Bales wrapped with orbital wrapper

Markmex

Well-Known Member
Hello lads, I just wondered if anyone here has had a similar problem to this or could give me some advice. Last year the contractor who does our baling (who gives us very good service and has done for many years) bought a new orbital wrapper. We had a small paddock that got ahead of the cows to bale so they came out and baled it, just 6 bales, they wrapped it with the new wrapper and it was one of the first jobs they did with it. When they were wrapped I remarked the wrap looked very loose with lots of air in the bale, they agreed and rang mchales to see what they thought. As far as I can gather they were more or less told that's how those wrappers work and everything is fine. Anyway a day or 2 later the bales seemed to swell up like they were full of gas. Over the rest of the summer they made over 200 more bales for us but they looked better wrapped and they said they had adjusted the tension on the plastic. Over the winter we had no problem with the silage, it was very good quality with little or no waste till we got through the pile back to the initial 6 bales which were completely rotten, they had a consistency almost of dung, you could feed none of it.
This year they sold one baler and bought a fusion and baled the first cut with it for us, really good solid bales and the wrap was good and tight. We baled the second cut on Friday, it was cut dry on the monday, got a bit of rain on the Wednesday but had dried well by Friday and smelled good when it was being baled. Anyway because of the push to get things baled before the rain on Saturday they were under pressure so ours got baled with the lely baler and wrapped with the orbital wrapper and again I thought the wrap looked loose. When I went out yesterday morning I see some of the bales swelling up again and while no one wants to loose silage, particularly this year, I could live with the 6 last year but they made 58 on Friday and a lot of them are swollen. So I rang the contractor and he is coming out today to have a look, he suggested rewrapping them but is that a good idea ? Should we just puncture them and let the air out and rewrap or strip the plastic off and rewrap or just leave them alone? He rekons he hasn't heard anyone else having this problem and I would have no reason to doubt him, as I said they have worked for us for many years and I worked for them myself for a few years 20+ years ago.
 
These were done with the fusion.
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Not a year for leaving to chance. They'll be fine to re-wrap, had to do it after a plague of crows here one year and it turned out fine. You may let off the gas before you re-wrap though, stab them all when the wrapper lands in the yard. I'd leave 4 of them alone to see what becomes of them. Don't know who'd end up paying for the job though!!
 
It was hardly a wet/showery when wrappin them mark and the wrap was slippin/jumpin on the rollers so not tensioning right? Quick wipe of petrol on the rollers sorts it out.
 
Not a year for leaving to chance. They'll be fine to re-wrap, had to do it after a plague of crows here one year and it turned out fine. You may let off the gas before you re-wrap though, stab them all when the wrapper lands in the yard. I'd leave 4 of them alone to see what becomes of them. Don't know who'd end up paying for the job though!!

Agree'd. Not worth the chance. Most likely driver error.

Mark 4 of the bales at random with the contractor. And as Bruicey said leave them. That will decide who foots the bill!
 
It was hardly a wet/showery when wrappin them mark and the wrap was slippin/jumpin on the rollers so not tensioning right? Quick wipe of petrol on the rollers sorts it out.
No the day was dry and the grass was fairly day too.
 
Well I spoke to the contractor on sunday and he rang mchales and silawrap on monday and both say they are fine, they rekoned the orbital wraps them more airtight than the old type wrapper and they also have extra wrap on them so the gas can't escape like it did with the old type wrapper. I punctured one of the bales a layer of plastic at a time, there is no air between the layers, it's gas inside the bale between it and the plastic but I still think the plastic was not tight enough to begin with. As regards fodder we will be fine even all 58 were rotten as we usually sell about 100 bales to a local riding school so we could use some of them but the financial loss and the hassle of getting rid of them is a different story. Anyway the experts say there is no need to rewrap them so I said that's grand but if they are rotten I will be blaming them and I'll be paying for nothing until I have used those bales.
Agree'd. Not worth the chance. Most likely driver error.

Mark 4 of the bales at random with the contractor. And as Bruicey said leave them. That will decide who foots the bill!
 
Just a thought, is there anyone else with a wrapper near you and could you get them to re-wrap say 6 bales and see if there is any difference? Using the same make/type of plastic for comparison.
 
