cheoah
Bronze Member
We have always used sisal. We cut it off the bales because it is better on the cows and the manure spreader, but no matter what, some gets away from you and good that it degrades sooner. We switched to Poly when we started making baleage last year. Sisal will break down the plastic they say, I haven't found out for myself. I'll look into the short-life stuff the other poster mentioned - is it UV that breaks that stuff down or moisture/soil contact? Not sure that would help me with baleage if it is going to rot in the bale.
Cutting twine of bales can be aggravating, but it is part of the job. Easy for me to say, as farm manager I usually don't have to do it much. But it is cold and blowing, the cows can be a pest, and it makes for more garbage handling through the winter. I fed around Christmas time and cut my first poly off the bale one day when the wind was howling. As I cut it off the bale, hay started sloughing a little and a short-yearling got a wad of hay in his mouth that had a piece of poly twine connected. Of course the piece of twine was connected to a wad of twine and he was slurping in down like spaghetti. I lurched out and tried to get a hold of the twine before he swallowed it all but he bolted. Only a few feet though, because I still had what he wanted - the hay. I eased up on him and stepped on the twine on the ground and dragged 8 feet of it out of his throat. This all happened in the span of 5 seconds, and was hard to avoid with everything sideways from the wind, and awkward gloved hands.
Now we don't keep cabbed tractors, so I don't care so much about getting off the 6000 series platform, or if I have manure on my boots. I can see how that would be irritating if I did have a nice cab. If I did have a nice heated cab, I'd consider keeping my chore boots in a bucket bungeed to the steps or something and wear slip on shoes in the cab. Or clean it out good and shop vac it. I don't mind the smell of cow manure much at all, except when it gets dry and dusty and it gets in my nose and throat. I can do without that.
The one poster said something about the mud. That's true, and always good to avoid, but not always possible. Two ways to look at it, and one says that making a mess of one sacrifice area is enough, the other that messing up more places is OK. No matter what, under any good management you end up with mud in wet winters without concrete everywhere. Mud kind of drives me crazy (hard to get work done without tearing up everything), so I just distract myself with how much forage and grain crops will be growing in a few months as a result of all the moisture.
One thing I will say for poly is it doesn't get bound on the roll like sisal can. We don't keep sisal around for a long time but try to buy fresh each season. We try to buy good quality but sometimes it gets bound on the roll and our baler won't pull it when the roll is full. Of course the square baler is a terrible thing loaded with old, weak sisal too.
Good luck-
Cutting twine of bales can be aggravating, but it is part of the job. Easy for me to say, as farm manager I usually don't have to do it much. But it is cold and blowing, the cows can be a pest, and it makes for more garbage handling through the winter. I fed around Christmas time and cut my first poly off the bale one day when the wind was howling. As I cut it off the bale, hay started sloughing a little and a short-yearling got a wad of hay in his mouth that had a piece of poly twine connected. Of course the piece of twine was connected to a wad of twine and he was slurping in down like spaghetti. I lurched out and tried to get a hold of the twine before he swallowed it all but he bolted. Only a few feet though, because I still had what he wanted - the hay. I eased up on him and stepped on the twine on the ground and dragged 8 feet of it out of his throat. This all happened in the span of 5 seconds, and was hard to avoid with everything sideways from the wind, and awkward gloved hands.
Now we don't keep cabbed tractors, so I don't care so much about getting off the 6000 series platform, or if I have manure on my boots. I can see how that would be irritating if I did have a nice cab. If I did have a nice heated cab, I'd consider keeping my chore boots in a bucket bungeed to the steps or something and wear slip on shoes in the cab. Or clean it out good and shop vac it. I don't mind the smell of cow manure much at all, except when it gets dry and dusty and it gets in my nose and throat. I can do without that.
The one poster said something about the mud. That's true, and always good to avoid, but not always possible. Two ways to look at it, and one says that making a mess of one sacrifice area is enough, the other that messing up more places is OK. No matter what, under any good management you end up with mud in wet winters without concrete everywhere. Mud kind of drives me crazy (hard to get work done without tearing up everything), so I just distract myself with how much forage and grain crops will be growing in a few months as a result of all the moisture.
One thing I will say for poly is it doesn't get bound on the roll like sisal can. We don't keep sisal around for a long time but try to buy fresh each season. We try to buy good quality but sometimes it gets bound on the roll and our baler won't pull it when the roll is full. Of course the square baler is a terrible thing loaded with old, weak sisal too.
Good luck-
