How much does a bale of silage cost?

SuperTortoise

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120103940#Comment_120103940

Did the crows get at them? Are they punctured?

memorystick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120105205#Comment_120105205

Non punctured. Baled very dry but some have a lot of water. Others are dry. You’d see a balloon of water at the bottom of some of the bales when I lift them. You’d be talking of a few gallons plus whatever is in the bales. I bought plastic that was cheaper than other. It’s not even in a box. Worked ok a few years ago but not happy this year. I’d say they took in rain water in the pile.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120109542#Comment_120109542

I see that about a 3-4L in my bales.have had similar previous years even with silawrap and sometimes worse than this year.. It didn't seem to effect the bales.

SuperTortoise

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120109542#Comment_120109542

Must be the plastic so, or maybe the plastic was over stretched when wrapping?

dohc turbo2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120109542#Comment_120109542

Is that water in the plastic and away from the bale, seen it in a few here but the water is Chrystal clear

Silverdream

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120103940#Comment_120103940

Have that issue too. I put it down to single wrapping that my contractor does. When plastic was cheaper he used to put a lot more plastic on the bale. Now I think its a 1 X 4 wrap which isn't ideal, there's more plastic used for a bag of meal than whats going on the bales.

Defo rainwater in mine too as it's clear like tap water not black silage water

roosterman71

Clear water is usually just rain between the layers of plastic

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120114904#Comment_120114904

I never knew any contractor to put on more than 4 layers unless it was requested and paid for. Generally I put on 5 layers on first cut if it is very dry. On second cut it's nearly always 4 unless I think it's going to be left over after the winter.

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120119024#Comment_120119024

Just out of interest what wrapper does your contractor have that can put 5 layers? Most wrappers there’s an overlap of half the width of the roll so it can only be applied in double layers, 2,4,6 etc.

Or is it a Kuhn barrel wrap or something like that?

Agreed too, why would a contractor be putting more than 4 layers without it being requested and price agreed.

kk.man

Am I the only one in this....if I want stuff wrapped I have to go and buy the rolls myself ? My contactor is a big outfit and I would be the one calling him looking for the bill.

Silverdream

can't speak for the contractor as to why he used to use a lot more plastic but he was up front with lads telling them that the plastic would be the minimum to keep costs down

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120119464#Comment_120119464

I always bought my own plastic as well. Most contractors look for lads to buy there own. They usually only supply plastic to lads doing 40-50 bales or lads that pay cash for the jobs

cute geoge

Contractors in kerry mostly supply all the plastic and dont skimp ,if bales go bad for whatever reason and if not full amount of plastic on the bale,contractor gets full blame and find it impossable to collect money.

Back wrapping bales years ago I used get 33 bales wrapped off standard roll that was 16 turns of wrapper .Nowadays the go is about 30 bales off a roll for the fusion My neighbour used get away with 15 turns of the wrapper but the bales were for himself but he never had a problem

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120119206#Comment_120119206

I never saw a machine that didn't do a 50% overlap. Maybe the contractor was spoofing and only wrapping half with 6 layers and half with 4 and saying it was "5 layers". Even the first wrapper we had with the small rolls had the overlap.

Always 6 layers here. Even for the second cut. Might be a bit of a waste for the second stuff cut that you know will be used soon enough but for the few euro more you have the peace of mind.

Would usually be carrying over a buffer of anything from 200-500 bales as well depending on the year so you'd need the 6 layers for those anyway.

eire23

Gas when lads tell ya "stick on a extra bit of wrap"....so ya want 6 layers instead of 4? No, just a turn and half will do. On goes the 6 layers so. It's as handy just to agree with them and get wrapping!

Silverdream

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120120640#Comment_120120640

I do about 250 bales every year, I have never bought plastic or had an issue paying the contractor by cheque. I usually pay him 2k on his first visit around the end of May then on his last visit I pay the balance which could be as late as October.

He just told lads this year that he was keeping everything to a minimum as his costs had gone out of control especially with the diesel situation.

