twine vs plastic?

[cowman]

I have always used twine on round bales. You seem to see more and more bales wrapped in plastic and I just wonder if that system is a lot better than twine?
Trying to pull twine off frozen bales can be a real pain in the butt and it seems like you never get all of it and quite often it gets wrapped around something or is hanging on the barbed wire!
My questions: Does plastic wrap cost more or less than twine? Does it add a lot to the cost of a baler? How hard is it to get off? Does it improve bale quality and value? How do you get rid of the used plastic? How do you put the plastic wrapped bale through a bale processor?

[cswilson]

As a hay buyer I'd rather buy twine wrapped bales myself but the guys using net wrap say it really speeds up baling-it is a pain to get off especially those new balers that edge wrap a bit too. It goes through a bale processor with no problem-not sure if cows eating plastic good for them lol. If your bales freeze down it really screws that wrap up

[grassfarmer]

It's quite a bit dearer than twine too - my friends that custom bale back home reckon the time they save justifies the extra cost but here my neighbours say they can't justify the extra cost. My bale pro won't chew it up, it just wraps around the rotor. I don't let anything other than a stray string get into my bale pro anyway as I don't want cows eating plastic. Agree it's a pain when frozen - to the ground or another bale, the bales just fall apart. Wrapping does save feed in storage though.

[grefer]

My neighbour had a demo last year and he gave it a thumbs down.Reasons he gave me were it was too expensive,the wrap came off when the bales froze down,if he put it through the processor there was alot of it in the feed.

[cswilson]

My neighbor just bought a net wrap baler-he works off farm too-he told me it is about 11/2 times faster than his twine baler. He was making 60 bales an hour with it. I guess the fuel you save by quicker tying and the increased capacity might help offset the cost. His shredder just eats up that softer net wrap with no trouble.

[cswilson]

My neighbor just bought a net wrap baler-he works off farm too-he told me it is about 11/2 times faster than his twine baler. He was making 60 bales an hour with it. I guess the fuel you save by quicker tying and the increased capacity might help offset the cost. His shredder just eats up that softer net wrap with no trouble.

[cswilson]

My neighbor just bought a net wrap baler-he works off farm too-he told me it is about 11/2 times faster than his twine baler. He was making 60 bales an hour with it. I guess the fuel you save by quicker tying and the increased capacity might help offset the cost. His shredder just eats up that softer net wrap with no trouble.

[cswilson]

My neighbor just bought a net wrap baler-he works off farm too-he told me it is about 11/2 times faster than his twine baler. He was making 60 bales an hour with it. I guess the fuel you save by quicker tying and the increased capacity might help offset the cost. His shredder just eats up that softer net wrap with no trouble.

[redcountry]

we have an new holland 648 it has both net and twine we have never used a full roll of net the only time its used is if the straw is very short and impossible for twine to hold
we run all straw through the tubeline wrapper and put one wrap of plastic on them
there is no crust of frozen straw on them in the winter and a breeze to shake out (dont have a bale buster)

the net is faster than the twine, two turns and out comes the bale the cost is near twice that of twine

shure like the bale slice feature on silage, would like to try the new one with a chopper in the pickup has anyone used this one?

[redcountry]

I buy hay, and will not buy another net wrapped bale. I don't use a bale processor and cutting the damn stuff off bales in -40 is not my idea of a winter outing !

[WoolyBear]

If you stack your bales in the mushroom pattern, with the bottom bale on end, and the other ontop on the wrap side down, wouldn't that prevent the freeze down problem?

My baler is a twine only version (NH). Lots of people I've heard like the netwrap, but it still not easy to find everywhere. Those that have the silage cutter JD's really like the netting before they wrap them again in the plastic.

[starlake]

Unfortunately I don't find time to venture to agri-ville.com that often, but when I do it is time well spent. I felt a need to actually register this time so I could reply to cowman's message. I am replying from the Interlake area in Manitoba.

We have been using sisal twine @$34.95/16000 ft roll (not economy quality) on our farm since 1987 and just love it. We haul our bales to the specific feed areas and then feed all winter with an electric fence. There is no need for cutting twine or clean up of twine. The cows clean up all of the hay, leaving the twine behind. No problems with it wrapping around cows feet and the cows don't choke on it either because they don't eat it.

By fall when we spread our manure, it has all naturally decomposed so there have been no problems there either. My husband puts 7 wraps of twine on each bale, with double wraps on the ends.

[cowman]

You know starlake I've often wondered about sisal twine? Of course I'm old enough to remember the days when that was all there was! And you are right it does break down...unlike the plastic stuff!
Of course the deciding factor was price? Your sisal at $34/16,000 ft. has a hard time competing with $27.50 at 28,000 ft.? The other thing was the darned mice seemed to like to chew up that old sisal twine?
Plastic twine can be a pain? When you find the darned stuff has cut the seal on a bearing it can be frustrating...especially if you didn't catch it in time!
My son is fairly slack with plastic twine...frustrates me to no end! He figures you don't need to be fairly vigilant about gathering it up! Drives me crazy.

[cowman]

good excercise picking up twine cowman !! I agree with the previous post on sisal twine, but it is difficult to find anyone that usese it and the fellow I buy hay from thinks I am nuts to even suggest it !

[grassfarmer]

Plastic left lying around drives me crazy too. I spent the first week here picking it up - the previous owners
"rationed" their bales by putting them out in the fields and corrals with the twine left on! Filled the back of the truck, piled up, twice. Lots of guys were lax in Scotland too - leaving bale twine on silage bales and leaving wrap lying about. They said the amount of plastic arriving at the kill plant inside cattle was amazing.