Zeus bale wrap and net.

[Nifarmer19]

Has anyone experience of using the above? Been offered them at a competitive price, but I am reluctant to leave Tama and Silotite for what seems to be an unknown quantity in these parts.

 

[icanshootwell]

Nothing wrong with trying a few rolls, if its a £5 pound a roll saving it soon adds up on a couple of pallets worth.

 

[James]

Never heard of it myself. Who's selling it?

 

[tinman]

Ive done fairly extensive research (or as best as any lad interested in making the perfect quality bale can, shal we say) into net and plastic because we had a problem here with mould inside some of the bales especially in the last 3 years and even tho nothing has changed in our system, for 15 years before that we didnt have any problems apart from an odd bale that may have got a nip of a briar or bird damage to it and you'd see a small damaged area but only on the outside of the bale.
but this was different,
we were getting a football sized amount of blue/grey mould randomly through the bale, we could only allow that the bad weather we had for near 4 years running was the culprit but when your getting 4 in 10 with mould than its a major problem, 0 bales in 10 is only acceptable in my world.
i aim for a high enough DM content of the bale but nothing off the scale at normally round the 45-65% value and the higher the DM content the more susceptible your bale is to all the bad bacteria but one thing seemed apparent, when the weather goes against you the quality of the products your using get tested to the max, and it would seem that some just arent fit for the job.

among many other things i went to grass and muck in the uk 3 yrs ago to see about additive, net and plastic.
the additive was a minefield but ive since narrowed products down with results there.

The net had got to be a major problem for me, im packing my bales super tight because i want no air in there during fermentation but, and again, during and after the bad years im having problems with bales bursting in the field before the wrapper got as far as them, a lot of the time the wrapper is in the field as im baling or maybe he's an hour behind me because of a delay but we try to keep the window between making the bale and wrapping it tight.

The net i used for years was TAMA, but im putting on 4.2 turns of it in the end just for peace and as you know, TAMA know how to charge for their "edge to edge" net but time has moved on and the edge to edge is somewhat old hat by now, i always found it to be a great net tbh but for the 15,16 and 17 season it was really tested and by god did it let itself down.

Now i was talking to the TAMA boys on their stand over at G&M and lord were they so sure about their net, the problems i was having were, in their eyes, mine alone, there had to be something wrong with the baler, or the grass, or the knives or the diesel but they practically swore on a stack of bibles that it was nothing to do with their net and most likely i didnt know what i was at in their eyes, a ratty pair of lads if i do say so, certainly not the type id want selling my product anyways,
for i must say, ive never met as big a pair of A holes in my time, especially when i asked what was the recorded breaking strain of their net, why wouldn't I, everyone else is happy to mention it in their specs...
but it was a case of How dare i ask such a question, it was the strongest Net on the market and that's that....

WELL its NOT,
now im sorry but i dont have the specific breaking strain tensions as ive looked in my book and i cant find them but trust me when i say,
ZEUS EPICROP GOLD net just blows the rest of the competition out of the water, what was 4.2 turns of tama is now 2.3 of zeus or an odd time in certain grass it might be 3.2 but rare enough tbh.
as of right now im delighted with the Epicrop gold and couldnt speak highly enough of it (make sure its the gold as they do other colours as well which aren't as strong, see their website) and i for one wont be changing to a different net supplier while it stays as strong as it is, its breaking strain is far higher than tama and any of the other net manufacturers when i checked and compared on each of their websites.
id be shocked if you were disappointed in zeus epicrop gold net tbh for im certainly not and i wont be changing to anything else any time soon.

the last of the tama ever here and the first of the epicrop gold back in 17.

 

[oakleaf]

Used epicrop gold here as my supplier couldnt supply volac rondosil for the last few years . Got on fine but it does 'look' to be thinner / lighter than tama.

 

[grass man]

Ive done fairly extensive research (or as best as any lad interested in making the perfect quality bale can, shal we say) into net and plastic because we had a problem here with mould inside some of the bales especially in the last 3 years and even tho nothing has changed in our system, for 15 years before that we didnt have any problems apart from an odd bale that may have got a nip of a briar or bird damage to it and you'd see a small damaged area but only on the outside of the bale.
but this was different,
we were getting a football sized amount of blue/grey mould randomly through the bale, we could only allow that the bad weather we had for near 4 years running was the culprit but when your getting 4 in 10 with mould than its a major problem, 0 bales in 10 is only acceptable in my world.
i aim for a high enough DM content of the bale but nothing off the scale at normally round the 45-65% value and the higher the DM content the more susceptible your bale is to all the bad bacteria but one thing seemed apparent, when the weather goes against you the quality of the products your using get tested to the max, and it would seem that some just arent fit for the job.

among many other things i went to grass and muck in the uk 3 yrs ago to see about additive, net and plastic.
the additive was a minefield but ive since narrowed products down with results there.

