WRAPPING DRY HAY

[jd35154]

I am in need of some information. I currently netwrap all of my hay and store in outside on the ground. I have tried tarps before and not going to do that again. All of my hay is stored on rented ground, so not going to build a hay shed. I am toying with the idea of wrapping my dry hay in black plastic next year. I need to know if any of you guys have done this and what are the pros/cons. I will probably use an inline wrapper.

Some questions I need answered.

How long to wait after hay is baled to wrap?
Do you cut the bales apart after wrapping?
Do you cut slits in the plastic to let the hay breath and if so where?

Just trying to feed some better product, any help will be appreciated

 

[sizmic]

If you are truly going to use an inline wrapper I don't know if the black plastic would offer any more benefit than the more common white. We wrap some dry occasionally, works great when we are out of barn space. There is no need to do anything other than wrap it before it gets rained on. Comes out smelling better than it went in. Cows love it. You could also bale it wetter and make silage.

Sizmic

 

[Cabo]

I have a friend that is totally sold on haylage. If I was going to spend the money to wrap it I would do the haylage as you can bale it much wetter and wind up with a lot better feed.

 

[Old_man_emu]

by line wrapper are you talking about the type that continuously wraps bale after bale rather than individual bales?
Wrapping it won't make it better just preserve what you have baled. With that the case, make it a little wetter and a little earlier in the season and get a better product.
You need to consider if the extra cost per bale? Are you losing much quality the way you are doing it now?
Have a look for top fodder on the NSW DPI website, Neil Griffith is a leader in the field and his leaflets are easy to follow.

 

[1982vett]

Take what you will spend in time, labor and machinery and build a barn/shed with it. :2cents: It is a one time investment....

 

[Dave]

I have done it in the past. It works good. I speed up the wrapper so as to not put on as many layers of wrap. You don't need as many layers of wrap with dry hay as you do with haylage.

 

[bigbull338]

back in the 80s the tubb wrappers come out.an we rented 1 to put up baleage,the bags was 200ft long an held 40 bales.well the vermitts tore those baggs up.letting air hitt the hay.thus not working like it should.so if i was you id buy the single bale wrapper.an that seems to work around here as i know a guy that wrapps well over 1000 bales a year or more.

 

[Old_man_emu]

back in the 80s the tubb wrappers come out.an we rented 1 to put up baleage,the bags was 200ft long an held 40 bales.well the vermitts tore those baggs up.letting air hitt the hay.thus not working like it should.so if i was you id buy the single bale wrapper.an that seems to work around here as i know a guy that wrapps well over 1000 bales a year or more.

If you go individual bales, wrap them right where you want to stack them. The further you move them the more you bounce them around while carting and put holes in them.
Get some silage tape to fix any holes, big or small because once air gets in it will wreck it. It you do make it a little wetter, you run the risk of it going mouldy and spoiling if the plastic gets holes in it.

 

[jd35154]

Thanks everyone your reply's. I agree with you on the silage hay. It is great feed and the cows/feeders do very well on it. In my operation though I simply do not have the capacity to put up the silage hay. Where I roll my hay is about 20 miles from where I feed it and I cannot get it moved fast enough.

I have heard people talk about slime on the outside of the hay or water gathering in the bottom of the roll when wrapped dry.

I simply want to try to eliminate hay loss to weathering.

 

[Angus Cowman]

then you just need to get a wrapper that wraps the sides of the bale and not the whole bale
SRBeef on here has one and he loves it
you might pm and ask him about it

 

[SRBeef]

I am in need of some information. I currently netwrap all of my hay and store in outside on the ground. I have tried tarps before and not going to do that again. All of my hay is stored on rented ground, so not going to build a hay shed. I am toying with the idea of wrapping my dry hay in black plastic next year. I need to know if any of you guys have done this and what are the pros/cons. I will probably use an inline wrapper.

Some questions I need answered.

How long to wait after hay is baled to wrap?
Do you cut the bales apart after wrapping?
Do you cut slits in the plastic to let the hay breath and if so where?

Just trying to feed some better product, any help will be appreciated

I wrap the OD on about half of my 5x6 bales. In my area we have to feed hay from about Nov 1 to May 1. The reason for doing just half of my purchased bales is the time it takes to wrap them. I figure I feed the netwrapped only bales first and then feed the wrapped bales in the snow and ice season.

Key point is to make sure they are dry when you wrap them. I wrap them as I remove from the bale trailer as shown here

And line them up with breathing space between each bale as shown here

Last week I just started to feed the wrapped bales. The net wrap and plastic come off easily and there is almost no waste. I carry the bale down to the feeder on the bale spear wrapped, when lined up with the feeder I make a cut with a utility knife along the length on one side and both come off cleanly. They compress into a wad of plastic about the size of a coffee can and go in the recycling. This compared to netwrap half frozen into a bale which does NOT come off easily nor completely nor cleanly this time of year in Wisconsin.

I would not slit them - the open ends let them breathe. I set my end of season bales up on scrap wood pallets as far as they go. These will be used at calving time.

Some folks say I should use black plastic in this application. I have been meaning to try some but the only thing available locally to me is white. Next year I will try to remember to order black ahead of time. I use wrapping to cut down on mold losses.

I hope this helps.

Jim

 

[mrvictordomino]

Jim,
What would be the benefit of black over white plastic?

 

[SRBeef]

Jim,
What would be the benefit of black over white plastic?

I have told by some more experienced people that IF you leave the ends open (not fully wrapped) that black plastic tends to not retain moisture - maybe tends to bake it out more then the white?

I do know that if you purchase bale "sleeves" from my supplier they are always black. The Sunfilm I buy is really intended for silage bales fully wrapped.

The sleeves I tried were near impossible for me to put on my oversized purchased bales or I would be using them. Wrapping is working well as I figure out the bale handling. Black rolls of Sunfilm are available just not very common in this dairy area.

Jim