Crows spoiling bales

Agri Spec Solicitor

Member
Livestock Farmer
I had afew bales done in the clear wrap picked buy crows but the black stuff have been fine, 6layers,wrapped at stack and end stacked, no clear wrap this season, very frustrating.

We try to line up the bales to make wrapping quicker. In multiples of a trailer load. They are resting on the round side and we do get crow damage if we don’t get them home sharpish.
If we then turned them like bean cans would we stop the pecking problem? The wrap seems very thick on the ends. That would be easier for us than fighting a huge net.
 
I would try some of that 'wuthering string/tape stuff stretched across the bales ,see if the noise scares them off !! That and a few cd's by Daniel O Donnell !
Biggest problem is getting a pole tall enough to stretch it all way across !!
You can try making your own by unrolling a fair few meters of bale wrap (preferably 500mm , and then tying the end to something fixed and tother to the tractor and stretch it like a thin thin rope ,I thought ,but its available in garden centres the string
 

Monty

Member
Round bales and black wrap. Any tiny hole in a square seems to ruin the bale, even without holes they don't seem to keep as well as rounds. I had a round dry silage bale this year that looked like swiss cheese with holes all over it. I think the rats had been in the stack and amazingly 60-70% of the bale was edible although it did smell funky
 

TexelBen

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
Round bales and black wrap. Any tiny hole in a square seems to ruin the bale, even without holes they don't seem to keep as well as rounds. I had a round dry silage bale this year that looked like swiss cheese with holes all over it. I think the rats had been in the stack and amazingly 60-70% of the bale was edible although it did smell funky
Our black ones seem to have done better tbf, we're not set up for rounds, we feed 4 stringers out by hand
 
Our black ones seem to have done better tbf, we're not set up for rounds, we feed 4 stringers out by hand
We dont use white or green any more

 

1594mac

Member
Location
Northern Ireland
Secure covers end of, expensive yes but if you do plenty of bales it will keep crows off, I have tried dead crows, white bags flapping,plastic birds of prey, the lighter bird net, painting them, grease all a waste of time.

If you wrap in the field and leave over night unless your back at them before daylight they will be pecking away! Even with a short draw the moment you turn away they land and get pecking within minutes!:mad::mad:

Wrap at the stack its a case of if I leave even the smallest bit of the bale exposed where its stacked it will be pecked!! I have used black wrap and green wrap they go for it all!

Secure covers, the gravel bags and peace of mind that they aren't putting holes in every one!
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
What I've noticed is if you go to farms that are feeding grain to cattle chances are top bales will be pecked in the yard that is . We have had a stack near our yard for two years no net and no bird damage at all, we don't feed in the yard though
 

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