Well I spoke to the contractor on sunday and he rang mchales and silawrap on monday and both say they are fine, they rekoned the orbital wraps them more airtight than the old type wrapper and they also have extra wrap on them so the gas can't escape like it did with the old type wrapper. I punctured one of the bales a layer of plastic at a time, there is no air between the layers, it's gas inside the bale between it and the plastic but I still think the plastic was not tight enough to begin with. As regards fodder we will be fine even all 58 were rotten as we usually sell about 100 bales to a local riding school so we could use some of them but the financial loss and the hassle of getting rid of them is a different story. Anyway the experts say there is no need to rewrap them so I said that's grand but if they are rotten I will be blaming them and I'll be paying for nothing until I have used those bales.

Out of a matter of interest how long were they baled before they were wrapped. Ive seen it a few times were bales were left a good few hrs before being wrapped and swelled up like that. Turned out fine but i guess it was the fact they had started they had started fermentation stage and gas got caught in between
 
Just a thought, is there anyone else with a wrapper near you and could you get them to re-wrap say 6 bales and see if there is any difference? Using the same make/type of plastic for comparison.
Could be a plan alright, I wonder would it be too late at this stage, they are baled a week since yesterday?
 
Not in this case, the wrapper was in the field the same time as the baler, in fairness it is fast, he left the field just a few minutes after the baler and we were drawing them in and stacking them nearly as quick, we are lucky we have great neighbours, you would nearly need traffic lights in the yard!
Out of a matter of interest how long were they baled before they were wrapped. Ive seen it a few times were bales were left a good few hrs before being wrapped and swelled up like that. Turned out fine but i guess it was the fact they had started they had started fermentation stage and gas got caught in between
 
Could be a plan alright, I wonder would it be too late at this stage, they are baled a week since yesterday?

I don't know if it's too late or not but if it could be done you would see if the plastic was tighter than the original wrapper.
 
I had a kv wrapper one time and it wouldn't tension the plastic some times for an unknown reason tried everything and it could still do it the odd day it used never happen with volac plastic.
Never heard a word back about them
 
Not in this case, the wrapper was in the field the same time as the baler, in fairness it is fast, he left the field just a few minutes after the baler and we were drawing them in and stacking them nearly as quick, we are lucky we have great neighbours, you would nearly need traffic lights in the yard!

Ye have great help down there drawing bales alright mark. I do be wrapping in Declans only after decking who ya Are, small world!
I would be ruling out the wrap for definite, it's all silawrap I would be using and there's never a problem with it.
 
Ye have great help down there drawing bales alright mark. I do be wrapping in Declans only after decking who ya Are, small world!
I would be ruling out the wrap for definite, it's all silawrap I would be using and there's never a problem with it.
Ha it's a small world for sure!! No rest for you, I think we met on the road earlier today? Yea I think they have always used silawrap and in fairness they would be keen lads with machinery, I would say everything would be adjusted and set up right etc. I suppose we will just have to wait and see now, they will probably be fine but the few rotten ones last year have left me a bit wary.
 
I'm probably completely wrong, but the rollers that turn the bale on the orbital are leaving indentations in the wrap as its being wrapped, is it getting air trapped between the layers as its putting corrugated finish in the wrap. Its clearly visible in your pics and this vid.
I know other wrappers have used that type of roller but the orbital do seem very aggressive.
 
I'm probably completely wrong, but the rollers that turn the bale on the orbital are leaving indentations in the wrap as its being wrapped, is it getting air trapped between the layers as its putting corrugated finish in the wrap. Its clearly visible in your pics and this vid.
I know other wrappers have used that type of roller but the orbital do seem very aggressive.
Well I punctured the wrap one layer at a time on one bale but I got nothing till I went through the final layer and a good shot of gas came out. I watched a few videos of the wrapper working on YouTube and there is one where the camera is above the bale. When you watch the arc the plastic is brought around over the bale you can see how the plastic doesn't seem to follow the shape of the bale,where the bale is flat and the plastic is brought across in an arc and it's wouldn't be hard to see how it could trap air. In fairness we had 217 bales last year, all were wrapped with the same wrapper and apart from the initial 6 the others were perfect so I don't really know what to think.
 
I'm probably completely wrong, but the rollers that turn the bale on the orbital are leaving indentations in the wrap as its being wrapped, is it getting air trapped between the layers as its putting corrugated finish in the wrap. Its clearly visible in your pics and this vid.
I know other wrappers have used that type of roller but the orbital do seem very aggressive.

I fitted them grips to the fusion and its not causing that problem
 
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