Anybody found a "best way" or tool/machine design to remove frozen Net Wrap from Round bales?

[RDFF]

I've dealt with plastic wrapped bales... bought about 50 of 'em on the spring auction last year. I'd never want to have to deal with that much plastic, ... was alot harder to work with than even the frozen bottom netwrap. However, it DOES shed the ice etc. pretty nicely... but it's still "wet"... and a much wetter mess than net. Just too much material to have to deal with and dispose of.

I put the netwrap in my tractor cab, and I unroll 10 or more bales a day sometimes when I'm out there feeding. At one point I thought that wrapping would be the cat's meow... but no longer. Mainly, I wish everybody that I get bales from would store their netwrapped bales inline end to end and up on a parallel row of posts, like Jeanne-Simme Valley said. When I do that, I have almost NO trouble with muddy bottoms or removing the netwrap. ALOT lower cost than plastic wrapping too. Around here, they charge something like $10/bale or more for inline wrapping. Most do it because they're making silage bales.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

This is the system we use - in-line wrapper. NONE of this equipment is mine. This is baleage. If you want quality hay here in NY, you either put up baleage or haylage. We don't have the drying weather in May or June. Dairymen put up May haylage. That is way too high a protein for beef - maybe 23%. Mine is usually 15-16%

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Haylage in may...? We still have snow. Lol

Disposing of the plastic wrap is always the problem I have. We don't have garbage pickup here so hauling all that plastic 40 miles to the dump is costly and a pain in the butt.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

Round bales are a pain in the butt, I pulled the netwrap off a couple bails last week and put it on the floor of my skidsteer. My wife hollers out "oh no, you have a rats nest in your tractor" "

 

[chaded]

I like putting them in the barn although I do have some that have to stay outside because I'm out of room. I have to rip one more loft out and that should fix that problem though.

 

[Silver]

Haylage in may...? We still have snow. Lol

Disposing of the plastic wrap is always the problem I have. We don't have garbage pickup here so hauling all that plastic 40 miles to the dump is costly and a pain in the butt.

It's flammable. I've heard.

 

[Atimm693]

It's flammable. I've heard.

Pretty much impossible to burn in any quantity. Takes a really, really hot fire and you can only do so much at once. It seems to trap a lot of water and dirt.

We've just gone to burying it. Not much else you can do. Wish it could be recycled.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

From my experience it takes more diesel to get it to burn than it does to haul it to the dump.

Have a mountain of it out back from 300+ bales 2 years ago. I've burned 10 acres of trees and stumps on the plastic be and the trees and stumps are gone the plastic remains.

 

[greybeard]

Some type of plastics won't actually burn. They just melt into a big glob.

 

[RDFF]

This is the system we use - in-line wrapper. NONE of this equipment is mine. This is baleage. If you want quality hay here in NY, you either put up baleage or haylage. We don't have the drying weather in May or June. Dairymen put up May haylage. That is way too high a protein for beef - maybe 23%. Mine is usually 15-16%

Exactly the same unit my neighbor has. $10+/bale, just for the wrapping. A lot more waste to have to dispose of than net wrap alone.

Here's how I set them on the beams... although I DON'T put the rows this close together anymore (bales are intentionally set TIGHT face to face, never have any spoilage between them at all, no discoloration, no bleaching). I want to keep about 6' between rows, so the snow doesn't pile up on top of them between bales (because it bridges up between them). With that much space there, I can back in with my 3 pt. carrier and grab them for feeding row by row instead of across the ends..., the snow usually isn't very deep between them, and the sun gets down in between them to melt it and help dry out the bales. I put them in N-S rows, so the sun can shine on both sides, which helps to melt the snow off of them. They do get some snow on top, but the net doesn't seem to freeze onto them to the point that it's difficult to remove unless we get a heavy freezing rain. Bales stay nice and round, with no muddy bottoms/frozen net, never frozen down onto the ground either. I set the "railroad tracks" down about 100' or so at at time, and then just straddle them as I drive to set bales in place/remove them. As long as they're net wrapped, they pretty much shed the water, with very little spoilage at all... only "discolored/bleached" around the outside... not "spoiled". Cattle eat it all.