The net had got to be a major problem for me, im packing my bales super tight because i want no air in there during fermentation but, and again, during and after the bad years im having problems with bales bursting in the field before the wrapper got as far as them, a lot of the time the wrapper is in the field as im baling or maybe he's an hour behind me because of a delay but we try to keep the window between making the bale and wrapping it tight.

The net i used for years was TAMA, but im putting on 4.2 turns of it in the end just for peace and as you know, TAMA know how to charge for their "edge to edge" net but time has moved on and the edge to edge is somewhat old hat by now, i always found it to be a great net tbh but for the 15,16 and 17 season it was really tested and by god did it let itself down.

Now i was talking to the TAMA boys on their stand over at G&M and lord were they so sure about their net, the problems i was having were, in their eyes, mine alone, there had to be something wrong with the baler, or the grass, or the knives or the diesel but they practically swore on a stack of bibles that it was nothing to do with their net and most likely i didnt know what i was at in their eyes, a ratty pair of lads if i do say so, certainly not the type id want selling my product anyways,
for i must say, ive never met as big a pair of A holes in my time, especially when i asked what was the recorded breaking strain of their net, why wouldn't I, everyone else is happy to mention it in their specs...
but it was a case of How dare i ask such a question, it was the strongest Net on the market and that's that....

WELL its NOT,
now im sorry but i dont have the specific breaking strain tensions as ive looked in my book and i cant find them but trust me when i say,
ZEUS EPICROP GOLD net just blows the rest of the competition out of the water, what was 4.2 turns of tama is now 2.3 of zeus or an odd time in certain grass it might be 3.2 but rare enough tbh.
as of right now im delighted with the Epicrop gold and couldnt speak highly enough of it (make sure its the gold as they do other colours as well which aren't as strong, see their website) and i for one wont be changing to a different net supplier while it stays as strong as it is, its breaking strain is far higher than tama and any of the other net manufacturers when i checked and compared on each of their websites.
id be shocked if you were disappointed in zeus epicrop gold net tbh for im certainly not and i wont be changing to anything else any time soon.

the last of the tama ever here and the first of the epicrop gold back in 17.

Ive done fairly extensive research (or as best as any lad interested in making the perfect quality bale can, shal we say) into net and plastic because we had a problem here with mould inside some of the bales especially in the last 3 years and even tho nothing has changed in our system, for 15 years before that we didnt have any problems apart from an odd bale that may have got a nip of a briar or bird damage to it and you'd see a small damaged area but only on the outside of the bale.
but this was different,
we were getting a football sized amount of blue/grey mould randomly through the bale, we could only allow that the bad weather we had for near 4 years running was the culprit but when your getting 4 in 10 with mould than its a major problem, 0 bales in 10 is only acceptable in my world.
i aim for a high enough DM content of the bale but nothing off the scale at normally round the 45-65% value and the higher the DM content the more susceptible your bale is to all the bad bacteria but one thing seemed apparent, when the weather goes against you the quality of the products your using get tested to the max, and it would seem that some just arent fit for the job.

among many other things i went to grass and muck in the uk 3 yrs ago to see about additive, net and plastic.
the additive was a minefield but ive since narrowed products down with results there.

The net had got to be a major problem for me, im packing my bales super tight because i want no air in there during fermentation but, and again, during and after the bad years im having problems with bales bursting in the field before the wrapper got as far as them, a lot of the time the wrapper is in the field as im baling or maybe he's an hour behind me because of a delay but we try to keep the window between making the bale and wrapping it tight.

The net i used for years was TAMA, but im putting on 4.2 turns of it in the end just for peace and as you know, TAMA know how to charge for their "edge to edge" net but time has moved on and the edge to edge is somewhat old hat by now, i always found it to be a great net tbh but for the 15,16 and 17 season it was really tested and by god did it let itself down.

Now i was talking to the TAMA boys on their stand over at G&M and lord were they so sure about their net, the problems i was having were, in their eyes, mine alone, there had to be something wrong with the baler, or the grass, or the knives or the diesel but they practically swore on a stack of bibles that it was nothing to do with their net and most likely i didnt know what i was at in their eyes, a ratty pair of lads if i do say so, certainly not the type id want selling my product anyways,
for i must say, ive never met as big a pair of A holes in my time, especially when i asked what was the recorded breaking strain of their net, why wouldn't I, everyone else is happy to mention it in their specs...
but it was a case of How dare i ask such a question, it was the strongest Net on the market and that's that....

