Silage bale wrap colour

[cyffylog]

Can anyone point me to any trials of the effectiveness of the various shades of wrap. The theory is that the lighter shades heat up less in sunshine and thus draw back in less air when they cool down. I have used light green for many years but never black & green in the same year. White seems to be popular on the Continent.

 

[Ted M]

I'm a big fan of the white, we've used it for a couple of years now after the hot summer of 2018 when some black wrapped bales that were stacked so they had the full sun all day were showing signs of the wrap parting.
I've had white on the wrapper cool to the touch and black under the side panels you can barely put your hand on.
Also in the stack at midday they can still have the dew on.

 

[Dog Bowl]

Baled half a field in black and half a field in white this year. Was a hot day. The difference in temperature was astounding. Black hot to the touch, white had no heat at all. I now need to quantify this difference in feed value terms.

Maybe I will do a really scientific experiment and put a bale of each colour in front of the feed barriers and see which the cows finish first...!

 

[Greythundercloudys]

I tried the clear stuff on afew, intresting to see what that's like.

 

[Top Tip.]

I tried the clear stuff on afew, intresting to see what that's like.

Quite a few round here have tried the clear and they all say that the birds aren’t as interested in them.

 

[Johngee]

Can anyone point me to any trials of the effectiveness of the various shades of wrap. The theory is that the lighter shades heat up less in sunshine and thus draw back in less air when they cool down. I have used light green for many years but never black & green in the same year. White seems to be popular on the Continent.

I’m quite sure that Volac did trials almost 20 years ago which showed a 10% reduction in feed value for black wrapped bales. I wouldn’t have a clue how to find it though.

 

[Skintagain]

There is some online research. Wrap colour, layers or wrap, stacking etc etc Quite interesting.

We always go with black wrap. Triple wrap most bales sometimes risk late cut silage with two layers of wrap as it’s used first and the grass is usually softer and wetter. Never have much bother with dodgy bales but maybe the damage is unseen

 

[Greythundercloudys]

Probably the colour makes no difference, most folk still have black stuff, as long the crows don't pick it.

 

[Nithsdale]

Quite a few round here have tried the clear and they all say that the birds aren’t as interested in them.

The white was the same when it came out... the birds will learn after a couple years

 

[Nithsdale]

Always use black. Have tried white a couple times just to compare. Same number of layers, handle/shift/stack the same...

Honestly there is no difference come winter when you open and them.


Only reason to use different colours is to visually identify different fields/crops... or to support the various charities the money goes to. Have a neighbour who has used clear on 600 bales this year. Will see what he thinks of them - we didn't bother as you need to be an NFU member to get the free disposal (we are not)

 

[Danllan]

I’m quite sure that Volac did trials almost 20 years ago which showed a 10% reduction in feed value for black wrapped bales. I wouldn’t have a clue how to find it though.

Was looking into this the other day after a chat with a friend about it, I've used green for years simply because I thought that less heat was best. He's been using the horrible pink ones for a couple of years and thinks them better than black - for the same reason. The two articles below back this up, but scientifically rather than, as with me, on a hunch:

It's a wrap for the green film

Wrapping big bale grass silage in green film this season will help to reduce losses and achieve a higher quality forage over bales wrapped in black film North livestock farmers are discovering.

www.stackyard.com

Green beats black when wrapping bales - Farmers Weekly

Wrapping bales with green wrap - rather than black - results in higher quality silage and lower losses, and switching to green could offset the

www.fwi.co.uk

 

[kiwi pom]

Nearly all white round this area, bit of green or pink for the charities. Don't think I've ever seen black ones here.

 

[Henarar]

Tried green and pink and found they didn't stick as well so black it is

 

[Greythundercloudys]

Yes black unless a charity colour, but mostly black.

 

[Paul E]

Black wrap matters.

 

[penntor]

Black here and one roll of pink a year. Tried green once, never again, total disaster.

 

[Boohoo]

Green for haylage and black for silage with potentially lower quality bales striped black and green. Green is noticeably cooler in summer and there's more smell from the black bales, suggesting that the contents as well as the wrap are warmer.
Tried pink and purple charity wrap, was an expensive mistake.

 

[hagar]

Tried green and pink and found they didn't stick as well so black it is

worked with silawrap green for the first time this year and have to say that the tackiness?? was far better than the black stuff.

Friend tried the purple stuff couple o years ago and feeding out through the winter discovered that it had somehow allowed water penetration (no holes in it) as most bales when opened had a pailful o liquid within and not great quality.
Was baled as haylage and well got!!

 

[czechmate]

Next door had some lovely yellow bales this year. They did look cheerful; I said to Mrs Cz that we would have to get some yellow next year. Probably a charity along with the pink.

 

[philib]