sisal twine

[cowtrek]

i use the biodegradeable plastic,rots away after 2 years

Yeah I've used that stuff too... something called 'Greenfield' sold at TSC. It was pretty good but sorta had the disadvantages of both... it rotted pretty quickly and the bales started getting ragged, especially since I have to haul 100 miles to my other farm and the wind gets rough on em during the haul. Twines popped left and right as I was loading bales on the trailer. The stuff that I didn't get cut off the bale (it is kind of a greenish color when new and fades to a dim greenish tan and makes it HARD to see to get it all off the bale when feeding) lays around about two years and can still hang up or wrap up on equipment and stuff until it gets brittle enough to break up. It is higher than standard plastic yet still has some of the disadvantages of plastic...

I used to only use sisal on my round bales because Grandpa was convinced a cow would get impacted and die from eating stray plastic twine. I don't think eating sisal twine was AS bad for them, but I don't think it would do them any good! The sisal would just rot too quickly IMHO. If it set in raining for a couple weeks after you baled, by the time you went to get the hay off the meadow and stacked you'd have twine popping and the bales getting raggedy, which REALLY increases storage losses! Plus, as I said before, even with hay stacked immediately after baling, the twine would all be rotted on bottom by the time you're ready to haul and feed six months later and I got tired of seeing the outer 6-8 inches of hay peel off and blow away when I hit the highway. I switched to plastic when sisal got SO high and haven't looked back. The hay stores better with less loss, the bales stay tighter and weather better, and of course are MUCH easier to load and haul after being stored awhile.

What I do to mitigate plastic twine problems is that I unload all the hay right next to the barn on the other farm, then immediately cut all the twine off the bales that I intend to feed. Sometimes I store a few in a small pen against hard freezes and icy roads when it's just easier to get in the car and go feed rather than try to haul hay on icy roads. Those I leave twined until I feed. I just cut all the twines across the face of the bale on one side at the 2 o'clock position and then go around to the 10 o'clock position and pick them off the bale, gather them up, pull the loose ends into a big loop and then tie the loop together in a square knot, and then pull the knot to pull the twine out from under the bale (it helps having a big butt to help pull with LOL) I then do a cursory check for any loose ends that didn't get included in the knot and wrap them around the knot a time or two and pull them out as well, then loop them all up like a lasso and tie the whole thing into a bowtie with a square knot. Makes it quick and easy to get rid of, and if I DO miss any twine, it's all in one spot out past the barn ready to burn or pick up come spring. I then haul the bales out to the fields to unroll on the hay forks. Works like a champ! OL JR

 

[msscamp]

i use the biodegradeable plastic,rots away after 2 years

:???: How, exactly, can plastic rot?

 

[cowtrek]

i use the biodegradeable plastic,rots away after 2 years

:???: How, exactly, can plastic rot?

It doesn't "rot" in the classical definition of the word, meaning,"decomposing by the action of parasites, insects, and microbial lifeforms into it's component natural elements" (IE think of a dead cow) but it 'decomposes' chemically through the action of ultraviolet light present in sunlight degrading the plastic to the point where the polymer chains making up the plastic molecules break apart easily and the the plastic disintegrates. For an example, hang a plastic Walmart bag out on the fence in a sunny spot for a month or two and come back and pull on it... after awhile they are as brittle as paper ashes that have been burned. Plastics exposed to sunlight (actually the ultraviolet light part of sunlight) have to have UV stabilizers or inhibitors in them to hold up any length of time, elsewise the UV will start deteriorating the plastic and it will disintegrate, including poly twine. Somebody along the line figured out that if you make cheap poly twine without sunlight inhibitors that it will dry out and disintegrate like dry chaffy straw after being exposed to sunlight for a while. They then realized that they could actually sell this 'inferior' twine at a premium as self-degrading or biodegradable and thus actually charge a premium. There's probably more to it than that, as they probably actually put some chemicals in the plastic as it's made to accelerate the process or something, but that's the general idea.

As I said, I wasn't particularly impressed with it, because it has a lot of the same disadvantages as regular plastic twine as well as a higher price than regular poly twine but a bit cheaper than sisal, but with some of the disadvantages of sisal as well...
If it isn't exposed to sunlight it will not degrade, just as regular plastic with UV inhibitors will not. Thus I had some of this 'biodegradable' twine tangled up in some matted hay that peeled off the bottom of a bale I had unloaded in winter, that was protected from sunlight by being on the bottom of the bale when the bale was stored, and had been mixed up and covered by the muck on the bottom of the bale, and when I shredded around the barn that spring the shredder actually did pick it up and wrap it on the shaft, because it had not been exposed to UV so it hadn't disintegrated. The end that was sticking up was faded and somewhat brittle but not brittle enough, and the twine pulled out of the muck was still green (though dirty) and strong, so I had to cut it out from under the shredder anyway. BUT, in loading bales that had been baled the summer before, the twine on top of the bale would pop very easily when I was trying to load it on the trailer, because it had been exposed to the sun for two summers and was VERY dry and brittle. SO, I concluded that I could either 1) pay the most money for sisal twine that would rot and pop on BOTTOM and let the hay bales get ragged and blow on the trailer, or 2) pay a little less for 'biodegradable' plastic twine that would rot and pop on TOP and let the bales blow on the trailer, and still wrap on machinery if it was shaded on the ground, or 3) save that extra money and use the cheap regular poly twine and just use a little extra diligence in getting it off the bale and keeping it contained in as small an unloading area as possible to minimize spreading the crap around.

