Wire Ties or Poly Twine Bales?

The reality is that there are advantages and disadvantages on both sides of the question. I do have a preference though, and that is for poly twine over wire. The main reason for this is that the poly twine is much easier to work with. It cuts with a knife. It doesn't cause damage to my tools (or me personally) if I mistakenly hit it with a chainsaw, etc. It is soft and flexible, yet strong. It really makes everything easier.

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Wire ties on bales have one distinct advantage over poly twine and that is that they make the bales incredibly tight. The baling machine is able to get the bales much more dense with the metal ties so the uniformity of the bales is improved as well. If you don't plan to modify the size of many bales in your project, then perhaps metal ties are the way to go.

If you are willing to work around the potential danger of using wire and the hassle of retying bales with it, then it could very well be a good match, especially if wire tied bales are what are most readily available in your area.

Jumping back to poly twine, it's important to note that not all twines are created equal. There are several different grades of poly twine meant for different uses. For example, there are very thick twines which are designed for use on jumbo bales, and there is very thin twine which is primarily used for flossing teeth (just kidding, but it is too thin to use for straw bale construction).

Making sure you have the right twine is important. As noted, the thin stuff is no good for baling a house; however, neither is the big stuff. It's too much like working with rope. My preference is for "super blue" (my name for it) twine. It is designed for use on three string bales and is both strong and easy to work with.

Tallying the votes, wire is out. I have not seen wire bales in years around here. The only times I saw it years back were on the much larger 75-100+ lbs bales.

As Bluey said the knotter can be changed over on just about all balers. Not expensive but not cheap either when labor is included. The change and installation is not that tricky for the average to good DIY. But the Knotter has to be &#;set up, aligned&#; just right after installing the new parts to give trouble free operation. There is a bit of an &#;art&#; to this, trust me. Nothing worse than having baling problems especially knotter problems when you NEED to get hay out of the field and into the barn before a thunderstorm rolls in. Knotters that are out of alignment will kick out a few bales just fine and this miss-tie a few after that. Miss-tied bales blowout all over the place when they are &#;shot&#; out of the bale thrower.

Knowing how many bales have been run through the machine is good to know as is age. Problems do not come to light until you are in the middle of baling. It is good to have a relationship with a &#;field mechanic&#; before you need one. The good ones understand &#;time is of the essence&#; and will show up on site with all of the &#;likely&#; parts needed to get the baler up and running.

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The &#;knotter&#; is a pretty cool bit of engineering. But it has a lot of moving parts, just about all of which need to maintain &#;close tolerances&#; and &#;play well&#; together to give trouble free operation. But certain &#;key&#; parts do wear out depending on how many bales have been made and or how well it has been maintained. So there will come a time when the Knotter will need a complete rebuild. My late 90&#;s (second owner) N-H 570 needed this done a few year ago, around $2,500.

I run Sisal for hay. I feel it is environmentally friendly after the string is throw out, biodegradable. Requires another famer to grow it. Twine that can end up in a paddock breaks down quickly. Less chances of a horse getting it wrapped around their leg and not breaking like plastic. Or getting wrapped up in my mowers.

I tend to run plastic for straw. I like to bale straw on the heavy side of things so it is compacted tight in the baler. But straw is very &#;fluffy&#; so when it leaves the baler it can expand pretty good putting a lot of tension on the twine. Sisal tends to break at the knots.

Making good hay is not nearly as easy as it looks. There is quite a learning curve to getting it right. Along with knowing/learning all the tricks of keeping the equipment running properly when needed. More than a few people I know tried for a couple of years and ended up with far more bad hay than good and gave up. They have a whole new appreciation for producers.

When friends ask me if they should give it a try. I say do as the lord leads you. But I am pretty sure in the end you will find you will be much better off finding an experience producer and &#;share crop&#; your hay field. Might be hard to do with only a few acres unless the person lives next door and or very close by.

We just cut 60 acres yesterday. The future forecast looked perfect until Saturday. That changed looking at the weather forecast this morning. Strong probability of thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon. There is going to a bit of &#;high anxiety&#; around the house tonight and tomorrow. My wife knows to stay clear of me for the next 24-36 hours.

Bit of a long reply to a short question. Typical of my posts. But most things are more complicated than face value. IMO and experience.

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