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Wrapped bales – Horsewrap vs. standard film

Wrapped bales – Horsewrap vs. standard film

Horsewrap is a stronger stretch film developed for bale wrapping of haylage for horses and should be able to handle the sharper and stiffer fresh matter which high DM concentrations imply. In this study Horsewrap was compared to the normal standard film, standard bale wrap, and 32 bales each were wrapped with the two stretch films. The crop was 2 cocksfoot leys from the second cut. The two stretch films were 25 µm thick, 750 mm wide and pre stretched about 70%, and the overlap on the bale was 50% of the film width.

There was a big difference in surface damage between the two stretch films (Table 1) but there was a great variation between individual bales. Nutrient losses were greater in the bales with the standard film and this was due to larger surface damages (bird attacks) and therefore discarded forage. Besides birds there are quite a lot of problems with cats, but it can also be dogs and other animals, that scratches and makes holes in the bales. The stretch film Horsewrap managed the surface damage attacks better and also had tighter joints. Wrapping the bales with Horsewrap resulted in bales with higher gas tightness compared to the standard bale wrap. Gas tightness is measured by inserting a one way valve (Ekolag) through the plastic, creating a small negative pressure and the time in seconds that it takes for the negative pressure to rise from -20 mm to -15 mm water column is measured.

Text 17.1 tabell 1 eng

In conclusion, bales should be protected against bird attacks, otherwise there is a risk for mould growth that can result in large nutrient losses. The quality of the plastic film can decrease these problems; the stretch film Horsewrap gave higher gas tightness, less surface damage and lower nutrient losses from mould growth.

Sara Muhonen, AgrD

Reference:
Jacobsson F. 2002. Paketensilering som belyser inverkan av sträckfilmens kvalitet vid inplastning med 6 och 8 lager sträckfilm. Examensarbete inom Lantmästarprogrammet. Institutionen för jordbrukets biosystem och teknologi, SLU, Alnarp. (in Swedish)

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