I will never use poly twine again

[RickB]

Each product has advantages & drawbacks in differing situations.
Like Bison says, use of plastic requires a certain level of ambition to be managed successfully.
As a seller of twine for round & square balers, plastic round baler twine outsells sisal in my store by a 9:1 ratio.

 

[Tx Jim]

Whatever time you saved baling is more that lost when trying to feed the hay. Again, I hate wading thru mud and cow sh#% to remove the twine or net wrap and then have to climb back into my tractor cab with manure all over my boots. You can keep the poly twine and net wrap no matter how much faster it is baling.

Have you given thought to alternating your hay feeding area on your 180 acres so you don't have to step in mud/poop??

 

[sweettractors]

Been using plastic twine for 25 years.
I don't know were the problem lies by the posters ,plastic twine is easy to pull off the bale and makes a small tidy bundle one can throw in the cab versus that pesky sisal.
The only problem i have is pull the twine off the bale when the snow on the bale melted and turned to ice later.With sisal you have the same problem and you end up with a whole barrel full of twine,ice and hay from just one bale.
When feeding I can store 20 bales worth of poly in the tractor cab easy,..try that with sisal!
As for wrapping around axles, both poly and sisal cause the same problem for the seals,..solution is to stop driving and get your lazy ***** out and and cut that problem piece off before it gets in the seals.

BTW,..With poly one can store a bale outside for years and still pick the bale up in one piece.
Sisal rots trough in a couple months and the bale fals apart when you try to move it.

Netwrap is nice for the guy that bales and sells the hay but it is **** for the guy that has to take it off,espessially in winter with snow and ice on it,..for me,..never again!

You don't take the sisal off when feeding. In 50 yrs, I have never wrapped sisal around a axle or brush hog output shaft. Round or square bales the same. Ken Sweet

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

Well I feed several hundred round bales every year, some of it a raise some I buy. I prefer net wrap any time. I feel it will shed water a bit better than Sisal or plastic and will hold the bale together better. My hay stack is near my tractor shed so when I get ready to feed I'll fire off the old tractor and let her "percolate" while I cut wrap loose from the bales I plan to feed. I cut the wrap low one side and peel it over to the other. When I pick the bale up the wrap will usually stay on the ground, take the FEL bale spear and move the wrap to a pile till spring. I use a plastic cow fly tag cutter/remover to cut the wrap, it has a V-notch and a handle. I can get by with sisal if I make it myself, take it right out of the field, set it in the stack and never move it again till I feed it. The sisal rots off the bottom of the bale pretty quick and I loose a lot if I transport them. I have fed some plastic twine bales that have worked well but IMHO it just takes a extra effort to get it off. I usually clean up feeding area and spread the manure. It doesn't take long for the spreader to find a string or a wrap you missed.LOL

 

[Bison]

Last summer I tried using poly twine on my large round bales. I had always used sisel twine and for some unknown reason I tried the poly twine. NEVER AGAIN!!!! I have found that the poly twine is a pain in the #%% to get off of a rain snow frozen bale. The other problem I had was the end of the string would come loose and get under the front tractor tire and if you didn't stop and cut it off it would unwrap the whole bale. Plus, I spent ten minutes unwrapping the string that had gotten wrapped around my front axle.

On top of everything else, I'm lazy!! I hate having to crawl down out of my nice warm tractor cab, wade thru mud and manure to cut off the string and then crawl back up into my nice warm cab. The worst thing is my cab is starting to smell like cow crap. With the sisel I just dropped the bale in the bale feeder and not worry about the string.I'm done ranting. Thanks for listening.

Right there is your problem.

I have a neighbor like you and it is a beautyfull sight in his corrals with twine everywere in the feeder and cows dragging big balls of it wrapped around their feet.

 

[D7E]

Been using plastic twine for 25 years.
I don't know were the problem lies by the posters ,plastic twine is easy to pull off the bale and makes a small tidy bundle one can throw in the cab versus that pesky sisal.
The only problem i have is pull the twine off the bale when the snow on the bale melted and turned to ice later.With sisal you have the same problem and you end up with a whole barrel full of twine,ice and hay from just one bale.
When feeding I can store 20 bales worth of poly in the tractor cab easy,..try that with sisal!
As for wrapping around axles, both poly and sisal cause the same problem for the seals,..solution is to stop driving and get your lazy ***** out and and cut that problem piece off before it gets in the seals.

BTW,..With poly one can store a bale outside for years and still pick the bale up in one piece.
Sisal rots trough in a couple months and the bale fals apart when you try to move it.

Netwrap is nice for the guy that bales and sells the hay but it is **** for the guy that has to take it off,espessially in winter with snow and ice on it,..for me,..never again!

Could'nt agree more Who leaves twine on a bale for animals to hang them selves with , have seen it happen many times And having worked many years for custom manure spreading gangs if they get twine wrapped in the bearings they will not be back again .

 

[RickB]

Well I feed several hundred round bales every year, some of it a raise some I buy. I prefer net wrap any time. I feel it will shed water a bit better than Sisal or plastic and will hold the bale together better. My hay stack is near my tractor shed so when I get ready to feed I'll fire off the old tractor and let her "percolate" while I cut wrap loose from the bales I plan to feed. I cut the wrap low one side and peel it over to the other. When I pick the bale up the wrap will usually stay on the ground, take the FEL bale spear and move the wrap to a pile till spring. I use a plastic cow fly tag cutter/remover to cut the wrap, it has a V-notch and a handle. I can get by with sisal if I make it myself, take it right out of the field, set it in the stack and never move it again till I feed it. The sisal rots off the bottom of the bale pretty quick and I loose a lot if I transport them. I have fed some plastic twine bales that have worked well but IMHO it just takes a extra effort to get it off. I usually clean up feeding area and spread the manure. It doesn't take long for the spreader to find a string or a wrap you missed.LOL

This isn't about feed quality, dry matter loss or keeping your surroundings clean & neat. :mur:
It's all about getting feeding chores done fast, easily and with clean hands & feet.

 

[bulldog69]

Who leaves twine on a bale for animals to hang them selves with , have seen it happen many times

IMHO what's best for the animals is the bottom line. I'm much more interested in the health of my cows than in the few extra minutes it takes to remove twine. I think the plastic string is much easier to work with all the way around.

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

RickB, Not sure if your reply had a humorus tone, but I'll take it take it that way. A fast or neat and clean method of feeding has never been my concern. I use daily feedings as a way to inspect each animal I own. If I need to get out of the cab a dozen or a hundred times be do a complete and through job I will. I agree with Bulldog "Whats best for the animal is the bottom line." I prefer net wrap, it provides a better feed and there is less likelyhood of me missing a piece or two. For what its worth I'm feeding sisal and plastic tied bales now, I got a good buy on them. The string and the net wrap will all end up in the dumpster at the end of the season. Its just my opinion, on your place, with your cows or horses you can do whatever you want if it works for you.

 

[ghenges]

Poly twine doesn't go away.

Part of our place strip mined and back-filled nicely.
The lime fertilizer & seeding contractor blew chopped hay as mulch. They cut and threw the twine over the side of the chopper as they fed the bales into the machine.

That was 25 years ago in 1988 -- That orange plastic baler twine IS STILL THERE.