Wrap it up
Hugh Carpenter and his father, Joe, manage an agri-contracting business, Carpenter Agri, from their farm at Old Leighlin on the Carlow/Kilkenny border. They make 20,000 bales of hay, silage and straw each year for their dairy and beef-suckler customers, so you could say they know a thing or two about how to wrap a good one. In addition to baling, they also offer mowing and tedding services, as required by their customers. Their farm machinery includes three Valtra tractors, as well as a New Holland and a John Deere, two McHale Fusion 3 Plus integrated baler wrappers, a Kverneland tedder, two Kverneland mowers, as well as Claas and Kverneland rakes.
Other machinery includes a Bredal 10-tonne (t) lime spreader and three slurry tankers – two from Conor Engineering and one from HiSpec.
The Carpenters are also dairy farmers with a herd of 130 British Friesian cows, supplying milk to Tirlán co-op. On their farm they keep an Angus and a Hereford bull and their dairy X beef calves are sold to local beef farmers. They also rear 30 replacement heifers.
Dual-wrapping system
As farmers, the Carpenters are well aware of the standard of silage required for optimum milk production and liveweight gain. They offer customers who opt for baled silage a choice between using net wrap and the new system which uses Baletite net replacement film. The Film & Film (F&F) system is an innovative dual-wrapping method, which combines the use of SilotitePro1800 bale wrap and Baletite net wrap replacement film.
This results, the Carlow contractors say, in better shaped, denser and more compact bales which can better withstand handling. Hugh charges his customers slightly more per bale, depending on operating conditions, for using the F&F system, while endorsing the benefits in terms of sealing, transport and storage.
He also insists that the bales are easier to feed out.
Bale over clamp
One of Carpenter Agri’s long-term customers are Peter and Jane Brophy who have two dairy herds (a Holstein/Friesian and a cross-bred herd) in Kilkenny with an average yield of 550kg of milk solids. The Brophys make around 180 acres of first-cut silage and 80 acres of second-cut – mainly bales – and they bale and wrap up to 1,200 bales each year.
Peter says he prefers baled rather than clamped silage, as it eliminates the cost of building silage pits. He points to lower storage losses with baled silage, adding that his cows prefer the longer-chopped grass. Further endorsement includes perceived improvements in fermentation and ease of feed out compared to other wrap systems. There are strict protocols around baled silage storage. Under good agricultural practice conditions to safeguard water, such bales are only permitted to be stacked two bales high, and on hardcore.
Bale popularity
According to Larry Coogan, sales manager for Quinns of Baltinglass, most beef and sheep farmers are now making baled silage, adding that dairy farmers are baling their surplus grass. Quinns is regarded as being an innovator in the agricultural economy, with a team of 12 technical advisors to assist farmers on a range of agri activities. It purchases over 180,000mt of grain, annually, and its mill in Baltinglass produces 50,000t of coarse animal feed, annually.
Commercial trial results
While assertions around the comparative advantages of one silage bale wrap system over another are often anecdotal, some trial work carried out in Wales provides evidence of benefits for the film and wrap system.
Dr Dave Davies of Silage Solutions Ltd, acts as an independent silage consultant and is a former senior research scientist at the Institute of Grassland & Environmental Research (IGER) at Aberystwyth in Wales.
On a trial he conducted on a commercial farm in Wales, Dr Davies found that there was 7.5 per cent less dry matter (DM) losses when compared to net wrap bales, due to an enhanced fermentation process. He found that that there was 80 per cent less DM losses due to mould formation, when compared to net wrap bales.
The physical gains for the farm included an additional average 7.35kg DM weight increase per bale using the F&F wrapping system. All things being equal, that could deliver 15L of additional milk production, while for a cattle farmer the equivalent would be an increase of 1.9kg of live weight gain per bale. The value of the extra silage conserved is around €5/bale. Those calculations are based on data supplied by Dr Tom Butler of FBA Laboratories.
It is important to note that the above trial was undertaken under commercial farm conditions and not on a research institution farm where bales are carefully handled and stored under ideal conditions by well-trained research staff.
arm recycling
The Irish Farm Film Producers Group (IFFPG), a not-for-profit body, has recycled over 400,000t of farm film waste since its establishment in 1998. The scheme, which is funded by both industry and farmers and approved by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications,
is an excellent example of what can be achieved when all the key stakeholders in a sector come together to work for the environment.
Irish farmers achieved a record 90 per cent recycling rate for farm films in 2021 and in doing so recycled the equivalent of film from 18 million silage bales. The majority was collected at 200 bring centres, held during the summer at locations such as livestock marts, coops and agri-merchant premises. Over a third of collected material was supplied to Irish recyclers for processing into a range of new products. In total, 37,000t of silage wrap and silage covers were recycled in 2021, that is 3,000t more than in 2020 which was also a record year. For the average farmer who makes 300 bales of silage, the total recycling cost is approximately €60, while average distance to the local bring-centre is only 11km. These factors, as well as a desire by farmers to be environmentally responsible, have resulted in the recycling rate for farm films being consistently the highest for any recycling stream in the country.
Did you know?
Useful products manufactured from recycled bale wrap and silage covers include: calf pens, fencing posts, floor slats, garden furniture, gates, pet housing, rubbish bags, and water piping.
Berry bpi, which manufactures an extensive range of flexible packaging films across various industries including agriculture and horticulture, is a recycler of bale wrap products and other packaging with the scope and expertise to recycle over 150,000t annually. Every tonne of polythene recycled saves 1.8t of crude oil, reduces energy usage by two thirds, entails 90 per cent less water and cuts sulphur dioxide emissions by 33 per cent.