Net Wrap Removal Tips and Tricks
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Right now we burn...I hate that, any time the guys burn a pile the wind shifts towards the house and fill my house with toxic plastic smell. Not sure we'd ever put it anywhere that may sometime need mowing. I've thought about inventing a thing that would hold the rolled up netting once taken off the bale, but i cant come up with "then what" once the thing is full. The guys will stuff them behind the tractor seat or stuff it next to the fender. They just pile up. If it were just a few bales a week it wouldnt be a problem, they'd just go in the trash. There just seems to be piles of it every where around here in the winter..i hate it.dun":3s97bhpx said:
We have on customer who insist on having us custom bale his hay with biodegradable straw string. We have a old baler we keep just to do his hay with each year. Husband went to this guys place to give a bid on some land clearing and saw that the hay he baled this spring was stacked in this guys new hay barn. I asked how it looked and he said horrible. He said the guy waited to move the hay and the strings were all breaking so the hay had fallen apart.
polledbull
Well-known member
if you use a spike , unwrapping the net is easier for us ,if the hay was long enough when baled , If you cut it you will cut some of the outside layer of hay and it will fall off sometimes, once you get the unwrapping started .just start walkng backwards away from the roll,pulling the net , and it will suprise you how easy it unwraps
lavacarancher
Well-known member
TexasBred":1yxh7hoz said:
Yawl know my feelings on net wrap. It is harder to get off the bale than string, does anyone question that statement? It costs more than string. Anyone disagree with that statement. Net wrap gains you practically nothing for storing bales in the field. Questions? Net wrap adds $4K to $6K to the cost of the baler. Yes/no? These are all true statements, really its true.
Net wrap is absolutely great if you're a custom baler. Time to tie is 1/4 that of string and saving time across the field is a good thing especially if you're doing it for someone else and getting paid for it. Net wrap also makes a nice looking bale, again, especially if you have the "over the shoulder" type net wrap baler.
So having said all that BS the next baler I buy will probably have net wrap. I really like the idea of not having to sit in one spot for 2 minutes turning the bale while the string ties.
The part I disagree with is it being harder to get off then twine. Getting every string cut so that you dont;t end up with some twine still stuck to the bale where it can;t seen is much harder then removing net. With shorter length hay, like clover, twine won;t hold the bale together as well as net. there goes my invite to drown shripmp!lavacarancher":39lzyhzf said:
Fire Sweep Ranch
Well-known member
dun":ya4udu6i said:
That, Dun, and the fact that there are studies out there that prove net wrapped hay has less damage and waste when stored outside. We store all of our hay outside, and one year we bought 30 bales that were string tied. It tends to try your temper when it is freezing cold out and you can not get all the string off, versus the net we just run a knife on the side and pull and the entire net comes off in one pull. There was also more waste, deeper in the bale, with the string tied bales. We will never buy a string tied bale again.
Also, who ever owned the land before us (more than 8 years ago) obviously feed string tied hay, and we still have yellow string that is stuck in the ground that we can not get out. It is a tripping hazard when it comes up, so we often try to burn branches and stuff over the spot to get rid of the stuff. Seems never ending.
regolith
Well-known member
Question it? Outright deny it.
However invariably I remove the wrap with the bale suspended over a chain-action feeder, by finding the loose end and walking backwards. I can see how that might not work so well at a ring feeder surrounded by cattle.
I don't miss strings: trying to find and cut every last one; trying to grab them before one of the cows gets hold of the other end and pulls it her way; sharpening the knife every few days after cutting through several handfuls of hay trying to reach the buried strings; finding the bundles of string years later embedded in the soil. Sooner or later my bag full of used baling twine is going to run out though and I don't know what I'll do about tying gates shut then :help: or what to make plant pot hangers and macramé belts out of.
dieselbeef
Well-known member
net Is better....^^^^^^
With a bail buggy or any thing that the forks go under its almost impossible to get the wrap out from under.
It makes a huge mess. By the end of the day i have a hug bale of net wrap that hangs up on every thing in the pasture, the bed of my truck, and on me. After dealing with net wrap i know what a fish feels like when its caught in a net.
With string I can wrap them in tight neat circles and drop them in a 5 gal bucket.
I can cut strings and pull them from under a bale in 1/2 the time as net.
I despise wrap. My guy that bails ran out of string two bales from the end and he did two in wrap. I gave him hell. Asked him if I could get a discount since he wasted two good bales.
It makes a huge mess. By the end of the day i have a hug bale of net wrap that hangs up on every thing in the pasture, the bed of my truck, and on me. After dealing with net wrap i know what a fish feels like when its caught in a net.
With string I can wrap them in tight neat circles and drop them in a 5 gal bucket. I can cut strings and pull them from under a bale in 1/2 the time as net.
I despise wrap. My guy that bails ran out of string two bales from the end and he did two in wrap. I gave him hell. Asked him if I could get a discount since he wasted two good bales.
slick4591
Well-known member
I use a spear and suspend the bale over the ring. Once there, I cut the net at the halfway point, go to the other side and pull the bottom part of the net and hang it to the outside of the ring. I can then walk to the tractor and drop the bale. It's an easy pull of the net over the top from there.
ragweed
Well-known member
with the hay dolly I cut string or net at the back bar, pull either of them over hang them on the grabber back up till the bale falls off. I then have net or string to throw in the truck. when using the hay express just cut on the drop off side at the bottom when hay rolls off string or net exposed. no problem with either. cut with razor knife keep extra blades and always have sharpened blade.
