas.ufl.edu/agriculture/crops/documents/Haylage08.ppt

As I said above. From practical experience, no matter how dry the hay is, I have never seen mould - and I have see enough of them!!

sh1tstirrer

reilig wrote: »

As I said above. From practical experience, no matter how dry the hay is, I have never seen mould - and I have see enough of them!!

Ok but not everyone would agree with you. http://farmingforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=35760

reilig

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

cfextension.ifas.ufl.edu/agriculture/crops/documents/Haylage08.ppt

What the americans consider haylage, most of us would consider properly wilted round bale silage.

reilig

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

http://farmingforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=35760

Read all the posts on it. They are talking about putting 1 or 2 layers of wrap on hay bales to protect them from rain. As I said above, 4 layers is what you need.

Sam Kade

I wrapped hay that was a day away from being fit as there was rain in the forecast. I put 6 layers of wrap on them and they had mould on them when opened. Another year I wrapped hay that was almost fit and got rained on, the crop was wet when baling as it was showery, I put 4 layers of wrap on them. There was no mould on them bales when opened. I reckon that you need over a certain amount of moisture when wrapping bales for them to ferment.

Bizzum

I would tend to agree with Reilig on this one.
We baled a field of hay a few years ago but felt the headlands were a bit rare, so wrapped them.
They were fine. I think you really need to pack the chamber with haylage, and put on an extra wrap.

red menace

Totally off topic but that's a nice Leyland 472 he has in the video

reilig

Sam Kade wrote: »

I wrapped hay that was a day away from being fit as there was rain in the forecast. I put 6 layers of wrap on them and they had mould on them when opened. Another year I wrapped hay that was almost fit and got rained on, the crop was wet when baling as it was showery, I put 4 layers of wrap on them. There was no mould on them bales when opened. I reckon that you need over a certain amount of moisture when wrapping bales for them to ferment.

Any "old grass" meadows that I have, I try to get it saved to within a day of hay. I bale it and wrap it then and use it for feeding in-calf cows. It ends up just as good of feeding as hay, and I have no hassle with it. Stuff like this will ferment. I have often wrapped hay when I have had no space in the shed for it and it comes out of the wrap the same way as it went in. It won't ferment if its dry enough. I understand that the theory is that Mould will only form if it has air to form.