Oh, and BTW I have had sisal that was up off the ground where it stayed pretty dry out in the meadow get wrapped up on machinery too, and when it gets into a bearing or seal or shaft it can be just as much trouble as plastic, maybe more! Darn stuff can be VERY hard to cut because it's a little moist, but brittle enough that you can't hardly pick it out because as soon as you get a grip on it the end breaks off! Lesson: Sunlight 'rots' the plastic, moisture rots the sisal!

Yall take it easy! OL JR

 

[ArrowHBrand]

We have a New Holland small square baler and have only used sisal twine. I like that it's biodegradelable and one worry as much if a piece is in with the cows. A fella I know has the same baler and uses plastic twine and is always having trouble with the knotters and knives. I can't say that his choice of twine is to blame exclusively, but we've never had a problem with our baler. We keep our s.s. in the barn but the big rounds are outside and we've never had any sort of rot problems. I agree that it's a lot easier to untwine a sisal round bale than a plastic or net wrapped bale. Plus a sisal round bale can be dropped wrapped into a bale buster or feed grinder without any real ill effects to the livestock.

 

[msscamp]

i use the biodegradeable plastic,rots away after 2 years

:???: How, exactly, can plastic rot?

It doesn't "rot" in the classical definition of the word, meaning,"decomposing by the action of parasites, insects, and microbial lifeforms into it's component natural elements" (IE think of a dead cow) but it 'decomposes' chemically through the action of ultraviolet light present in sunlight degrading the plastic to the point where the polymer chains making up the plastic molecules break apart easily and the the plastic disintegrates. For an example, hang a plastic Walmart bag out on the fence in a sunny spot for a month or two and come back and pull on it... after awhile they are as brittle as paper ashes that have been burned. Plastics exposed to sunlight (actually the ultraviolet light part of sunlight) have to have UV stabilizers or inhibitors in them to hold up any length of time, elsewise the UV will start deteriorating the plastic and it will disintegrate, including poly twine. Somebody along the line figured out that if you make cheap poly twine without sunlight inhibitors that it will dry out and disintegrate like dry chaffy straw after being exposed to sunlight for a while. They then realized that they could actually sell this 'inferior' twine at a premium as self-degrading or biodegradable and thus actually charge a premium. There's probably more to it than that, as they probably actually put some chemicals in the plastic as it's made to accelerate the process or something, but that's the general idea.

As I said, I wasn't particularly impressed with it, because it has a lot of the same disadvantages as regular plastic twine as well as a higher price than regular poly twine but a bit cheaper than sisal, but with some of the disadvantages of sisal as well...
If it isn't exposed to sunlight it will not degrade, just as regular plastic with UV inhibitors will not. Thus I had some of this 'biodegradable' twine tangled up in some matted hay that peeled off the bottom of a bale I had unloaded in winter, that was protected from sunlight by being on the bottom of the bale when the bale was stored, and had been mixed up and covered by the muck on the bottom of the bale, and when I shredded around the barn that spring the shredder actually did pick it up and wrap it on the shaft, because it had not been exposed to UV so it hadn't disintegrated. The end that was sticking up was faded and somewhat brittle but not brittle enough, and the twine pulled out of the muck was still green (though dirty) and strong, so I had to cut it out from under the shredder anyway. BUT, in loading bales that had been baled the summer before, the twine on top of the bale would pop very easily when I was trying to load it on the trailer, because it had been exposed to the sun for two summers and was VERY dry and brittle. SO, I concluded that I could either 1) pay the most money for sisal twine that would rot and pop on BOTTOM and let the hay bales get ragged and blow on the trailer, or 2) pay a little less for 'biodegradable' plastic twine that would rot and pop on TOP and let the bales blow on the trailer, and still wrap on machinery if it was shaded on the ground, or 3) save that extra money and use the cheap regular poly twine and just use a little extra diligence in getting it off the bale and keeping it contained in as small an unloading area as possible to minimize spreading the crap around.

Oh, and BTW I have had sisal that was up off the ground where it stayed pretty dry out in the meadow get wrapped up on machinery too, and when it gets into a bearing or seal or shaft it can be just as much trouble as plastic, maybe more! Darn stuff can be VERY hard to cut because it's a little moist, but brittle enough that you can't hardly pick it out because as soon as you get a grip on it the end breaks off! Lesson: Sunlight 'rots' the plastic, moisture rots the sisal!

Yall take it easy! OL JR

Ok, I know what you are saying. Thanks! FWIW, we've had the same problems with sisal twine. We try very hard to not let any type of twine lay around - especially in the pastures.