Since when has netwrap been considered a food source????

[dads706]

This is kind of an addendum to my feed mixer and tub grinder thread of a couple months ago.

I've been watching TMR demos and videos of mixers and tub grinders on youtube. These people throw net wrapped bales directly into tub grinders and TMR mixers. Not at my place they won't. Have they ever seen the contents of a cows rumen when twine and netwrap was neglected? That stuff is worse than plastic bottles in a landfill. It's great for wrapping hay or corn stalk bales, but that is where the benefit ends. The stuff doesn't rot. Who knows how long it will last. I'm occasionally picking up some from where I parked bales 20 years ago, and it's just as tough as it was then. Here it gets removed from every bale. Period. And if it is frozen in the hay, then you throw some hay away along with the wrap.

The guy who rents my ground tells about one farm that he rents, the guy used to have some cows and he would just cut the wrap and roll the bale down the hill to feed the cows. He wouldn't bother picking up the netwrap. He said he told him that he was not farming that hill until the wrap was picked up. He said the guy made a half azz attempt at it. My guy said he disked that field in about every direction possible to cut it up. He then used his field cultivator as a dump rake to get as much as he could. He still snags some every year with the corn planter and has to get off and clear the planter.

That's my vent for the day.

 

[midnightman]

Exactly how I feel about it. Sometimes have to bite my tongue because I can’t stand guys that don’t look after it.

[Gearclash]

Net wrap removal isn’t a religion with me, at least not when we used to tub grind hay.  Never had a problem related to  ground up wrap.  It was impractical to remove it in that situation anyway.  Totally impractical.  But I did rather dislike the idea of feeding ground netwrap and it was a small factor in my decision to quit using a tub grinder.  If the bales are NOT going through a tub grinder then I want all the net off, period.  

[sandhiller]

Netwrap and twine will kill a cow.

They can't digest it.

I always pick up all of mine.

The processor I use makes it easy.

 

[12_Guy]

I have never understood why anyone would use the netwrap anyway. We always used natural twine or plastic wrap and removed both. The solid plastic wrap does a great job of preventing any spoilage loss. 

[cedar farm]

Drilled a 20 some acre field for a neighbor a few years back. An oats/pasture mix. I lost count how my times I had to stop and cut pieces of net wrap from my opener guards and drag chains. 

[1256pickett]

I still use sisal twine! I can’t stand plastic. But I still get every bit off I can. Unless it’s bedding hay then it goes through the chopper cause it’s not plastic. I almost have to special order it to get it. I make sure I have enough in march to do a year and a half so I don’t run short and nobody has any sisal left. Did I say I hate plastic? 

[bitty]

We have learned to hate net wrap at removal time. String you can pull fairly easily without any hay mixed up with it. The net won't leave the hay behind. Net is so much easier to scuff also. Only advantage is that it's a smother surface when tube wrapping the bales 

[Jacka]

There once was a large state of the art dairy( large for the '70s), milked 500 cows.At one time had the world record Holstein cow,complete with all the fanfare that went with that.Well started to go down hill with kids turned managers and lived off what mommy and daddy did instead of doing it themselves.They had rejects, drug addicts,milking doing the work,place went down fast.They were getting bread from a bakery. They threw whole loaves in the mixer with cutting plastic off.The dead cow guy told me they were a weekly of not daily pick up of dead cows.This went on until after he skinned a few out that he opened up the stomachs and found them full of plastic bags.Cows just starved to death.Sickening.

[Matt Kirsch]

I'd contest that it doesn't rot. Any bales around here that have been sitting on the ground for a length of time, the netwrap is gone where it came in contact with the ground.

I agree though, it has no place in a machine, or an animal's diet. How the net doesn't wrap up in the works of a TMR mixer is beyond me.

We fed net wrapped bales to the steers out in the pasture for a couple of years, and at least to me it did not seem like a big deal. Slash across the bale with a good sharp knife while it's hanging on the bale spear, peel the wrap off in one motion, wad it up, and stuff it in the trash. Don't know what everyone is complaining about. Twine seems like a much bigger pain in the rear to me.

[Jacka]

10 minutes ago, Matt Kirsch said:

I'd contest that it doesn't rot. Any bales around here that have been sitting on the ground for a length of time, the netwrap is gone where it came in contact with the ground.

I agree though, it has no place in a machine, or an animal's diet. How the net doesn't wrap up in the works of a TMR mixer is beyond me.

We fed net wrapped bales to the steers out in the pasture for a couple of years, and at least to me it did not seem like a big deal. Slash across the bale with a good sharp knife while it's hanging on the bale spear, peel the wrap off in one motion, wad it up, and stuff it in the trash. Don't know what everyone is complaining about. Twine seems like a much bigger pain in the rear to me.

