Bales wrapped in field?

[redcoo235]

Was looking to switch from wrapping bales at the stack to wrapping them in the field. Idea is that I can go and bale and wrap around 300-400 a day then cart in the next week or so. This is instead of baling and carting max 150 a day and wrapping at the stack. Wrapper has a bale ender on it so bales are left on tin can, 4 layers of wrap, 6 for haylage. How do most people do theirs, at the stack or in the field and how long is safe to leave bales before they go out of shape o there tin can? (reasonable DM silage)

 

[Yale]

Depends whether the crows around you attack the bales or not.

Some places are terrible for it.

Not sure if certain colour wraps discourage them.

Maybe someone else knows.

 

[Drillman]

6 layer minimum if field wrapping in my experience. Did have to go back and put another 2 layers on some for a chap last year after the crows got at them.

 

[redcoo235]

Done some silage with 6 layers and have noticed big difference over 4. No little bits of mould and seems better fermented. Crows are bit of worry, as are hawks as always see lots of dismembered toads on top of unwrapped bales when they get to the stack.

 

[rhuvid]

6 layer minimum if field wrapping in my experience. Did have to go back and put another 2 layers on some for a chap last year after the crows got at them.

. I had To go an rewrap a field of bales last year. Believe it to have been Seagulls on the bales. Completely wreaked the lot. We wrap all bales in field, but get them stacked an netted the same day or next day. Stacking 100+ bales at night is a tedious job, but a good CD an plenty of Redbull.

 

[cotswoldcs]

We have ours wrapped in the field but wouldn't want to leave them out for more than a few hours. For some reason birds never bother them when they are home in a stack but out in the field is a different story! Sorry if this wasn't the news you were hoping for!

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Agree withothers on the issue of birds and leaving wrapped bales out. Sometimes they pitch in same day here, sometimes not for days.

Another issue I don't think has been mentioned is haulage. We have narrow lanes with devon hedges and brambles will play havoc with bales hauled home. I took to loading the trailer with a single row of bales back the middle - obviously very time consuming.
Wrapping at the stack now so can put up a decent load.

 

[multi power]

We wrap in fields and leave them 2 week no problems, neighbour stack in yard and needs to cover with net otherwise birds wreck them

 

[Kiwi Pete]

If you bale / wrap them at night seems to be the worst for seagulls round here, they see the lights and come to roost up and wait for daylight. Better resilience when they're sat on their ends though.
Just seems to be that first day while the worms are still on the surface and then they're gone. Plenty leave them out for a month without damage though, must like dead pasture and more weeds. Drives me nuts.
Either get them in in first 2 days or leave them to ensile properly before you grab them?
My free and worthless opinion.

 

[dannewhouse]

1 day later and you can put full top row on trailer 2 days later put every other on top or you catch them, 3 days and only bottom layer.

get a fancy bale chaser like Wilson or keltec http://www.wilsonengineering.ie/bale-transporters to fetch bales in to wrap ideally or if you have to fetch wrapped bales in they reckon they're the bees knees, 9k for the 10 bale model and you can shift some serious numbers of bales

 

[GTB]

Contractor bales and wraps ours with a fusion baler. Crows and seagulls are a huge issue here so we tend to carry them into the stack asap. Using green and black, white and black or pink and black wrap seems to deter the birds a little but by no means fool proof. Also been advised that moving bales to the sides of hedges deters birds too. I thought this was rubbish initially but I must admit it did help. Would rather continue wrapping in the field if possible as it speeds up the operation immensely, even if you have to carry them the same day or following day.

 

[hally]

We wrap in field and some our fields are prone to bird damage so just put out an old gas banger and try and lead them asap. The banger ensures there is never any damage

 

[DrDunc]

Wrap around 1400 bales a year in the field and cart then home myself.

Four layer of wrap on 35 to 45% dry matter fairly stemmy single cut, around 10MJ/kg DM and 12+% protein.

Try to get them in before 72 hours after wrapping, but some will be longer if the rain comes.

Only thing that needs six layers here I've found is Italian ryegrass or the hay I make which is wrapped because I've no shed space.

I feed my 1100 ewes with the haylage as well as cows, so it needs to be mould free.

