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Freeburg IL | Is their any concern or problem with plastic wrapping dry hay? I have wrapped wet hay to ensile before, but wondered about wrapping dry hay to preserve quality and be able to store outside. Any problem with it? |
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Central PA | Worked good for me. I set them up on truck tires. |
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North Central IN | I experimented this year, basically because I didn’t have the barn space, and I thought I would loose more than the $3ish/bale it costs for plastic. I own my wrapper. 6-7 layers. Wrapped WITHIN HOURS of bailing it.
I used a dry bale that had cured for a plug. It was a slimy miserable mess. But my wrapped hay, the next bale, was perfect. I just sold a bale to a non-NAT approved horsey girl, and she loved it. “Best hay” she “has bought this year”
Edit...it smelled sweet, no spoilage, no dirt on bottom, and I attribute that to the fact that the ‘bag of chips’ hadn’t had an opportunity to get stale because it was in the tube. Planning on wrapping more next year.
Edited by wbstofer 2/18/2018 07:09
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 7DB350CF-EDD9-448A-AEBE-38A8DD2F3028.jpeg (291KB - 360 downloads)
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Illinois | I bought some dry wrapped first cutting alfalfa from a neighbor. I won't pay a penny more for it, than a bale that was made with a good newer net wrap baler that sat outside. It has some odd spoilage on the top of the bale.
I would net wrap them and leave them out. Maybe feed them first to limit the spoilage? |
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WCWI | I was told from a dairy farmer who bought a wrapper this summer, if you are wrapping dry hay and you bale it a little tough you should poke a small hole every 3 to 4 bales to let it breathe and a place for the moisture to go. Not sure myself what's right or wrong but going to try it also this year. |
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NE Iowa | My experience wrapping dry hay in the past is that if the hay is extremely dry it works great. The bales will come out exactly like you put them in. But in the humid Midwest we rarely get hay as dry as we want. If you wrap say 16-20% hay it gets a slimey. The moisture migrates to the outside of the bales and it can't escape because of the plastic.. The entire outside of the bale won't be bad just about 50% of it depending on which direction it was facing, N-S vs. E-W etc. |
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| I think they say to use the black plastic to wrap dry hay so dont get that condensation and slime under plastic. |
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Oakdale, Il. | I was told to use white plastic for wet hay, and black plastic for dry hay. I wrap straw bales every year with black plastic, it works great. |
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West central Ohio | I have seen dry hay wrapped with black plastic. Not sure what the reason was though |
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whitesville new york | I do it. Just need to make sure the bales are good and dry and I like to let mine set out a while.it not only saves hay but makes taking the net wrap off because it is not frozen on in the winter time. I put 5 layers on this last year |
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Southwest Indiana | I don't do enough for a bale wrapper. What about wrapping several extra times with net wrap? Do you think that would help much?
Hickory
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Redickville, Ont | It can be done but hard to get it perfect. Here’s what I’ve learned. Don’t let it sweat before wrap it. If you bale it today and wrap it tomorrow your going to have about inch or two of slimmy hay. Problem is condensation builds up between plastic and hay and you can’t get rid of in hence idea poking holes in plastic. Wrap it same day you bale it. I even use end caps. You also want it gone before summer. When sun beating down on plastic it makes it wet and hay that was perfect in spring will start to deteriorate. It’s not ideal. I’ve done all that and still had problems. Are you feeding or or selling it. It will be hard sell |
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Northwest iowa | We do it all summer long. Rules are the same as wrapping wetter stuff. Use plenty of high quality film and get your density as high as you can. And wrap right behind the baler. It’s pretty forgiving if you get in a pinch though. I had 200 bales (3x4) on the ground when a thunderstorm chased us out of the field. Two inches of rain and twelve hours later it got wrapped, and turned out just fine. No spoilage whatsoever. Final moisture was 26%, can’t really say how much was rain and how much was in the hay.
These are individuallly wrapped, high density bales. Getting rid of most of the oxygen makes a lot of difference, same reason you see several weighted up 4x4 tractors on a silage pile. I have tried the inline deal and had very inconsistent results...too much air left in the package I think. I know some of you like the plastic savings, but I just couldn’t make it work here. |
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Central IL | Was it spoilage, or was the top couple inches higher in moisture and fermented? I have a lot of wrapped dry bales like that. If the bales arent allowed to sweat out before wrapping, the moisture in the bale seems to rise to top and ferment the top couple inches, while the rest of the bale is dry and looks just like it was baled. |
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Illinois | Fermented would probably be the right word. These bales are decent alfalfa and probably to rich for beef cows on silage. So I have been alternating between them and grass bales that have been outside made with a 467 Deere baler and cover edge net wrap. I haven't noticed any difference in consumption or waste between the two kinds of hay.
If you are selling the hay I could see where it would make it more attractive to a customer but for my own use I would pass on the wrapping. |
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north west arkansas | Every now and then our baler will mess up and putcsverap wraps of net on the outside. Those bales always seem to have more spoilage then a regular wrapped bale. |
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| wbstofer - 2/18/2018 07:06
I experimented this year, basically because I didn’t have the barn space, and I thought I would loose more than the $3ish/bale it costs for plastic. I own my wrapper. 6-7 layers. Wrapped WITHIN HOURS of bailing it.
I used a dry bale that had cured for a plug. It was a slimy miserable mess. But my wrapped hay, the next bale, was perfect. I just sold a bale to a non-NAT approved horsey girl, and she loved it. “Best hay” she “has bought this year”
Edit...it smelled sweet, no spoilage, no dirt on bottom, and I attribute that to the fact that the ‘bag of chips’ hadn’t had an opportunity to get stale because it was in the tube. Planning on wrapping more next year.
I have had similar experience to you Bill. I've been wrapping hay of varying degrees of moisture from balage to bone-dry but usually somewhere in between. It's pretty rare that I find any spoilage or mold on the outside of the bale unless it's near the end of a row or a hole got put in the plastic. Sometimes there will be some water soaked hay at the bottom of the bale, but they hay is not spoiled. I'm not sure why so many people on here seem to have a problem with doing it, but I'm guessing it has to be not enough plastic or not wrapping them the same day they're baled.
I had a row of 16 bales of wrapped marsh hay left over from 2016. The cows were turning up their noses at in last year so I switched to feeding something else. Last month I figured I would start putting some out in rings for them to chew on while I was unrolling good hay and they loved it. They would eat those swamp hay bales down before the other hay I was putting in rings (grassy 1st crop bales that put up dry, but overmature). Not sure if they just liked the taste of something different, my 1st crop bales were that bad, or if wrapped hay ages like a fine wine :)
Edited by tjdub 2/18/2018 21:10
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Southern Indiana | I would definitely not poke holes in it. You will end up ruining the whole bunch. |
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Wrapping dry hay
