Rhun
New Member
- Location
- Ceredigion
Following on from the forum discussions on reducing plastic usage on farms, I was wondering why there is very little silage ensiled in 1.5m round bales.
I admit that they may not suit a lot of operations due to weight and size, but for larger scale systems there must be something going for them?
From some quick calculations I’ve made, 1.5m bales have 56% more volume than ‘standard 1.2m round bales’, but use only 25% more film.
So on that basis, a farm producing 1000 ‘standard bales’ would reduce bale numbers to 640 and use 7 less rolls of bale-wrap (assuming 6 layers of film).
For a contractor with a stand alone wrapper, i'm guessing that it would not be an easy task to change from one size to the other. But for an automated combi variable chamber baler, quite an easy task to adjust?
Is this another step in improving the efficiency of baled silage that should be promoted where feasible - reducing on plastic use and handling costs?
Do any of you do this and what are your experiences?
Thanks,
Rhun
I admit that they may not suit a lot of operations due to weight and size, but for larger scale systems there must be something going for them?
From some quick calculations I’ve made, 1.5m bales have 56% more volume than ‘standard 1.2m round bales’, but use only 25% more film.
So on that basis, a farm producing 1000 ‘standard bales’ would reduce bale numbers to 640 and use 7 less rolls of bale-wrap (assuming 6 layers of film).
For a contractor with a stand alone wrapper, i'm guessing that it would not be an easy task to change from one size to the other. But for an automated combi variable chamber baler, quite an easy task to adjust?
Is this another step in improving the efficiency of baled silage that should be promoted where feasible - reducing on plastic use and handling costs?
Do any of you do this and what are your experiences?
Thanks,
Rhun