Feeding Netwrapped Bales

[DLD]

The net wrap we get does seem to deteriorate somewhat, but I have no idea how long it would take to rot away completely.  I do notice that wrap, especially on the bottom, of wheat hay, oat hay, peanut hay, corn stalks, milo, etc...,  sure doesn't seem to last as long as alfalfa or grass hay, but I always blamed that on rodents. I try to always get that stuff fed within a year.  Even the occasional grass bale that sits for over a couple of years here (on our place) usually doesn't have enough wrap left to hold it together when you try to move it.

 

[chambero]

Some of us may be talking about different stuff.  What guys use in our part of the world doesnt shed enough water to amount to anything.

 

[RyanChandler]

This is what I think when I hear net wrap:

 

[ejoe326]

Yes we have had a cow choke.  I got lucky because I saw her go over on her side and there was one lone string hanging out the side of her mouth. 

One of our vets said they have had cows choke to death.  I can't remember who told me but they had a cow eat enough she stopped everything up and died.  They didn't know it until they opened her up.

I forgot about it still being there when you scrape lots or barns and getting packed on the spreader.  I know some places sell the tool for burning it off there. When we miss a piece and work the ground the next year it is always irritating to get that stuff wrapped up in whatever equipment we are using too.

 

[Pleasant Grove Farms]

we had a calf die because of his gut being stopped up with net wrap;
vets couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, then posted him after he died...
net wrap....

as bad as I hate the twine on bales, I would never use net wrap; we had bought a few net wrapped bales is how that calf got it.

 

[justintime]

I have only fed about 150 bales with the net wrap left on, and to date I have had no problems. One of the people who recommended this to me, has been doing this for many years and he has 400 cows and he is one of the best cattlemen in these parts. He said he has never had any problems. I had the exact same feelings as many have expressed on here, but after having several cattlemen tell me that it worked well, I decided to give it a try. So far I have been very impressed with how there is virtually no waste and the net wrap is easy to pick up after the bale is gone. Feeding the net wrap bales, without removing the net wrap  is being promoted by more and more people all the time around here.  I just got my first net wrap baler this year and also have a twine wrap baler. To me, one of the main reasons to switch to the net wrap is that you can bale many more bales every day with the net wrap baler. We ran both balers in the same hayfield this summer, and had both balers ran non stop the first day. The net wrap baler baled 225 bales and the twine baler did 118,  so almost twice as many as the twine baler. This was because of the time stopped to tie each bale.
I think I am going to have to start taking the net wrap off again, as I do not want to chance losing a cow who consumes some net wrap. I will wait to see how it is working for some others before I try it again. It is a very common practice around here, but if this is what others have experienced, then it deserves to be studied some more.

 

[trevorgreycattleco]

I can't stand it left on. Pet peeve of mine. I have seen the net wrap stuck on a cows tounge. Yes it's a pain in the ass but come on. Lots of other critters can get stuck in that stuff if left laying around. Cut it off and throw it away.

 

[redsimmsnangus]

Wrap comes off without exception.  Trying to get a piece I missed out of the compacted snow/ice is not fun. Waiting to see if we lose something to impaction is a costly experiment.  Cattle die of enough things I can't control.

 

[BTDT]

Every piece of net wrap comes off before being hauled to the cows.  I have 8 year old net wrap I used for erosion control that is still in perfect condition, so it does not deteriorate quickly.  Yes, if you lay the net wrap on highly erodible places, it does a fantastic job of stopping movement of dirt. Just don't run over it within a year with the brush cutter! (Not in the dirt enough to keep it out of the cutter)
I tried feeding it as Justintime is.  Had a horrible time with getting out of equipment, and did have to grab it out of cows mouth a time or two.
If left on, it can and does kill cows, and also equipment if it gets wrapped into bearing of wheels or manure spreaders. 

I do have a friend that grinds all their hay and they leave it on.... we will see, they are only on year 2 of doing it.

 

[chambero]

We have to be talking about different stuff.  Maybe the boys down here use something different because we are so much drier.  Two years max and we cant hardly move bales because its falling apart.

 

[Steve123]

KSU Study: Netwrapped bales do not reduce spoilage over twine tied bales.
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/bookstore/pubs/MF1066.pdf

 

[CAB]

I always thought that plastic twine did as good of a job as net wrapped as far as spoilage was concerned. The water seems to get to the twine "tracks" and roll on off the bale. I always double wrap any bales that may be more "explosive" than others, ie. corn stock bales. If they don't have a strong wrapper they are next to impossible to move. BTW interesting thread. I have always taken wrap off, but am all for trying to save hay. I may try to feed some hay set on ends and peel down the net wrap 1/2 way to see. Do you all think that you'd need enough cows in the group to consume at least a bale a day to try this out?

 

[DLD]

... I may try to feed some hay set on ends and peel down the net wrap 1/2 way to see. Do you all think that you'd need enough cows in the group to consume at least a bale a day to try this out?

We do it mostly with groups that need 2-3 days to eat the whole bale - it just seems like they waste a whole lot less if the remainder of the bale is held together 'til they get it ate up.  If there's enough cows there to eat it in a day, we unroll it so that everything gets a fair shot, but I know others that do feed bigger groups this way, too.

We do make a point to pick up the remaining wrap soon as they clean it up.  If we get it the day they finish the hay, it's always laying right where it fell, in one piece.  If it stays out awhile, it gets drug around and torn up some.

 

[hamburgman]

Chambero you are probably talking about sisal twine.  It is an organic twine that rots away.  In areas where people know what it is like to get moisture 12 months out of the year that crap is worthless.  Joke around here is you put the bales where you want them for feeding because you won't move them once winter comes.

KSU study appears to be done with low amount of rain, seeing first hand the difference there is no doubt that net wrapped bales keep better and shed more moisture.  On top of that is how much quicker and how many fewer leaves are lost with a net wrapped bale.

 

[ejoe326]

I'm not saying anyone is wrong.  But I'm curious if the lack of apparent waste is all that accurate. 

I pull out the small core of a bale that does not process well each day and let the cows eat that.  It initially looks like they clean it all up.  But there is quite a bit of stomping in that happens.  It's been frozen pretty hard here so it's not like they are stomping into mud.  Plus if we give our cows access to a bale that has a problem and they don't clean it up right away they pull some out and lay on it.

Obviously there is always going to be some waste and the bottom line is it works for some people.

Interesting discussion!