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Northeast Missouri | I recommend that you *always* use black plastic for wrapping dry hay, and *always* use white for baleage; except that you can use a layer of black covered with white layers in baleage to make the wrap more opaque.
White plastic on dry hay reflects more light/heat, so the moisture from the hay as it cures down to long-term storage moisture content will come out to the underside of the plastic and condense beneath it...often making the bales greenish & "snotty" right under the plastic. Black absorbs more heat, which drives the moisture out of the ends. Hardly ever a good idea to wrap dry hay in the "tumblebug" type wrappers that cover the entire bale, unless you have a way to open up the ends or lower sides.
If you use an in-line wrapper, always separate dry bales by a foot or so, or the moisture can't get out (same idea as prior paragraph) and you can get spoilage. I walk the row of bales & slit the black plastic from top to bottom on each side, then move bales from where I wrapped them (often just 30' away, etc.).
How many wraps? I put on as few black wraps as I can & still keep it on the bales when I slit the plastic & move them...often that's 3 wraps or so.
(In baleage, we always use 6 layers of white plastic...have had many bales that can carry over a 2nd winter without holes in the wrap.)
OK, I said "always" a few too many times above...your mileage may vary, but I've wrapped lots of wet & dry bales in an Anderson in-line wrapper for the past 10 years.
Edited by Mark in NEMO 6/11/2011 21:20
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wrapping hay
