Disposing of baleage wrap

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SmokinM

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How do you prefer to do it? Plastic and net wrap are a pain and probably the biggest downside I see to baleage. Do you burn it or haul it to the dump? Any other great ideas?
 
I know of people doing a variety of things. One uses a smallish dumpster with weekly pickup for household trash and farm trash. Plastic wrap goes in there. Claims it is not much more than standard trash pick up. Another has what looks like half a fuel tank. He puts in a few limbs , some of the wrap, some more limbs, repeat. Sets a fire about once a month. Another does similar but burns it about every other day. Another who built a small mountain of it. Tossed in a match it burned for days. Lots of black smoke. Not a good option. While working for the conservation district a neighboring district tried to create a recycle program for it. That never flew.
If you haul to the dump do it to one that charges by volume not weight. If you burn do it regular mixed with wood.
 
We do our part to keep the climate in a warming trend.
You couldn't pay me enough to use netwrap or plastic twine on round bales.
 
Contrary to popular belief plants like carbon, and sulfur. ;)
Burn it, and let the black smoke roll, our atmosphere needs some more sulfur dioxide, and CO2. Greenies are cutting both out, so need to balance it back out. :)
 
I know burning it is not great but don't see where sending it to the landfill is better. It is bound to break down better as ash than just raw plastic. Thanks for the replies.
 
A nearby county had a recycling grant for a few years. Evidently only myself and a couple other farmers took advantage. I haul about 70% to the landfill.

I have completely returned to sisal twine. I was tired of plastic twine wrapped on axles and beaters.

There was some development of bio-degradable bale film and also an edible type. I have not seen that brought to market though.
 
A nearby county had a recycling grant for a few years. Evidently only myself and a couple other farmers took advantage. I haul about 70% to the landfill.

I have completely returned to sisal twine. I was tired of plastic twine wrapped on axles and beaters.

There was some development of bio-degradable bale film and also an edible type. I have not seen that brought to market though.
Do you store your hay outside? I have a neighbor who still uses sisal twine. It looks like they have considerable more waste per bale than we do.
 
Have a large bin to empty every so often. Only 10 miles to the dump, have to bring my household stuff anyway.
 
We hate the plastic wrap and seldom use that particular baler except if the sisal twine round baler breaks down. Custom bale hay for one that wants the net wrap. We use sisal for everything. We may see a little more "waste hay" that is just put back into the ground as organic matter and feeds the soil. We have had some hay sit for 2-3 years before it gets fed when we have a good year and you just have to pick it up more carefully with the arms on the bale bed on the truck. Seldom have bales fall apart but the bottom layer might get left and we will use the bucket to clean it up in the spring when running the manure spreader to just get it spread out.
The silage bag plastic goes to the landfill because burning has not been an option in the past with all the leased-rented land. Might start burning if we get the "main farm" bought this year where we grow and store the bags of silage...
When we have done baleage we still use the sisal.... it will break down some, but HATE plastic twine worse than even the net wrap.
 
Do you store your hay outside? I have a neighbor who still uses sisal twine. It looks like they have considerable more waste per bale than we do.

I'm lucky in that I can store a fair amount of good hay under roof. If you are comparing net wrap to twine than I would agree, net wrap (Some brands) do a nice job of shedding moisture and maintaining bale shape which can really help prevent storage rot/waste. Comparing sisal to plastic twine I've seen no difference in storage rot/waste (I have a twine only baler and do store cornstalks and grass hay outside -- my bale wrap experience is limited to purchased hay and discussions with neighbors -- but I do wrap baleage).

One benefit to sisal is I don't have to cut the twine anymore (It's rotted through), so I can just pull off all the twine before putting the bale in my feeders. Efficiency! haha
 
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I'm lucky in that I can store a fair amount of good hay under roof. If you are comparing net wrap to twine than I would agree, net wrap (Some brands) do a nice job of shedding moisture and maintaining bale shape which can really help prevent storage rot/waste. Comparing sisal to plastic twine I've seen no difference in storage rot/waste (I have a twine only baler and do store cornstalks and grass hay outside -- my bale wrap experience is limited to purchased hay and discussions with neighbors).

One benefit to sisal is I don't have to cut the twine anymore (It's rotted through), so I can just pull off all the twine before putting the bale in my feeders. Efficiency! haha
We used to have a twine only baler. We store 85% of our hay outside. When we replaced the baler with one that does cover edge net wrap the bales seem to shed rain a lot better. But storing inside is still better.
 
I'm saving all of my net wrap to use like the geo fabric under a feeding pad. Another member recommended it on here. The twine that is on some bales I buy and the plastic from our baleage I haul off with the trash from the house. I don't have nearly the amount as most of you do with our small amount of cattle though.
 
We used twin only for years, but when we changed out the baler, went with one that would do both, I like the wrap better for outside storage, but string is easier to get off. Regardless, we take it all to the landfill once barrels are full.
 
We burn the netwrap and baleage wrap in our outdoor wood stove, puts off a lot of heat. You have to be careful and not overload it with the latter, as it can melt together and smother your fire depending on when it calls for heat.
 
Net wrap gets burned. Vermeer net burns really well, hot and hardly any smoke.

Silage wrap is a little trickier. We go through 3-500 bales every year. I try to burn as much as I can, but it really does not burn well at all. Stuff traps water like crazy. What's left goes to the landfill. I slice it along the top to get the bales out, and once a week or so, weather permitting, I will roll it into a ball with the skid steer.

I have a guy that comes by and grabs the nicer pieces of Sunfilm to cover firewood with. It makes for a good tarp.
 

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