WELL its NOT,
now im sorry but i dont have the specific breaking strain tensions as ive looked in my book and i cant find them but trust me when i say,
ZEUS EPICROP GOLD net just blows the rest of the competition out of the water, what was 4.2 turns of tama is now 2.3 of zeus or an odd time in certain grass it might be 3.2 but rare enough tbh.
as of right now im delighted with the Epicrop gold and couldnt speak highly enough of it (make sure its the gold as they do other colours as well which aren't as strong, see their website) and i for one wont be changing to a different net supplier while it stays as strong as it is, its breaking strain is far higher than tama and any of the other net manufacturers when i checked and compared on each of their websites.
id be shocked if you were disappointed in zeus epicrop gold net tbh for im certainly not and i wont be changing to anything else any time soon.

the last of the tama ever here and the first of the epicrop gold back in 17.

Have you any similar experiences with different plastics?

 

[juke]

couldn't get as much bale en sil wrap as we wanted last year which is very good wrap compared to some of the others we have tried in the past, so the merchants had some zeus epic 7 wrap sat there n said it was very good, did about 700 bales with it last year not one had any mould forming on it, we will do all of it with the zeus wrap this year.

 

[Boohoo]

No experience of the net but the wrap is rubbish. I tried their purple wrap and a contractor I used to drive for used their black wrap and neither of us would use it again

 

[kill]

Was this Mole Valleys own brand netwrap about 10 years ago when they dumped Tama? Think it was called Protector but I always called it pretender as it was crap as use to tear apart with chopped bales. Fairly sure it was made in Grease

 

[tinman]

No experience of the net but the wrap is rubbish. I tried their purple wrap and a contractor I used to drive for used their black wrap and neither of us would use it again

you wouldn't like to elaborate on Why you wouldn't use it again?, your statement is a bit broad to say the least, ive never used their wrap so im curious as to what faults you found with it??

altho you might of been doing something good for charity with your purple wrap but in this country with the climate we have black wrap is the most suitable for baled silage.

 

[Boohoo]

you wouldn't like to elaborate on Why you wouldn't use it again?, your statement is a bit broad to say the least, ive never used their wrap so im curious as to what faults you found with it??

altho you might of been doing something good for charity with your purple wrap but in this country with the climate we have black wrap is the most suitable for baled silage.

The wrap had holes in it and wasn't tacky enough, it was porous, everything that bale wrap shouldn't be. Colour doesn't matter, it's all bad

 

[puntabrava]

Was this Mole Valleys own brand netwrap about 10 years ago when they dumped Tama? Think it was called Protector but I always called it pretender as it was crap as use to tear apart with chopped bales. Fairly sure it was made in Grease

It’s a wonder it stuck to the bale to be sure.

 

[tinman]

Have you any similar experiences with different plastics?

of sorts yes.

There was a time, when we supplied plastic, many moons ago, that you wouldn't be let into a field unless you had Volac wrap with you.
then they distributed iirc about 4 artic load of plastic with pin holes in it and not long after you wouldn't be let into a field if you had volac with you but thats a long time ago altho even tho a lot more products across the board were better quality it always comes down to the bottom line and max profit for the big cheese, then and more so now.

years passed and i gave up supplying plastic so its up to the farmer now to supply it which works well once we got them into the hang of it.
so what i use now is for my own bales and my personal choice based on real results and not hearsay.

for a long time we would of used silawrap, it never gave much trouble and worked well until round the same time as the mould in the bales appeared i blamed the wrap for most of it.
the tack wasn't bad on it but i believe its Achilles heel was its a (and i stand to be corrected here as im remembering 2yrs ago info) 2 layer plastic, which means in layman's terms there is two layers combined to make that one film of plastic you see going on the bale.
i rang them and asked if they were considering upping the game to 5 layer or more and the reply was NO, they said what they had was plenty good, and im sure it is for most but im a kind of awkward guy and when im spending the best part of €30 per bale in cost then im not going to cut my nose to spite my face over the head of a few pennies when it comes to a quality wrap or product.

used to use rani wrap, red setter and then silawrap before i moved to silotite 2 yrs ago, I have to order it in normally as most stock what they want or maybe they stock what they have the max profit off i don't know or care for that matter i just know what i want.
(i have to travel for an hour and a quarter for my epicrop gold net as nobody stocks it round here but if i want it, i want it.)
the silotite is a 5 layer plastic compared to silawrap at 2 layers, indeed i see now they are talking about 9 layer plastic on their website but id need to chat to someone there to see what the craic is, the more layers the better but paper never refuses ink either.

but the silotite 5 layer plastic i use here is a welcome change, its a lot heavier plastic when handling them for stacking, even more noticeable on a warm day when the lighter stuff would tear times.
im putting on 6 layers (25 turns) of plastic on my own bales since people said it was a waste of time and money which is a right while ago but i see a lot of the folk we bale for now the penny has dropped and they are doing similar these days, its the only way to wrap a bale imo but each to their own.

