# Quick 'How To' for wrapping round bales for silage?



## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

With the wet weather we've been having and time slipping away to get 2nd cutting done, I'm actually wondering about mowing and baling my 2nd cutting for silage bales instead of dry hay. My neighbor has a baler and wrapper that he uses for his stuff, but I could probably also use my own round baler as it is a silage baler and would give me netwrap instead of twine. My problem is, I know virtually nothing about how to properly bales/wrap hay for silage. Some of the questions that I already have are:

1) What moisture should I bale the hay at?

2) My fixed chamber baler (Claas 62S) makes 4x5 bales. Will these be too big? Will the fixed chamber make a good bale in wetter hay?

3) I understand that things vary by location, but what is the market like for these bales? I'm assuming I'll be talking to dairy/beef producers, correct?

4) What is the best way to price these (by ton or bale)? Also, what are prices like?

5) The only way I have to handle round bales are bale spears on the loader and 3pt hitch. Can I just patch the holes these put in the wrap with tape?

As with everything new, I'm sure there are questions that I don't even know to ask, so feel free to educate me. I'm not totally sure I will do this, but I hate to see forage on the field not being harvested... especially fields that I spread fertilizer on earlier this summer!

Thanks in advance, Josh


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

1: 50-65% moisture works well here, too dry and you won't get good fermentation, too wet and it can get slimy.

2: Most imported balers like a Claas comes from Europe where wrapping is about the only choice they have in some area. I make mine full size (4x5) bought all my equipment can handle two dry bales at a time with the loader so a wet one doesn't bother it.

3: No market here, you're area may vary. I've hauled what I thought was junk first cutting bales to the auction, sold those, then bought loads of silage bales and still made money on the deal.

4: when you figure it out let me know. I've yet been able to price em to make any money on them compared to dry hay.

5: Yep, they have tape for that.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

If you find no market for ensiled round bales, you would be wise to transport the unwrapped bales to the location where they will be fed to your own livestock and then wrap and store them there. Depending on the kind of wrapping machine, you can wrap a bale, drop it off, move the wrapper forward, wrap the next bale, etc. and not have to use your hay spear to move the wrapped bales until they are ready to be fed. If you have double front hay spears horizontally across from each other, you might be able to slip them under the wrapped bales to move them if needed without opening the wrapping.

Your topic previously was covered on HT, but doing a quick search didn't locate the Thread. Mlappin is correct on the ideal moisture content for wrapping these bales. You could possibly safely wrap even at 45% moisture, but much lower than that and the hay will mold.

Previously on HT, the number of wraps was discussed and, if I'm remembering correctly, Mlappin mentioned 6 to 8 wrap thickness worked best. Probably depends on how soon after wrapping the ensiled bales will be fed. Others need to comment on this.

Don't know how to price the bales, but certainly need to price as with dry hay and add the cost of wrapping and extra labor to the bales. What about marketing to sheep owners? Any high fenced deer or elk ranches in your area?


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

agreed we want three layers x 2 on the plastic.. if you're working with an individual rapper with 50% overlap. You could set the day on the rapper turn the plastic until it's completely covered with plastic let's say you get eight revolutions until you're covered. Quickly multiply that number times 3 which would be 24 that means the bail would get 24 turns. If you got to poke holes in them you could poke a hole in the center of the end getting in position and then very carefully use the bucket to lay it over on the end so the whole is covered up beneath the ground.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

I think you will find it hard selling baleage, much less 4x5 baleage. I price mine at $40 and $45. and there are locals selling it for $35 or less. That is the same price I sell a dry 4x4 for. Hard to compete with those prices. My clients that purchase are raising sheep, a few beef, and a customer that travels the world as a fitter for hire for the high end dairy cattle shows.

I don't make as much as I can, have to maintain manageable inventory and try to encourage prebuying so I know I have a market.

If your going to put holes in them make sure you use the correct tape.

https://www.farmbagsupplystore.com/agreta.html


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

vhaby said:


> If you find no market for ensiled round bales, you would be wise to transport the unwrapped bales to the location where they will be fed to your own livestock and then wrap and store them there. Depending on the kind of wrapping machine, you can wrap a bale, drop it off, move the wrapper forward, wrap the next bale, etc. and not have to use your hay spear to move the wrapped bales until they are ready to be fed. If you have double front hay spears horizontally across from each other, you might be able to slip them under the wrapped bales to move them if needed without opening the wrapping.
> 
> Your topic previously was covered on HT, but doing a quick search didn't locate the Thread. Mlappin is correct on the ideal moisture content for wrapping these bales. You could possibly safely wrap even at 45% moisture, but much lower than that and the hay will mold.
> 
> ...


Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), I don't have any livestock of my own to feed this to. I did try searching haytalk (using Google) , but didn't find too much information. I think I did see the thread about number or wraps, but that was about it. I'll have to check on the sheep and deer. I do know there is an Amish guy around the block with sheep.



IH 1586 said:


> I think you will find it hard selling baleage, much less 4x5 baleage. I price mine at $40 and $45. and there are locals selling it for $35 or less. That is the same price I sell a dry 4x4 for. Hard to compete with those prices. My clients that purchase are raising sheep, a few beef, and a customer that travels the world as a fitter for hire for the high end dairy cattle shows.
> 
> I don't make as much as I can, have to maintain manageable inventory and try to encourage prebuying so I know I have a market.
> 
> ...


Based on what I saw on craigslist, the prices in my area are about the same as what you mentioned. I do agree, it doesn't make sense in the long run at those prices, but would I be better off just letting the hay go or bale what I have so I get something back out of it? I did find a small local farm equipment dealer that has a wrapper for rent, but I haven't called them yet. Thanks for the website you pointed me to. I also see they have bale bags on there... might be a cheaper way to go depending on equipment rental costs.

I also just checked the weather and it looks like there might be a weather window later this week... I'll believe it when it happens though. Definitely need to get the applicator on the JD 348 checked out and ready.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

vhaby said:


> Don't know how to price the bales, but certainly need to price as with dry hay and add the cost of wrapping and extra labor to the bales. What about marketing to sheep owners? Any high fenced deer or elk ranches in your area?


Good luck with that technique. It's a market driven commodity, and for lack of a less blunt answer, nobody cares about the other guy's input costs. Wrapping to sell hay is typically a salvage operation and not one where adding costs upfront will bring a premium later.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Josh in WNY said:


> Based on what I saw on craigslist, the prices in my area are about the same as what you mentioned. I do agree, it doesn't make sense in the long run at those prices, but would I be better off just letting the hay go or bale what I have so I get something back out of it? I did find a small local farm equipment dealer that has a wrapper for rent, but I haven't called them yet. Thanks for the website you pointed me to. I also see they have bale bags on there... might be a cheaper way to go depending on equipment rental costs.
> 
> I also just checked the weather and it looks like there might be a weather window later this week... I'll believe it when it happens though. Definitely need to get the applicator on the JD 348 checked out and ready.


If you don't know if you could sell it or with renting the equipment and needing to break even you may be better off leaving it in the field. If your thinking bale bags it still needs to be dry.

I have a similar window also Sat., Sun., Mon. With Monday being mostly cloudy. Not promising but may have to try a few acres again.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

If you have an applicator on a round baler I would go that route before I would go the wrapping route... Get the stuff as dry as you can, hit it with preservative, and give the bales space in the barn to dry down/sweat before stacking them up in a big pile...


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## woodland (May 23, 2016)

8350HiTech said:


> Good luck with that technique. It's a market driven commodity, and for lack of a less blunt answer, nobody cares about the other guy's input costs. Wrapping to sell hay is typically a salvage operation and not one where adding costs upfront will bring a premium later.


I agree that trying to sell wrapped silage bales is the way to give top notch feed away at a discount. We have wrapped everything (for our own use) from 20% to 70% and actually prefer to do it on the drier side as it makes the bales easier to handle. Generally do 6-8 wraps with a in line wrapper unless the crop is really coarse then more may be required so the stems aren't poking through. The drier the feed the easier air can travel through it so bale them as tight as you can to prevent spoilage.

Maybe try talking to the neighbors to see if you can figure something out though. Never know till you ask and asking is free.








The only picture of our wrapper that I have is of it saving our bacon (or a bunch of second cut????) a year ago. Paid for itself in one year with saving 1100 bales from heavy rain which I figure is worth at least $20ea and that's what this used one cost us. Good luck????


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Not a whole lot of wrapping in this part of the country.....mainly a dairy here and there. I suppose it is due to the fact that we may have a little easier time making dry hay in this region most years.....but not always. This year has been tougher for dry hay but not unbearable like our fellas in the Northeast have had to deal with.