Might be different in other parts wrt supplying the plastic yourself but in fairness it's hardly worth the bother for 8/9 rolls of plastic when if the year comes fine I could be doing most in hay

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120121306#Comment_120121306

some of the lads here migh be doing 8-10K bales. That is 30K+ worth of plastic. the bigger a lads bill is the more discount he wants. Have been buying my own plastic for 15 years now, Buy 10-12 rolls if there is 1-2 left over I just store it until next year.

Packrat

I'm in Kerry and have always bought my own wrap.

24 turns of the wrapper however many wraps that is. 18 to 20 bales/roll. I had too many white patches using less wrap and it killed sheep on me so it's cheaper to just fkin do it properly.

*** From my earlier post about lads bitching about the price and not paying cash - that bollix is ringing flat out all day - and he'll be at it. My other customer is getting it at 35 fed bale by bale a mile away but that lad won't get a single bale for 60 if he paid it.

tanko

Net replacement film (NRF) is the only job. First year using it here, very impressed with it, will never use that crappy net again if i can.

dohc turbo2

16 wraps standed and 24 wraps for wrap and half what the contractor dose here, anything exray going over gets the 24 wraps

SuperTortoise

Always extra wrap here, €1 per bale is not a big deal, especially last year where bales were costing me €35+ euro to make.

Contractor supplies plastic here and always has.

Silverdream

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120121388#Comment_120121388

8-10k bales vs 40 or 50 bales. You are comparing landed gentry to a small farmer with only a couple of acres

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120122286#Comment_120122286

These are contractors they be running 10k bales up on the machine biggest lad might have 3-500 bales. It's just the overall plastic bill for the year for the contractor would be 30k+

Add you diesel bill and it just an easier way to manage cash flow. As well it takes the risk of bad plastic from the contractor

Looks like old “January Sales” have started on donedeal? The 123 lads are gone. Prices down a bit as well.

weatherbyfoxer

We let the customer supply the wrapper here,90% of lad look for 24 wraps but have often put 16 on the lower DM stuff and no problem.Even fed some 2021 stuff with 16 wraps back in December and it was perfect,I find the faster the plastic is applied the more mold on the bales also stacking bales on there end with a soft hands style handler seems to cause way more mould than honeycomb stacking with a pipe or elephant trunk handler

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120123639#Comment_120123639

Definitley see the same here with regards the stacking. We have all the handlers here, static, roller, soft hands and trunk. I detest the soft hands, always more mould in bales with it and the drier the silage is the worse it is. I think the soft hands creates an air pocket when it squeezes in the sides of the bale picking it up and this causes the mould. None of the other handlers cause that and silage is far better quality being fed out when stacked honey comb like you say.

I haven’t used silage tape in years here either, an odd bale that may get damaged loading on the trailer or stacking is just left on the bottom row and other bales stacked on it. When the silage settles and the bales sit into one another the bales around it seal the hole and you wouldn’t have a fork full of waste from it when feeding out.

Gillespy

Never heard the phrase wrap and a half used before. So it’s the standard four layers and half again so six layers. Makes sense I suppose.

RockOrBog

I always use an "extra wrap" it used to be an extra €1 a bale but that was when the contractor supplied the wrap which nobody around here does now.

Never had any bother with mould to be fair, bales stacked on their ends in one layer. There would be a bit of mould the odd time where a bale is stacked too tight to the next one, I'm guessing due to the combined heat of the 2 bales

I have some spare silage which cost me approx 29 a bale to make, I wouldn't sell it for less than 45

Silverdream

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120122341#Comment_120122341

For a lad making 2 or 3 hundred bales its just easier all round for the contractor to supply the plastic. As for the contractor a 30k bill for plastic is part of the game, not the end of the world. Plenty other trades have similar bills for supplying materials

Tileman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120125842#Comment_120125842

Wouldn’t agree with that. Why should they carry the cost of that probably for months. Around here everyone supplies their own plastic and everyone happy enough with it. At least u know you’re buying decent plastic.