Eliminates the "disposal" issue.

 

[fasttommy]

Probably wouldn't work for people feeding large quantities but a guy told me to just put a bale in your heated shop for a couple hours before feeding. Can't believe I never though of it. This year we had a inch or so of rain freezing rain in December immediately preceding 20" of snow. Net wrap is froze as bad as I've seen it. Thawing it the wrap prior to feeding is a godsend.

 

[RDFF]

Yup... I'm in MN... and got the rain and the blizzard too. Was feeding up to12 bales a day during both. Still, when stored as above, it isn't too bad. The hay that I was feeding my custom-fed herd came from a "supplier" who "stored them" on the ground, and it was a royal pain! And yup... keeping them in a heated shop before feeding sounds like it could be a great solution... just like keeping the bales in a hay shed would be. But I don't have the hay shed OR the heated shop (adds too much to the overhead costs), and that (heated shop) would only work if you're not feeding very many. If you're feeding quite a few, that'd take up an awful lot of shop space... , and it'd mean alot of extra handling too.

There's a pretty high cost all the way around for those kind of solutions. Everything has to be paid for somehow... I like working with the cattle, but in the end, I'm in business to make a profit... not because I like the exercise.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We have to use plastic for baleage, but I never use it for dry hay.
People will argue about placing the dry bales flat end tight to flat end. But, like RDFF says, the ends are just like if they were stored inside a barn. IF, you push them up tight against each other, no moisture gets into them. And, don't let the round sides touch anything.
I see people STACK dry rounds in a pyramid, absolutely the worse thing you can do. ALL your hay will spoil. The water has no place to go except IN the bales. Some will cover with a tarp. That doesn't usually last very long. And it is a nightmare to get the tarp OFF in our cold weather (snow/ice buildup).
My guy charges me for the actual cost of the wrap, then so much per bale.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I tarp a few hundred bales a year think its much easier to deal with than a few hundred bales worth of plastic. Plow the snow along the sides of the tarp and the steep slope means all the snow just slides right off. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[Silver]

Pretty much impossible to burn in any quantity. Takes a really, really hot fire and you can only do so much at once. It seems to trap a lot of water and dirt.

We've just gone to burying it. Not much else you can do. Wish it could be recycled.

I haven't had much trouble burning in quantity. Helps to sacrifice an old bale to really get it going.

Every once in awhile there is talk of recycling, I think there is a pilot project in the area now. We'll see what happens. I'm not holding out much hope.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

The plastic I have out back just doesn't burn. Get it hot enough and it just melts into a blob but its still all there just a different shape. Miserable stuff.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We used to burn all of our plastic. Dug a pit, burned maybe once a week or two. Burned great. Would throw bags or branches, etc in with it. Little diesel. Used same pit for maybe 10 years. NY banned any burning. Trying to stop wood burning for house heat.

 

[TCRanch]

Trying to stop wood burning for house heat.

 

[gcreekrch]

We haul our plastic to the dump on our mail runs. Loaded daily in the trash truck so it isn't blowing everywhere. Both of us dislike garbage and this way keeps it gathered up. If they made a wrapper that would easily handle 72 inch bales we would wrap everything. $2 worth of plastic would save a lot of spoilage on a bale.

 

[Silver]

We haul our plastic to the dump on our mail runs. Loaded daily in the trash truck so it isn't blowing everywhere. Both of us dislike garbage and this way keeps it gathered up. If they made a wrapper that would easily handle 72 inch bales we would wrap everything. $2 worth of plastic would save a lot of spoilage on a bale.

I'm reasonably certain they do make a wrapper for 72" bales. I'll have to ask a friend, I'm sure he has one. I wouldn't wrapping some dry hay as well.

Edit: looking at Tubeline's wrappers on their website looks like they are all rated for 6' bales now