cutting plastic twine

[tripleBfarms]

We use grass string and have never cut any of it off. It all rots away by spring, and we have never had a cow or calf get their feet tangled in it that I can remember. Is this wrong? The plastic twine seems like a lot of trouble to me.

 

[bigbull338]

theres nothing wrong with using grass string.the grass string is all my dad would use because he hated the plastic twine.we quit baling our own hay 12yrs ago,an started using custom balers.an he uses the plastic twine.if we ever go back todoing our own hay i figure we will go back to grass twine.

 

[novaman]

We use grass string and have never cut any of it off. It all rots away by spring, and we have never had a cow or calf get their feet tangled in it that I can remember. Is this wrong? The plastic twine seems like a lot of trouble to me.

I will take any troubles that plastic gives me. For starters, the sisal twine is quite a bit more expensive per bale of hay. I have never seen a sisal bale that would hold together before I got it to the feeder. Rodents and insects seem to love to chew through the stuff and if they don't get it, it usually rots off on the portion that is sitting on the ground. Now I do have some plastic twines break before I get to the feeder but short of mishandling the bales, there is always some twine hold the thing together. I realize sisal is beneficial in that it decomposes but it still wraps up on wheels and beaters. To each his own I suppose. I just prefer to keep some money in my pocket all while having well wrapped bales in the hay yard.

 

[upfrombottom]

I will take any troubles that plastic gives me. For starters, the sisal twine is quite a bit more expensive per bale of hay. I have never seen a sisal bale that would hold together before I got it to the feeder. Rodents and insects seem to love to chew through the stuff and if they don't get it, it usually rots off on the portion that is sitting on the ground. Now I do have some plastic twines break before I get to the feeder but short of mishandling the bales, there is always some twine hold the thing together. I realize sisal is beneficial in that it decomposes but it still wraps up on wheels and beaters. To each his own I suppose. I just prefer to keep some money in my pocket all while having well wrapped bales in the hay yard.

Absolutely, every place that I have ever been on, that they didn't cut the twine off the bales, sisal or plastic, I could tell they didn't cut it off by looking at their equipment. Nearly every grease seal on their equipment is leaking. I have bought used equipment and replaced the seals and the shafts would be wrapped with sisal twine. Seems the only place it doesn't rot is in the bearings. I have had first cutting hay, wrapped with sisal, rot the strings off before time for the second cutting. Like said, sisal is expensive and the only place I will use it is on square bales, because at least you can get it off the ground and customers don't seem to mind paying extra for square bales of horse hay.

 

[TexasBred]

We use grass string and have never cut any of it off. It all rots away by spring, and we have never had a cow or calf get their feet tangled in it that I can remember. Is this wrong? The plastic twine seems like a lot of trouble to me.

Takes a couple minutes to cut it, tie the ends together, pull it off, tie it up and leave.

 

[ERNIBIGB]

We use grass string and have never cut any of it off. It all rots away by spring, and we have never had a cow or calf get their feet tangled in it that I can remember. Is this wrong? The plastic twine seems like a lot of trouble to me.

Ditto here. Dont like the plastic either. We put all our hay in barns with the ones on bottom on their end so premature rotting is not a problem. Granted some will end up wound around things but so does the plastic if you don't dispose of every piece of it. Usually just the loose ends when moving it from the barn to the feeder.

 

[ChrisB]

I think a key to using bales wrapped in sisal that are stored outside is to not use a spear when feeding them. Instead use a mover that goes under the bale. I don't lose any hay going from the hay lot to the feeders that way. I feed on cornstalks all winter and in the spring take a field cultivator and spread out manure and hay wast and then cut it off the cultivator (torch works great). Instead of spending an extra 5 minutes a day pulling twine off bales I spend about 30 minutes total in the spring pulling it off the cultivator. But I will be the first to admit that I am a bit lazy and do things as easy as possible.

 

[TexasBred]

I think a key to using bales wrapped in sisal that are stored outside is to not use a spear when feeding them. Instead use a mover that goes under the bale. I don't lose any hay going from the hay lot to the feeders that way. I feed on cornstalks all winter and in the spring take a field cultivator and spread out manure and hay wast and then cut it off the cultivator (torch works great). Instead of spending an extra 5 minutes a day pulling twine off bales I spend about 30 minutes total in the spring pulling it off the cultivator. But I will be the first to admit that I am a bit lazy and do things as easy as possible.

Heck Chris...why not do it right....just let the stuff wear off or rot off. That would save you another 30 minutes every spring. :nod: ;-)

 

[stocky]

The worst is what was brought up in the earlier posts. When there is 2-3 inches of ice frozen around over the bale and to the ground on both sides and the bale being net wrapped. You just start chopping with the ax and pulling the ice out of the net a chunk at a time until you can get all the twine off----takes a long time when you have to feed 10-15 bales per day. The ice will also break the tail lights out of your pickup when you back into the bale. Gotta love that ice, but hope we don't have any this winter.

 

[cypressfarms]

Thank god we don't have ice (at least very little) to contend with. I don't like the plastic either. I've had trouble with cows and calves getting wrapped up, and that's never good. I buy all of my hay, and I specifically buy sisal baled. Standing upright under cover of a barn I've had no trouble with the strings lasting 2 years.

 

[ChrisB]

I think a key to using bales wrapped in sisal that are stored outside is to not use a spear when feeding them. Instead use a mover that goes under the bale. I don't lose any hay going from the hay lot to the feeders that way. I feed on cornstalks all winter and in the spring take a field cultivator and spread out manure and hay wast and then cut it off the cultivator (torch works great). Instead of spending an extra 5 minutes a day pulling twine off bales I spend about 30 minutes total in the spring pulling it off the cultivator. But I will be the first to admit that I am a bit lazy and do things as easy as possible.

Heck Chris...why not do it right....just let the stuff wear off or rot off. That would save you another 30 minutes every spring. :nod: ;-)

Maybe if I had a longer driveway. I may be lazy but I don't want the neighbors talking about it. Having pride and being lazy can really cause problems at times.