# Just bought a Mchale square bale wrapper any advice



## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

Well the weather man was wrong again and I have about 150 to 200 ton worth of beautiful 5th cut alfalfa orchard mix on the ground and not looking good for dry baling. After some phone calls and no luck finding any one that could wrap for us, I bought a Mchale 995TSR wrapper. We will prob have 400 to 500 3' by 3' to wrap in the next day or so. Any one that has any advice I would be greatly appreciated. One question I have is should we put prop acid on the hay,_ I am guessing moisture to be around 30% to 40% . The moisture is the biggest reason not to chop I don't think it would keep. This hay is very close to dry baling but today was very cloudy as are the next couple and then possile heavy rains starting sunday._


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## IAhaymakr (Jun 4, 2008)

Bale it up, skip the acid (why ruin it with that stuff), and don't skimp on wrap. You should have at least six layers on the sides of the bales. Remember to shorten your bale length down to accommodate your wrapper. I make mine about 6.5 feet for my wrappers, but I don't have McHales. Also make sure they are tight, a cutter baler is the real ticket for higher density, but not required for it to work. What are you going to handle them with after they are wrapped?


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

DON'T put acid on it if you will wrap. If anything, put an innoculant on, considering that you are on the lower end of ensiling moisture.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

IAhaymakr said:


> Bale it up, skip the acid (why ruin it with that stuff), and don't skimp on wrap. You should have at least six layers on the sides of the bales. Remember to shorten your bale length down to accommodate your wrapper. I make mine about 6.5 feet for my wrappers, but I don't have McHales. Also make sure they are tight, a cutter baler is the real ticket for higher density, but not required for it to work. What are you going to handle them with after they are wrapped?


 We also bought a bale hugger for our skidloader


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## IAhaymakr (Jun 4, 2008)

Thought I might add that as your moisture drops below 30%, and especially with the temperature this time of the year, it is unlikely that you will have much if any fermentation. This is not a negative, as you will take sweet hay out of the wrap months later that looks exactly like the day you baled it. I have customers who would feed nothing else if I could provide enough of it. Feeds like dry hay but a lot more palatable.


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

Totally agree with everything IAhaymakr has said with emphasis on not skimping on the wrap. This is especially important as moisture levels drop and with forage prices at the levels they are this year that extra couple of rolls of wrap will be a real quick payback.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

We finished wrapping the 400 bales we baled early sunday morning 2 AM, just ahead of the rain. Salesman delivered friday and did not have any clue on how to operate. Once he left my boys firgued it out pretty well. We had a little trouble with a few bales ripping on the one corner. Hopefully we can talk we manufacture rep to trouble shoot.


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

Bob M said:


> We finished wrapping the 400 bales we baled early sunday morning 2 AM, just ahead of the rain. Salesman delivered friday and did not have any clue on how to operate. Once he left my boys firgued it out pretty well. We had a little trouble with a few bales ripping on the one corner. Hopefully we can talk we manufacture rep to trouble shoot.


You will find the drier the product you are wrapping the more issues you have trying to get the corners to stay intact, especially alfalfa. Wrap quality will also have a bearing


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## IAhaymakr (Jun 4, 2008)

Mike is right about wrap quality. It is definitely a get what you pay for deal. We have found that Supergrass 1.2mil is by far the best, and most expensive, wrap that we use. Even though its over $100 per roll I think it's cheaper in the long run with almost no wrapping problems to deal with. Bal-n-sil is a close second, and most every other brand we have tried falls way short in comparison. Next step for you is to upgrade wrappers to a model which applies wrap from two film dispensers at the same time so you don't have to wrap til 2AM. It's all fun and games then!


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

Apologies for going off topic, but in your experience IAhaymakr which is the better wrapper Tanco or Taarup/Kuhn/Kverneland?


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

Now that our hay is up and wrapped and hurricane is gone, we are tring to decide weather to keep this single bale wrapper or trade in on a tubeline wrapper. We needed this wrapped in a hurry to get the job done, and told salesman we might be interested in trading on an inline wrapper. I am thinking of renting or custom wrapping to help pay for the machine. Seems like more people in our area may be interested in renting inline wrapper, and I am thinking they may be cheaper to operate. No inlines available with a days notice last week, so we bought what we could to gat job done. I am not looking to make alot of balage but to use as a last resort to get hay baled when weather changes. Any thoughts on brands or advice?


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## IAhaymakr (Jun 4, 2008)

I will try to answer two questions at once based on my experiences here. I tried inline first. It was a disaster for us because the moisture wasn't right...too low I guess. I learned later that inline works best at 55 to 65% moisture. Mine was around thirty and it basically turned to $hit. I never was really excited about inline anyway because I sell hay and there are too many issues with transportability that inline can't overcome. And I really don't want to harvest that wet anyway. So I bought a stationary Tanco and started individually wrapping. The results were excellent but the process was slow. Way too many late nights. It was a good machine, built like a tank, but with only one dispenser it was SLOW. The next year I bought the Taruup used on a whim for a spare machine, but right away put it to full time because it was able to pick bales up and wrap in the field, one operator, more than twice as fast as the Tanco with two men working at it. Problem with the Taruup is getting parts. When it went down I waited 5 weeks for parts. So when I decided to add another wrapper I went back to Tanco for a new one. The new 1814 will also load in the field and it is fast, just like the Taruup. We now run them both full time and can almost keep up with the baler in good hay. Each wrapper has its good and bad points... The Taruup won't lift as much, so the wet heavy bales over 2200 lbs get wrapped with the Tanco. But the Taruup is more user friendly, easier to put an inexperienced operator in it. Neither one has had much for problems, I guess. Both come from across the pond. I now have a Tanco dealer close to home, Kuhn handles the Taruup stuff now but they are helpless with service issues. I would buy both of them again, given the chance. I really can't say which one is better, I think they will both run a long time. I would like to try a 998 McHale but they want too much $$$. No matter what brand there will be a learning curve, and having good service close by is maybe the most important factor in making a choice. I am lucky to have technical people close to home who are willing and able to work on both of my machines.


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