Scattered Hay Net

   / Scattered Hay Net #1  

AgMan

New member
Joined
Jun 15, 2013
Messages
22
Location
Alabama
Tractor
JD 5085M, JD 3720
Just took over management of a piece of property. Have an a field that no longer has cows being fed there. I know there are many old round hay bale nets that were left on ground and are scattered across a certain portion of the field, years worth. In mowing, does it pose a problem for mowing with a pull mower? Is the net biodegradable? Don't want the mower to get all caught up in the netting if it catches blades. Any suggestions on how to attack this issue?
 
   / Scattered Hay Net #2  
If you are talking about net wrap no, it is not biodegradable and yes, it can cause problems with a mower. Just imagine wrapping that crap up in the spindles of the mower and then spending a few hours digging it out with a pocket knife. It could also ruin the seals in the bottom of the gear box.

Not aware of an easy way to deal with it.
 
   / Scattered Hay Net #3  
I hope I'm not 'telling you how to suck eggs', but I'd either chain harrow or rake the property first to reduce your chances of picking up the old net. I'm new to the round hay net game... the ones employed here (and probably everywhere in the first world) are a fine plastic that, when wrapped around a mower blade, would do some serious damage. I don't reckon they biodegrade as rounds of hay can sit outside in a sausage for quite awhile.

Another method would be to slash high, 6 -7" off the ground, and put some horses on that area.
 
   / Scattered Hay Net #4  
Is burning it off this fall an option?
 
   / Scattered Hay Net #5  
Net wrap has given me several pleasant hours blocking up my mower so I can work underneath cleaning it off. It's surprising how fast the mower blade will work like a net wrap magnet, suck it up out of nowhere and wrap everything. I think the John Deere net wrap we use will eventually degrade but that might be 5 - 10 years.
 
   / Scattered Hay Net #6  
I would be looking into a scarifier, cultivators or similar ran at ground level or just below and a wagon to put them all in. Consider overlapping yourself so as to go over all areas twice.
 
   / Scattered Hay Net #8  
Not going to be fun no matter what you do.

That's true. But any method using a scarifier, landscape rake or other fixed tine/shank type tool will be far better than going in there with anything power-driven. I like the scarifier/cultivator idea because it will catch a large percentage of the net but flow sod, clumps, etc through with hopefully not too much plugging.
 
   / Scattered Hay Net #9  
I use a small 6ft field cultivator for this type project, should work for you.
 

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   / Scattered Hay Net #10  
My son works at a rental shop. He recently had a tiller come back with a wad of landscape mesh netting you would see on a hillside wound up on the tines. He spent about 4 hours of his day cutting, pinching, pulling, and winding the crap out of the tines. He snapped a picture of the ball when it was done and it was easily a foot in diameter. A wrap or 2 isn't so bad, but when you wind it around for a few hours, it can get down around the spindles so badly the only solution is to disassemble the entire machine. Really ugly.

Use something with fixed tines to just pull it out first. It will save you many, many hours.
 
 
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