The stuff doesn't rot it may break down but plastic is plastic. That's why fish in the oceans have microscopic plastic in their bodies and we eat the meat.

[yellowrosefarm]

32 minutes ago, Matt Kirsch said:

I'd contest that it doesn't rot. Any bales around here that have been sitting on the ground for a length of time, the netwrap is gone where it came in contact with the ground.

I agree though, it has no place in a machine, or an animal's diet. How the net doesn't wrap up in the works of a TMR mixer is beyond me.

We fed net wrapped bales to the steers out in the pasture for a couple of years, and at least to me it did not seem like a big deal. Slash across the bale with a good sharp knife while it's hanging on the bale spear, peel the wrap off in one motion, wad it up, and stuff it in the trash. Don't know what everyone is complaining about. Twine seems like a much bigger pain in the rear to me.

Except when it's frozen or covered with snow.

[Absent Minded Farmer]

I thought that was dessert for after we eat zee bugz?

Mike

[DHF]

i saw a picture years ago, may have been on here, of a steer skeleton with a big wad of net rap where it's guts would have been. don't know if it was staged or not but i got the message across.  net rap eaten by cows is pet peave of our vet.

pete

[Reichow7120]

15 hours ago, dads706 said:

This is kind of an addendum to my feed mixer and tub grinder thread of a couple months ago.

I've been watching TMR demos and videos of mixers and tub grinders on youtube. These people throw net wrapped bales directly into tub grinders and TMR mixers. Not at my place they won't. Have they ever seen the contents of a cows rumen when twine and netwrap was neglected? That stuff is worse than plastic bottles in a landfill. It's great for wrapping hay or corn stalk bales, but that is where the benefit ends. The stuff doesn't rot. Who knows how long it will last. I'm occasionally picking up some from where I parked bales 20 years ago, and it's just as tough as it was then. Here it gets removed from every bale. Period. And if it is frozen in the hay, then you throw some hay away along with the wrap.

The guy who rents my ground tells about one farm that he rents, the guy used to have some cows and he would just cut the wrap and roll the bale down the hill to feed the cows. He wouldn't bother picking up the netwrap. He said he told him that he was not farming that hill until the wrap was picked up. He said the guy made a half azz attempt at it. My guy said he disked that field in about every direction possible to cut it up. He then used his field cultivator as a dump rake to get as much as he could. He still snags some every year with the corn planter and has to get off and clear the planter.

That's my vent for the day.

 

I feel his pain. 

About 18 years ago i had to chisel plow this 5 acre field that the beef cows had ran on corn stalks all winter down at my Uncle’s farm. My cousin's now ex husband had been responsible for feeding the cows hay that winter. Round bales with plastic twine around them. I started plowing and hit the first spot he fed hay and immediately plugged the plow up with plastic twine in all that $-IT and mud. It was tangled in everything. 

I cleaned the plow out and tried with a fork i found near the buildings to pick up what I could find in the piles but even then I couldn't find it all. There were 5 places in that field he had fed hay. Every time I hit one. Plow plugged and I dug twine out of the plow. A small plowing job turned into a half day ordeal. By the end i was covered in $-it and mud digging that plow out. I was really hating life at that point. When I was done. I had a big pile of twine that I threw on the sidewalk to the house to get a point across. 

I was just finally finishing up and getting ready to leave when her husband showed up. I saw him and blew a gasket. I slammed on the brakes. Threw the tractor in park and flew out of that cab. ( don't remember hitting and steps on the way down honestly.) I stormed over to him and Launched into a curse filled tirade that went on for 5 minutes. He never said a world after hello. He had this person on a railroad bridge with nowhere to go and a train coming at them look. When I was done i stormed back to the tractor and drove off. 

He never made that mistake again while he was around 

[1256pickett]

3 minutes ago, Reichow7120 said:

I feel his pain. 

About 18 years ago i had to chisel plow this 5 acre field that the beef cows had ran on corn stalks all winter down at my Uncle’s farm. My cousin's now ex husband had been responsible for feeding the cows hay that winter. Round bales with plastic twine around them. I started plowing and hit the first spot he fed hay and immediately plugged the plow up with plastic twine in all that $-IT and mud. It was tangled in everything. 

I cleaned the plow out and tried with a fork i found near the buildings to pick up what I could find in the piles but even then I couldn't find it all. There were 5 places in that field he had fed hay. Every time I hit one. Plow plugged and I dug twine out of the plow. A small plowing job turned into a half day ordeal. By the end i was covered in $-it and mud digging that plow out. I was really hating life at that point. When I was done. I had a big pile of twine that I threw on the sidewalk to the house to get a point across. 