Regards, Mike


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Basically if you only make dry normally and you're only wrapping because the weather is crap so you can't make dry hay, everybody else and their cousin will also be wrapping bales to get it done.

About the last time silage bales were worth anything here to get excited about was the last big drought and all hay went up that year.


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

PaMike said:


> If you have an applicator on a round baler I would go that route before I would go the wrapping route... Get the stuff as dry as you can, hit it with preservative, and give the bales space in the barn to dry down/sweat before stacking them up in a big pile...


I don't have an applicator on the round baler at the moment, but I think I could move it there. The problem I have with that is that if I get it dry enough to bale with preservative, I'd rather have it in small squares where I can get a better price per ton.

I don't hold out much hope of the weather window lasting past Monday. I think the remains of Florence will start moving into the area at that point.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

This time of the year if you don't have perfect weather you might as well wrap it .. we won't get much more drying weather maybe a little. I'm hoping for one or two batches of dry hay yet and then wrap the rest. I can't see much more drying weather in New York


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

Well, we ended up baling it 'dry'. The weather cooperated enough that we were able to get it dried down enough for my dad and I to feel comfortable putting it up with preservative. I spent most of the morning on Sunday getting the Dohrmann applicator that I bought this spring mounted on the round baler. It was pretty easy, but me being an engineer, I had to look over everything at least 3 times before I actually did anything. Most of the hay could have been baled without preservative, but the stuff along the woods, etc. was a little green yet. The other problem is that the ground here is still so wet that there were spots (near the pond or a spring in the field) that had standing water. Ended up with 18 round bales off of just over 12 acres.

Oh, and the almost 100% chance of rain on Monday has turned into ~25% or less all the way through Thursday.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Josh in WNY said:


> Well, we ended up baling it 'dry'. The weather cooperated enough that we were able to get it dried down enough for my dad and I to feel comfortable putting it up with preservative. I spent most of the morning on Sunday getting the Dohrmann applicator that I bought this spring mounted on the round baler. It was pretty easy, but me being an engineer, I had to look over everything at least 3 times before I actually did anything. Most of the hay could have been baled without preservative, but the stuff along the woods, etc. was a little green yet. The other problem is that the ground here is still so wet that there were spots (near the pond or a spring in the field) that had standing water. Ended up with 18 round bales off of just over 12 acres.
> 
> Oh, and the almost 100% chance of rain on Monday has turned into ~25% or less all the way through Thursday.


Better get more down. That window for us sucked. Mowed Thursday morning and went back and tedded at 3:30. Dried down better than expected and was thinking maybe an earlier start on Saturday and have 2 easy days of baling. Done tedding at 5:30 and at 7 brief heavy rain. Friday at 10 tedded it again, it stunk and was as green as it could be. Tedded again at 3. Saturday tedded at 11 planning on baling late afternoon. Sprinkled on and off entire time I was tedding and at 1 light rain for the next hour. Lost that day. Yesterday was a hell of a day trying to get 2 days of baling done in one. 895 bales, 22+ acres in 5 hours.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Josh in WNY said:


> Well, we ended up baling it 'dry'. The weather cooperated enough that we were able to get it dried down enough for my dad and I to feel comfortable putting it up with preservative. I spent most of the morning on Sunday getting the Dohrmann applicator that I bought this spring mounted on the round baler. It was pretty easy, but me being an engineer, I had to look over everything at least 3 times before I actually did anything. Most of the hay could have been baled without preservative, but the stuff along the woods, etc. was a little green yet. The other problem is that the ground here is still so wet that there were spots (near the pond or a spring in the field) that had standing water. Ended up with 18 round bales off of just over 12 acres.
> 
> Oh, and the almost 100% chance of rain on Monday has turned into ~25% or less all the way through Thursday.


Did you take any moisture readings? I have found you can really be fooled thinking the hay is drier than it is when the humidity is high and the ground is wet. Keep an eye on those bales. I have a long thermometer that I like to stick into bales to see where the temp is at.


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

PaMike said:


> Did you take any moisture readings? I have found you can really be fooled thinking the hay is drier than it is when the humidity is high and the ground is wet. Keep an eye on those bales. I have a long thermometer that I like to stick into bales to see where the temp is at.


No moisture meter in the round baler, but that's why I went ahead and used the preservative anyway. We put the bales in the lean-to on the barn to get have them out of the rain, but I will probably move them back outside to sweat out a little in the nicer weather. They are all right at the front, so it won't be too hard to move them.


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