Keep your silage well wrapped up

The quality of stretchfilm wrapping will have a direct effect on the ultimate value of the bale, points out a leading crop packaging specialist. One roll of film can be responsible for almost £400 worth of silage if wrapped with 4 layers, or up to £500 worth of forage, with a 6 layer covered bale haylage.

"A poor wrapping job - or poor bale handling - can risk a huge proportion of the bale value, either losing money by affecting its value at point of sale, or reducing its eventual feed value on farm and increasing direct feed costs," says Graham Robson, Technical Manager of UAT, the crop packaging specialists. "However, if an extra two layers are applied to a silage bale, the resulting improvement in bale quality far outweighs the cost of the extra film layers.

Controlled tests have consistently shown that a 6 layer covered bale retains almost all of its feed value, when compared with the conventional thinking of wrapping with 4 layers - with almost no spoilage through air or water penetration and a consequent huge reduction in effluent run-off."

Mr Robson underlined the benefit of the increased protection from the extra layers of wrap: "The 4 layer wrapped bales lost 9% of their feed value on average, effectively losing £1 worth of feed value. Whereas the additional film layers of a 6 layer wrap would have cost around 50p extra and increased the bale's value by double that at least."

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For further information please contact Graham Robson, Technical Manager of UAT on 07710 609057 or email graham.robson@uat.co.uk

or contact Ahead Ltd on 01904 634040 inbox@ahead-marketing.com