French round bales with string on

[Farmer Keith]

Just back from holidays in Normandy and couldn’t get over all the round bales with string on instead of net wrap, are they tightening up on net not being recyclable over there or is it just the fashion? Huge fields with hundreds of bales it must of added a fair bit of time onto the baling operation.

 

[steveR]

I much prefer string on fodder bales tbh, but quite often the time saving makes me stop with net, even though I dislike the stuff intensely come feed out time.

Straw left outside, i use net wrap, although it only lasts a year, before UV degrades it i have found at times....

 

[spin cycle]

very sensible them french

 

[glasshouse]

Just back from holidays in Normandy and couldn’t get over all the round bales with string on instead of net wrap, are they tightening up on net not being recyclable over there or is it just the fashion? Huge fields with hundreds of bales it must of added a fair bit of time onto the baling operation.

No hurry in france, sunny every day

 

[spin cycle]

No hurry in france, sunny every day

or they're not hamsters

 

[Farmer Keith]

No hurry in france, sunny every day

They were working away until 11pm so it appeared there was a bit of time pressure on.

 

[Northern territory]

Best thing I saw was a Kuhn baler putting wrap on instead of net. I’m not a big fan of net. You can hardly ever get it all off

 

[Hilly]

String / net / nowt in it for end user , net becMe fashion , twating stuff really

 

[Optimus]

I much prefer string on fodder bales tbh, but quite often the time saving makes me stop with net, even though I dislike the stuff intensely come feed out time.

Straw left outside, i use net wrap, although it only lasts a year, before UV degrades it i have found at times....

Depends on the net wrap too

 

[Optimus]

String / net / nowt in it for end user , net becMe fashion , twating stuff really

It's a total pain especially when your doing a few thousand.

 

[Hilly]

It's a total pain especially when your doing a few thousand.

String or net ?

 

[Optimus]

String or net ?

Net.at least string is good for other uses.

 

[Hilly]

Net.at least string is good for other uses.

Agree, its amazing how savage net can be on bearings if it gets wrapped round something as well .

 

[Tubbylew]

Net.at least string is good for other uses.

How much string do actually need though? Life is to short to be fwcking about with round bale string, ages to put it on, even longer taking it off, thankfully I've never had the pleasure of taking it off wrapped silage, if you desperatley need string to hang the farm together buy some big squares or a pack of bale string

 

[egbert]

How much string do actually need though? Life is to short to be fwcking about with round bale string, ages to put it on, even longer taking it off, thankfully I've never had the pleasure of taking it off wrapped silage, if you desperatley need string to hang the farm together buy some big squares or a pack of bale string

have had, in extremis- to use a hank of round bale cord to pull a calf...that is not much fun.

All string on the baler here...and I'd look at a natural option if I could find one that made sense...but it seems to be double the price.

What are the costs by comparison against net?
Used about 1 pack per 30 bales this session - put a lot more on early springy dry hay, or a bit less on silage.
So maybe 80p/bale, plus 15-20 seconds of my life.
Baler and man is about a £ a minute, so 25-33p to sit and watch the string feed in.

Net costs all told?

 

[Sharpy]

have had, in extremis- to use a hank of round bale cord to pull a calf...that is not much fun.

All string on the baler here...and I'd look at a natural option if I could find one that made sense...but it seems to be double the price.

What are the costs by comparison against net?
Used about 1 pack per 30 bales this session - put a lot more on early springy dry hay, or a bit less on silage.
So maybe 80p/bale, plus 15-20 seconds of my life.
Baler and man is about a £ a minute, so 25-33p to sit and watch the string feed in.

Net costs all told?

Just did about 260 bales with 3600m long roll, about 3.5 turns of net per bale. Cheap net at £150 per roll works out at 58 pence a bale, some nets are £230 plus.

 

[bobk]

iirc string was about 6p a bale , and the french are incredibly tight

 

[David1968]

39p/bale. Still using net bought at last years price.

Have used string in the past. Life's too short...

 

[Bury the Trash]

or they're not hamsters

No, they're frogs

 

[YorkshireAndrew]

iirc string was about 6p a bale , and the french are incredibly tight

That must be reason I use string on our bales .