Colourful haylage bales

Today it’s common to see wrapped bales in several different colours and the different colours support different foundations, which is great! But the colour of the plastic film can actually affect the temperature of the silage/haylage bale. The sun warms up the bale and white film reflects the sunlight and thereby keeps the temperature down. Darker film on the other hand absorbs sunlight and gives a higher temperature inside the bale. Black film absorbs the most sunlight.

When the temperature increases the permeability of the film also increases and more oxygen enters the bale. Six times more oxygen permeates the film at 50°C compared to at 15°C. Higher oxygen supply and temperature in the bale implies increased activity of the butyric acid producing bacteria, which leads to reduced quality and feed losses. It is therefore important to keep a low temperature in the bales to have the best quality and economy in the production. Therefore choose as light coloured film as possible for wrapping of forage.

Read the follow up post with answers from Trioplast here!

Sara Muhonen, AgrD

Reference:
©Trioplast. 2012. Balhandboken ISBN 978-91-637-1823-6 (in Swedish)