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NE Saskatchewan | Been bagging wheat, canola, barley and oats since 2008. A few things we've learned over the years.
-fill bag running down hill. That way if water gets in its all at the start of the bag. Plus you're more likely to get water in on the end that we finished filling on.
-if on flat ground, run a 2x4 perpendicular to the bag roughly 6 feet in. Works as a dam if the end leaks.
-toss a few handfuls of urea under the end of the bag. Helps keep mice from using it as a home and chewing holes on the underside.
-put bale net wrap across the top length of the bag. Help keeps birds and deer from puncturing the top.
-if you get lots of snow like we do, then bag from south to north. Basically into the prevailing wind for the winter. Get less snow around bag. Plus the sun's rays won't harden the snow along the sides of the bag as bad.
-if the ground is wet and doesn't get a chance to freeze before first major snowfall. We run drag tires around the unload side of the bag to make sure that frost will go down. Nothing worse than plowing out 4 feet of snow in February and getting trucks stuck in the mud with ambient temperature of -30C.
-bags are temporary storage. Meaning 8 months max in our climate. August till March. Broke that rule this past spring and was quickly reminded why.
-do not over fill or over stretch the bag. Especially if some salesman sold you on the theory that a 9 mill bag is as good as a 9.5 . I agree that hitech bags are the best.
-typically stop putting grain in when there's 4 folds of plastic left on the tunnel of the machine. For wheat and barley it leaves just the right amount of bag to easily hook onto a loftness unloader.
-can get away with using a smaller tractor to load, but find a 100-130 horse to be a better ballast weight to make a straight bag. When filling at full capacity, the rear wheels of a lighter tractor will come off the ground. Plus if you have diff locks use them. We use an mxm130 front wheel assist, and lock up all 4 wheels.
-when bagging on what I would consider muddy conditions. The brakes on the loader will be useless. Instead use the handbrake on the tractor to help stretch the bag. Typically the wheels of the loader sink in enough to give tension.
we typically load the bags with two operators. The straighter the bag the easier of a job to pick them up. Come winter time I'm a one man band and pick up 15 to 20 bags on my own. | |
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Considering purchase of grain bagger. Questions