I was just finally finishing up and getting ready to leave when her husband showed up. I saw him and blew a gasket. I slammed on the brakes. Threw the tractor in park and flew out of that cab. ( don't remember hitting and steps on the way down honestly.) I stormed over to him and Launched into a curse filled trade that went on for 5 minutes. He never said a world after hello. He had this person on a railroad bridge with nowhere to go and a train coming at them look. When I was done i stormed back to the tractor and drove off. 

He never made that mistake again while he was around 

At least you got your point across.  Maybe he learned something 

[Reichow7120]

4 hours ago, 1256pickett said:

At least you got your point across.  Maybe he learned something 

He did on that front at least. A lot of other fronts not so much. 

He learned recently that if you are faking a injury and claiming work related. Don't go play basketball and post it. The companies tend to seize on that. Also he learned that lack of money and job and bills to pay equals his truck being reposesed and the bank starting foreclosure on you.

Cousin is glad she divorce him

[Doug in NY]

twine or net wrap it all comes off before the bale is fed.  We have horses and sheep here and go to great lengths to keep that material out of the paddocks and into the garbage when feeding.

[hippy5488]

absolutely despise net wrap and plastic twine. the hay i put up gets sisal twine on bales. bought hay has net or plastic takes three times as long to remove especially if frozen snow or rain on them. 

[Big Bud guy]

Everything get removed before going into the mixers. We haven’t used sisal in years or any twine on the round bales.  We use net wrap for three reasons.  
 

1.  It’s faster baling and the fewer times the bale has to turn the less leaves you loose.

2.  Net wrap is the only thing that will keep ground up rotary straw together.

3.  We put up as much hay as we can every year because next year you might not have any.  That means some  of our hay doesn’t get fed the year it’s put up. Net wrap keeps the hay better preserved than twines. I’m feeding 2 year old straw and maybe the first half inch is degraded a little and that’s it.  

Our square bales use plastic twine because we’ve had less trouble with it than sisal on the small squares and I’m not even sure you can get sisal for big squares.  I’m not in love with plastic but to me there is no better alternative yet and I’m sure as **** ain’t going back to loose hay like we were 70 years ago.  

[Skagit Farmer]

Yup.  I make small squares but use only sisal twine even though it's twice the price as plastic.  I don't care how careful you are in picking up used twine, there is always some that gets away from you.  Haven't had anything with plastic twine on my place for over 15 years but I still find a piece now and then.  The stuff never goes away.  Years ago when I used plastic I lost two steers that ate it, have had it wrap tightly around their feet causing wounds.  Not a fun job to try and cut the stuff out of the wound.  

[yellowrosefarm]

23 minutes ago, Big Bud guy said:

 

3.  We put up as much hay as we can every year because next year you might not have any.  That means some  of our hay doesn’t get fed the year it’s put up. Net wrap keeps the hay better preserved than twines. I’m feeding 2 year old straw and maybe the first half inch is degraded a little and that’s it.  

 

I have to agree that the wrap keeps the hay better.  I feed my round bales in a feeder, so all wrap and string has to be removed before it goes in there. I remember well, before I built my hay barn trying to get string or wrap off after 3 days of rain turned into a major freeze.

[Missouri Mule]

12 hours ago, 12_Guy said:

I have never understood why anyone would use the netwrap anyway. We always used natural twine or plastic wrap and removed both. The solid plastic wrap does a great job of preventing any spoilage loss. 

I've used all twines and net. 

As for the net heres why I will continue to use it. 

1. It feeds so much faster while baling. Speed= time and more bales before it rains. 

2. Half of my hay sits outside in rows. It amazing the difference of waste net has in comparison to twine. I'd guess about half on 2 y/0 hay. 

3. Sisal rots off before you can get back to haul the hay out of the field. Or for me it does. I bale all my hay then go back sometimes a month later to collect and haul in. I'd rather get my hay baled before it burns up and have some protein in it. I wish I had help to haul it for me while I'm still baling but I dont for now. 

4. I still think it's easier to get off. If it's cold and icy I'll set some bales in the sun the day before or I'll pull dry hay out of the barn. So net freezing to hay isn't much of a problem. 

5. Net feeds much better in my wrapper for my silage hay. 

Yes it's a pita but so Is plastic twine. Sisal rots and half your bale falls off the spike while driving to the bale rings, usually right in the gate opening where you have to pick it up.   That's my reasoning anyway. 

[R190]

20 years ago I had a business and rotary hoed for customers . Now a rotary hoe is a used net wrap /twine recovery machine.

I spent a lot of time removing hoe wheels and cleaning them off and reinstalling them.

[sandhiller]

6 hours ago, DHF said:

i saw a picture years ago, may have been on here, of a steer skeleton with a big wad of net rap where it's guts would have been. don't know if it was staged or not but i got the message across.  net rap eaten by cows is pet peave of our vet.

pete

Found this elk while out fencing. 

 

Also found this wad of netwrap, pretty sure that is what did him in.