# question about wrapping dry rounds for outdoor storage



## Chase_farms (Aug 14, 2009)

Hey guys, Great forum!! I was wondering if anyone has ever tried wrapping their dry hay with plastic bale wrap? We are going to end up storing a couple hundred out doors and my wrap guy told me you could just put a couple layers of wrap on them and it would save putting a tarp on them. My only concern it do I put spear holes in them or not any at all, or should I cut the sides off the bales. I would hate to ruin all of them. We have a heck of a time trying to tarp them. I think this would actually be cheaper. If anyone has ever tried this let me know, Thanks, Lewis


----------



## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

Around here we just wrap around them and leave the ends open. It does protect the hay quite a bit. If you stack them tightly end to end you have very little loss. You need to make sure you put them somewhere where the water doesn't run into the bale and set in the bottom of the wrap. It is also a big pain dealing with the wrap when you feed. They have gotten pretty tight on our land fills and charge extra for a big load of plastic when you take it. Most have moved to net wrap for outside storage due to the disposal costs. I don't know how that works. They say it prevents a lot of waste, but I have not seen it myself yet. We store all of the stuff that we are feeding ourselves outside.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I wouldn't think you'd want to wrap em before its had a chance to go thru a sweat. I know I don't even like to store hay under a tarp until its had several days to breath first.

When stacking under tarps I used to go stack three layers high in a pyramid 4-3-2 and place plastic barrels between the top two bales to keep the tarp from sagging between the bales and allowing water to stand. I'd leave the ends open as well instead of trying to cover the end and even then sometimes they didn't keep as well as I'd like if they weren't done curing before going under that tarp. I'm not sure, but I'd think it'd be even worse wrapping them if they weren't fully cured yet.


----------



## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

mlappin.....I agree. I guess I was just going off of his statement about being "dry" hay. I was assuming that it had gone through the sweat period. If we wrap it immediately we close the ends and then it is considered silage. I have never liked the tarps because of the wind damage. It seems you can start out okay and then a string breaks holding down the edges and the tarp begins to blow. The next building we build is going to be a round bale shed.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

All my tarps have the pockets down the sides for sliding a pipe thru. I then use some of the small 1" ratchet straps from TSC to go from the pipe down to a pallet the bales are stacked on. 3 or 4 on each edge is plenty to hold em down. The ratchets can be a PITA in the winter to get to release so I keep some beef cow hay stacked in the hoop buildings for use until a good sunny day so I can release the ratchets.


----------



## Erock813 (Jun 3, 2008)

Funny this post is going on,just got done wrapping straw in plastic.Weve been doing this for 10+ years and ill give you my thoughts. 
For straw or dry hay,use black strech film,run your rows north and south and use plenty of wraps.
First of all we found out that black will evaporate the condensation that will form much better than white. It will get hot faster in the morning. In straw we had no probelm with frozen sides with black.White we have maybe an inch or so.
Running your rows north and south mean that both sides of the bale will get sunlight.Especially if your in a northern state.
We've had probelms with not enough wraps of plastic when doing hard bales. Dry bales dont give like wet bales do and the plastic will crack on the bottom when it rolls onto the ground from the wrapper.We use 7 wraps for straw and hay and 8 for baleage and high quality hay.Doesnt take many bales to pay for an extra roll of plastic.
We let our hay sweat out in the field or in the barn, If we dont need to use the barn for cattle well leave the hay there till i need the barn,then wrap them. 
Weve been known to wrap the hay in the field and grab it in the winter.Snowmobilers dont like it,but they arent suppose to out there anyways!!!


----------



## bhounds (Jul 31, 2009)

Just my 2 cents worth. We had looked into doing this but the cost was too much. It would have cost over $800.00. The cost of renting the wraper + the wrap. To store our 100 or so bales it's just cheaper to tarp them. We get 2 or so years from the tarp at half the cost.


