I will never use poly twine again

[cheoah]

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-

[Soundguy]

The TSC in Hudson, NY stocks baling wire. Somebody must buy it or it would not be there.
But I haven't ever sold any twister parts for a NH wire tie baler.

i used to have an old spool of bailing wire.

loved the stuff.. nice soft(ish) wire.. good for 1001 uses..

I think i have a small hand sized ball of it left now..

[Soundguy]

The TSC in Hudson, NY stocks baling wire. Somebody must buy it or it would not be there.
But I haven't ever sold any twister parts for a NH wire tie baler.

i used to have an old spool of bailing wire.

loved the stuff.. nice soft(ish) wire.. good for 1001 uses..

I think i have a small hand sized ball of it left now..

[300UGUY]

I cut the twine off, but I prefer the sisal twine. At least it rots away.

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

I had a time finding precut baling wire for my old stationary hay press. But I did manage to find some, they use it now in recycling centers to bale cardboard. Except it's about 12' and we need 9'. Premade loops on the end and everything.

[showcattle]

I've used all three. Sisal works ok, if you don't have to move or truck the bales. I liked the plastic for bales you had to trailer, especially if you don't get them hauled soon after baling. I now use net wrap, and it's the best thing since sliced bread. Hardly any spoilage around the outside of the bale, maybe 1" at most. Can be a PIA in ice, but only have had real problems like three times in eight years. Easiest is to stand bale on end, and slice net wrap where bale has been sitting on the ground, less likely to be frozen.

[Bigfoot62]

Someone would have to pay me to use either ploy twine or net wrap. Ken Sweet

I'm with Ken on this one.

[RedNeckRacin]

I gotta chime in here. I prefer sissal if I have to handle the bales by hand. Much much easier if your handling large quantities in a day (200+) If I'm using the accumulator and grabber, I def prefer the plastic twine. AS for the round bales. I feed about 16 horses outside right now and they are all wrapped with plastic twine. I cut it off before I get into the pasture. I still have to get out of the tractor to open the doors for the hay feeders but hopefully that will be a thing of the past if I ever install my custom made bale feeder!!!

[Grateful11]

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!

My wife started using Poly, I think the 20,000' bundles, as soon as she switched to round bales in about '09. They way they handle feeding is son pulls up with a bale, wife cuts each wrap of twine with scissors, grasps each strand, pulls it all off and there's usually always a strand or two left behind and she just wraps the leftovers around the bundle of twine into a neat, compact bundle. They don't have to deal with mud except when going to the hay shed. The farm was a dairy and there's about 8000-10,000 sq.ft. of concrete and all the feeders are on concrete and under cover or in the cow shed itself. Poly runs about $23-26 a bundle and it's hard to beat for price. It's bright orange so when you do lose some even off the concrete it's easy to spot. I suppose if she broke out the old JD 24T baler she would put sisal twine in it. I'm a bit surprised that people let their cattle eat sisal twine, doesn't sound like a good idea, isn't most of that stuff soaked in fuel oil?

Ambraco: Orangeline & Balebind

[Bison]

My wife started using Poly, I think the 20,000' bundles, as soon as she switched to round bales in about '09. They way they handle feeding is son pulls up with a bale, wife cuts each wrap of twine with scissors, grasps each strand, pulls it all off and there's usually always a strand or two left behind and she just wraps the leftovers around the bundle of twine into a neat, compact bundle. They don't have to deal with mud except when going to the hay shed. The farm was a dairy and there's about 8000-10,000 sq.ft. of concrete and all the feeders are on concrete and under cover or in the cow shed itself. Poly runs about $23-26 a bundle and it's hard to beat for price. It's bright orange so when you do lose some even off the concrete it's easy to spot. I suppose if she broke out the old JD 24T baler she would put sisal twine in it. I'm a bit surprised that people let their cattle eat sisal twine, doesn't sound like a good idea, isn't most of that stuff soaked in fuel oil?

Ambraco: Orangeline & Balebind

I feed by myself an allways out in the field and each time in a different location so there is never a mud or manure buildup problem.When there is no frost and snow i use a boxcutter to cut the twine in one motion along the bale on my way to the other side were i gather all strings together and tie them in a knot and then pull them of the bale,by the time i have walked back to the tractor i have a tidy bundle wrapped up about 10"x 2".All in all one minute or so from start to finisch.
When there is frost and snow i set the bale on end and cut the twine in the bare spot were it stood on the ground in the stack, then gather the ends,knot them together and pull them off as i go around the bale. any ice or the bit of fozen hay remaining on the poly i get rid off by slinging the whole wad against the rear tire till it's clean, then bundle it up.I hardly ever find a string in the field.
With sisal one often has a huge bundle that is hard to manage and takes up lots of space in or on the tractor,espessially in winter when the twine is froze to the bale,...not so with poly.