James T
Well-known member
I guess i don't understand the problem. Why all of the cutting? I can see ice being a problem with getting net wrap off where even a knife might not help but why else have to cut? Never used a hay dolly but I guess it can mess up the wrap getting the bale off loaded? Are ya'll laying the round bales on their sides? I drop mine where it stands on end and then just unwrap it. Every now and then one might fall where some of the wrap gets tucked underneath but that doesn't happen very often. Used to use a knife but it would dull out after a few cuts and then it finally dawned on me to just find the end of the wrap and pull it off.
TexasBred
Well-known member
I never realized it was such a dilemma for some. With string I sometimes simply cut it, pull all the ends together and tie a knot in it and lay it down....when the hay is gone, grab the knot and roll up the string. There is no real "wrong way" unless you hurt yourself doing it.James T":efwitboj said:
lavacarancher
Well-known member
Not a dilemma for me and apparently not for anyone. I just simply laid out the facts and folks chose to ignore the facts and do their own thing. And that's OK, don't care one way or the other. Nothing I stated against net wrap can or should be disputed, it is all factual - do the research. Fire sweep disputed the outdoor storage but they are wrong. Not one university study on outdoor storage of round baled hay using net showed any SIGNIFICANT longevity of the hay being stored.
Besides all that I said I would probably get a net wrap baler on my next purchase which should show I can go with popular belief in spite of facts.
Besides all that I said I would probably get a net wrap baler on my next purchase which should show I can go with popular belief in spite of facts.
TexasBred
Well-known member
Fact is net wrap IS NOT harder to get off the bale. It's actually easier and quicker if you have any idea what you're doing. At least your last sentence shows you too can be suckered in spite of "facts'. ;-)lavacarancher":2rr9g573 said:
A bit of university research: http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/agr/agr171/agr171.htm
J&D Cattle
Well-known member
Hands down I prefer net wrap. It's easier to remove and you won't miss any strings in the dark. In all the string versus net wrap bales I have seen and or fed net wrap weathers better, bales are tighter, easier to move, and the same size bale will have more hay.
Cut the net wrap down one side, pull wrap off, and throw a ring on the bale or cut the net wrap, unroll, and then go back and pull the wrap out from under the initial roll.
Cut the net wrap down one side, pull wrap off, and throw a ring on the bale or cut the net wrap, unroll, and then go back and pull the wrap out from under the initial roll.
Fire Sweep Ranch
Well-known member
lavacarancher":12nttd5l said:
Look at the research TB just quoted. Happens to be university research providing less loss when using net. Here is more:
Net Wrap or Twine?
What's better on large round bales - net wrap or twine? Of course, the question is largely a matter of personal preference, but it has been objectively researched by Dr Kevin Schinners, Agricultural Engineer at the University of Wisconsin. Some of the suggested advantages of net wrap include faster baling, lower baling losses, better bale integrity during handling and transport, better water shedding ability and lower outdoor storage losses. The net wrap material and equipment do add to the costs of baling, but Schinners' research results justify the added costs in many situations.
More from the same:
Reduced Outdoor Storage Losses
Outdoor hay storage results in a great deal of spoilage. Storing hay inside is recommended, but not always possible. Tarps can work, but can be challenging to maintain. The reality is that there are often lots of bales stored outside uncovered. "Water shedding ability" for outdoor bale storage is frequently cited as a perceived advantage of net wrap.
In the WI trials measuring moisture levels in the "outside rind" of the bales, net wrapped alfalfa bales did shed rainfall better than twined wrapped bales and were lower moisture. Finer stemmed grasses seemed to form a better thatch. However, some of the advantage of improved water shedding ability is lost if bales are not stored on a well drained surface (crushed rock, pallets, etc). Otherwise, rainwater will run off the bales and accumulate at the bottom.
In this study, in the outside hay rind, nutrient composition was significantly higher and dry matter losses were lower for net wrap compared to twine, but the core was generally unaffected. Average total dry matter losses for bales stored outside on the ground were 11.3% for plastic twine wrapped bales and 7.3% for net wrap. However, both of these options have significantly higher losses than inside storage. Net wrapping bales for uncovered storage outside does not substitute for inside storage.
Yep, I'd say that is evidence. When we started putting up our own hay, we took classes through the Missouri extension service on hay, and different types of baling (net, plastic, twine, haylage). They provided overwhelming evidence on the savings of hay when you use net (versus twine). So unless they are wrong I think I will follow the experts and keep my hay netted.
Another advantage we learned last year was storing the hay on old pallets. It is a slight pain to work with, but the bottom of our bales do not get wet and nasty when we put them on pallets.
sim.-ang.king
Well-known member
If you were really worried you would keep the baler you got, and buy a wrapper.lavacarancher":2nkcejgh said:
highgrit
Well-known member
I string tie all of our hay. We barn store it and feed it on trailers. The net is a real pain to get off when the bale is sitting on a hard surface. But most of our customers that we bale for want their hay net wrapped. So that's what they get. I figure it cost $2.00 more for the net wrap, but it's 10 times faster. And less wear on everything, Including me.