Don't have a problem with birds here touch wood.

 

[milkloss]

Wrap around 1400 bales a year in the field and cart then home myself.

Four layer of wrap on 35 to 45% dry matter fairly stemmy single cut, around 10MJ/kg DM and 12+% protein.

Try to get them in before 72 hours after wrapping, but some will be longer if the rain comes.

Only thing that needs six layers here I've found is Italian ryegrass or the hay I make which is wrapped because I've no shed space.

I feed my 1100 ewes with the haylage as well as cows, so it needs to be mould free.

Don't have a problem with birds here touch wood.

View attachment 471848

That's a lot of plastic. I'm sure it's been discussed and I don't want to hijack the thread into an endless debate but why bales and not a clamp?
It's only because I'm sorely tempted to try bales this year as one clamp is getting iffy.

 

[DrDunc]

That's a lot of plastic. I'm sure it's been discussed and I don't want to hijack the thread into an endless debate but why bales and not a clamp?
It's only because I'm sorely tempted to try bales this year as one clamp is getting iffy.

I don't have a clamp.

It's around £2000 for the plastic.

A few years ago I compared the diesel used per acre of grass silage with my next door neighbour who uses a self propelled contractor.

On 100 acres of my late June/early July single cut compared to his three cut system for dairy cows, he was using/supplying over 14 litres more of diesel per acre.

That's near half the cost of my bale plastic.

I own all my own machinery, so I don't have money going out to a contractor ( it's around £4.75 a bale plus plastic here for a contractor to bale and wrap).

If I had a clamp, I'd need to pay a contractor to fill the clamp. That would cost me over £5000 a year every year (though that's still cheaper than a contractor baling/wrapping 1400 bales, raked and with the bale plastic would be over £9500).....

(That's assuming I still cut it myself, and I pull one of the trailer myself).





So long story short......

By my reckoning I'm about £4000 a year better off doing it myself than I would be after I'd finished paying off a £30k plugs loan to build a clamp on a tenanted farm.



Edit apologies for the rather long winded off topic!

 

[Ducati899]

Green wrap here and birds don't touch them...soon as we put black wrap on it's a different story,6 layers minimum..had people come in and only put 4 on and never again,saved the hassle and bought my own wrapper so I know what's going on

 

[sleepy]

Worst thing is wrapping in the field at night. The flies are attracted to the lights and end up getting caught in the wrap layers.
The the next morning the crows start pecking holes in the wrap to try and get to the flies.

If you have your own wrapper one option is to stick 4 layers on in the field then an extra 2 layers on once back in the yard as they go into the stack. Then you don't have to worry or be in a rush.

 

[johnflimston]

Wrapping at the stack is better as no damage to wrap only handling wrapped bales once, but you need more labour. Wrapping on baler should produce better feed as no time for gas exchange providing you don't damage wrapped bales. We have JD baler wrapper now as short of labour but use gas banger if leaving bales out overnight. Crows are after slugs as when we use banger bales are covered in slugs in morning. I

 

[milkloss]

I don't have a clamp.

It's around £2000 for the plastic.

A few years ago I compared the diesel used per acre of grass silage with my next door neighbour who uses a self propelled contractor.

On 100 acres of my late June/early July single cut compared to his three cut system for dairy cows, he was using/supplying over 14 litres more of diesel per acre.

That's near half the cost of my bale plastic.

I own all my own machinery, so I don't have money going out to a contractor ( it's around £4.75 a bale plus plastic here for a contractor to bale and wrap).

If I had a clamp, I'd need to pay a contractor to fill the clamp. That would cost me over £5000 a year every year (though that's still cheaper than a contractor baling/wrapping 1400 bales, raked and with the bale plastic would be over £9500).....

(That's assuming I still cut it myself, and I pull one of the trailer myself).





So long story short......

By my reckoning I'm about £4000 a year better off doing it myself than I would be after I'd finished paying off a £30k plugs loan to build a clamp on a tenanted farm.



Edit apologies for the rather long winded off topic!

Thanks for the time taken to respond. i can see your point.

 

[redcoo235]

Thanks for replies everyone.