----------



## hayray (Feb 23, 2009)

I tarp about 1000 rolls per year at my farm mostly for selling during the winter and spring. I at first used the tarps with hay spikes and webbing over the top. It was recommended to have the tarps only come down about half way down the sides of the bottom outside bale on a pyramid stack so the hay can breath. No I just get the silage plastic and put over the stack and weight down the sides with wood chips or tires, easy to do and fast and the plastic stays on. Had on side closed off as I was goign to add to the stack and just discovered the other day 100 trefoil rolls sweating and molding, stupid mistake, so by all means let the hay sweat for a week or so before stacking. I would think wrapping dry hay would have the same result if it had not sweat first.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

bhounds said:


> Just my 2 cents worth. We had looked into doing this but the cost was too much. It would have cost over $800.00. The cost of renting the wraper + the wrap. To store our 100 or so bales it's just cheaper to tarp them. We get 2 or so years from the tarp at half the cost.


We used to put up the silage bags as well, it was cheap compared to the cost of another silo, but disposing of all the plastic was less than desirable. Does anybody know if recyclers will take that stuff now if its clean? I have a couple of old tarps as well and this will be the last season for them, wonder if those can be recycled as well? Hate to just burn em like we used to do with all that plastic from the silage bags.


----------



## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Mlappin, they have started a farm plastic recycling program in our area to discourage burning. I saw where a guy was using an old square baler to bale all his junk plastic and wrap so it wasn't blowing around. He was also baling cardboard boxes with it.


----------



## valleyforage (Apr 28, 2015)

I helped a neighbor this summer wrap right at 1000 bales of teff, these guys are correct, it does need to be in a well drained area or the bottom couple of inches of the bale will be wet, even with 6 wraps per bale. And personally I would just tarp, the wrap and the machine are way to costly for what you get.


----------



## CaseIH (Feb 6, 2016)

Has anyone else had problems with birds picking through there wrap? I used the white plastic wrap and a tubeline wrapper last year for "drier" hay, set it to #8. I just got around to getting into that run to feed. I have found pretty near every roll has mold damage and upon closer inspection there are little holes through out the top of the run... I'm thinking its almost got to be birds....

Any thoughts?


----------



## yarnammurt (Jan 1, 2014)

With me in Ar we cant tarp just way to wet and humid. I have tried to tarp round and square have lost a bunch of both. I bought a wrapper last year just a single but for me worth every dime of the $5000. I can put up my hay for the year and not loose any. If I have time I let it sit a few days before I wrap it. If not then its haylage cows, horses, goats, sheep they all eat both just fine.


----------



## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

CaseIH said:


> Has anyone else had problems with birds picking through there wrap? I used the white plastic wrap and a tubeline wrapper last year for "drier" hay, set it to #8. I just got around to getting into that run to feed. I have found pretty near every roll has mold damage and upon closer inspection there are little holes through out the top of the run... I'm thinking its almost got to be birds....
> 
> Any thoughts?


I have heard from customers crows landing on them and poking holes in them. Another farmer lost a bunch to bears.


----------



## CaseIH (Feb 6, 2016)

IH1586,

Yeah I lost about 100 rolls, well I shouldn't say lost but I baled it thinking I would sell it to horse people. No chance in that now...


----------



## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

I may try a different "wrapping" method this year. I've always been a believer that tarps can work if tarped done correctly.
Gonna try using bunker cover on some round bales this year. Plan on laying it out on the ground and piling bales on the on edge. When get to the end maybe 150' pull the cover over all the way to the ground on opposite side. Use dirt or stone along the one end to hold down tarp. No tie downs to mess with and the bunker covers are fraction of the price. It will only be good one year so cut tarp as your go. Which will be nice cause the wind won't flap it around. Also this will completely incase the bales including bottom bales. No room for water to enter.

Pros:
Lighter to work with
No need to fold to reuse
Maybe will save all bottom bales
Cheap
Keeps bales from freezing down

Cons:
Can't reuse
Landfill bill every year

I've heard of others trying this. If it works well for me on the rounds id like to do my squares that way. Might need to find a 70' or 80'wide though for the squares


----------