the "tack" on it is excellent as far as we can see and i hear my wrapper man saying a lot of the time time you'd get more bales off a roll of it than the other brands.
we've cut the mould out of the bales nearly completely for i haven't seen any in them all winter bar the odd one that got nicked by accident and the first year i changed to the silotite i didnt use additive as i wanted to see would the change of wrap cut out the mould rather than second guessing if it was either the wrap or the additive, all in all im well and happy with the results from the silotite and its what ill be putting on again this year.
altho Zeus was the first that i heard talking of 9 layer wrap but it seems others are talking about it now but i was chatting the Zeus man in 17.
i haven't used their wrap but if i come across a few rolls of it i will just to see for myself, the first heads up you'd get is the sound of it off the dispenser on the wrapper.

last year i applied additive on the bales and with the test results back this week im happy with the results so will continue to use it "going forward" as they say.
hope thats some info for you, bit of a book so sorry about that.

 

[Galcam]

I’m not saying your wrong Tinman but I read an article in the Farmers Journal a few years back that said green wrap is the better as it reflects the sunlight as opposed to black which absorbs the heat into the bale!! Study was done in the uk I’m fairly sure.

 

[tinman]

The wrap had holes in it and wasn't tacky enough, it was porous, everything that bale wrap shouldn't be. Colour doesn't matter, it's all bad

fair enough if thats what you personally found but its a wonder you continued to apply it to the bales when it was so bad ?.
when did you discover it was all holes?
which one of the 4 types of it did you use?

 

[tinman]

I’m not saying your wrong Tinman but I read an article in the Farmers Journal a few years back that said green wrap is the better as it reflects the sunlight as opposed to black which absorbs the heat into the bale!! Study was done in the uk I’m fairly sure.

you could be dead right Galcam and yep id agree it absorbs less heat than the black but weve had one bad experience with green wrap here about 6 or 7 years ago and we quickly learned it wasn't for us,
when its stretched round the bale the grass on the corners of the bale is somewhat visible, not to us but to a crow it looks like a slap up meal of worms.
we had way too many bales damaged the year we tried it to ever go back and both black and green were stacked in the same area where the black is never touched but the green was flittered so you couldn't blame me for not using it again.

on a side note im of the opinion that a lot of whats in the journal isnt real world stuff either, a lot of it is sh1te dressed with sensationalism which helps sell it i guess but i certainly wouldn't take a lot of articles in it for gospel but that's just me.

 

[Boohoo]

fair enough if thats what you personally found but its a wonder you continued to apply it to the bales when it was so bad ?.
when did you discover it was all holes?
which one of the 4 types of it did you use?

There's 4 types of epicrap? I'd have to look for old boxes to know what we used. As soon as the holes we discovered in the black it was all returned to the supplier. The purple was used up because it's what the customer wanted but 8 layers were applied.

 

[tinman]

There's 4 types of epicrap? I'd have to look for old boxes to know what we used. As soon as the holes we discovered in the black it was all returned to the supplier. The purple was used up because it's what the customer wanted but 8 layers were applied.

interesting.
yeah, a 5 layer, a 7 layer, an enviro plus 1650 and a enviro plus 2000 but when i click on each one im getting a 404 so either their doing maintenance or there is another problem.
if i see some of it somewhere ill try a roll of it to see for myself but what you found dosent bode well for now at least.

https://www.zeuspackaging.net/uk/agricultural-packaging/bale-wrap/

 

[Boohoo]

interesting.
yeah, a 5 layer, a 7 layer, an enviro plus 1650 and a enviro plus 2000 but when i click on each one im getting a 404 so either their doing maintenance or there is another problem.
if i see some of it somewhere ill try a roll of it to see for myself but what you found dosent bode well for now at least.

https://www.zeuspackaging.net/uk/agricultural-packaging/bale-wrap/

It wouldn't have been the 1650 or 2000, we've had issues with various brands of thinner films in the past so now refuse to use them.

 

[sc4545]

We find here the silotite is the best wrap around. Its a bit blike the old tama 3600 net it just works. We would have used that Zeus plastic in the past, when it comes of the dispenser it feels thinner and seems weak but in saying that we had no problems with the bales all do we wouldn't be as particular as tinman is to be fair. You would see the man off the tractor a good bit as the plastic tears when he starts to wrap the next bale whereas you would never have to get out to the wrapper when using silotite. The only time we ever had trouble with bales was using silawrap. The plastic seemed almost porous. Cost us a lot of money and got no support or help from silawrap. Lesson learned will never use it again

On the netwrap I have found that the bigger rolls of net to be weaker that the 3600 and you would see it burst on bales. The tama 3600 is a super net but very expensive.