Square Bale Hay Twine...sisal or poly

55deere70

Member
Which do you guys prefer? We always used sisal and had trouble sometimes with moisture. We switched to 9000 poly and reliability increased noticeably. I also like that it is cheaper and can leave it in the twine box without worrying about the twine rotting on the bottom of the ball.
 
I use the sisal only with the round bales and the poly with the squares. I do not like trying to pick up a bale and have it stay on the ground or loft floor due to the twine rotting
 
I use biodegradable poly twine on round bales that will sit outside. I
am slowly switching to all poly, even for under cover storage as
the bales appear to keep better..I believe poly doesn't stretch as
much. If I were still making small square bales, i'd use poly. You just have to be a bit more vigilant as poly can kill cattle and it creates a mess on the manure spreader beaters.
 
I use sisal exclusively. Reason is that is biodegradable. We raise sheep for wool, and the plastic twine is nasty to get out of the fleeces. Several years ago we had a renter/farmer who used plastic. Lost a lot of pieces - worked for several years cleaning up his mess. Plastic gets into all kinds of machines, like spreaders, rotating mowers, etc. Plays hob with bearings. At least the sisal breaks down, isn"t so likely to mess up machines. Also a note that many older balers were designed for sisal and don"t play well with plastic.
 
Always used 9000 sisal with the 273 baler, because it had trouble tying poly, but when we got the 315, we used a bit of poly, it tied fine, but the thrower kept burning the poly off, so we're back to the expensive sisal. Nicer on the hands anyways, especially with a thrower rack. Round bales have always used 28,000 poly, it's not biodegradable, but if you can be particular about getting every last string off the bale and put it in a place far away from the manure piles and the calves, it's not a huge deal.
 
sisal for my farm , plastic if they are being sold out,,.m .ferguson 12 dont care what kinda twine ,, it worx great with either..plastic twine is nice for repairing electric fences , perfect insulator that is good for 2 yrs in the sun , and longer in shade ,,. its good stuf ,except i cringe thinkin a calf mite get a pc of twing haf -hihed at the ankle and ruin a foot.../
 
That's funny. We tried poly in our #12 and it absolutely didn't like it. Could have been the brand tho. We use sisal, ussually 9000 but once in a while we need to use 7200.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
Quit using sisal twine due to inconsistent size and price. Running plastic twine 9000 ft. with 130 knot strength and no problems through a Ford 532. Would not go back to sisal.
 
I only use twine that biodegrades for all the reasons Ray said below. I have pulled too much of it from festering wounds on the legs of poultry after they got wrapped up in it. Always pulling it out of the ground even now years after it was no longer used. I can look at an end of sisal and judge the quality (too thin) and have great luck with it.
 
All poly here. 9000 for the squares, 20,000 for the rounds. I went to poly on the squares because of inconsistency. With new feeder tines and a poly my ancient NH68 works like new. Yes, you have to be more observant about keeping it picked up, but it's worth it to me.
 
Only plastic 9000 for my Oliver 720. I use an 8 bale drag on the ground accumulator, and if the hay is thin and bales drag a little too long the sisal won't hold up.
As for clean up, if you can't remember to pick bale string, you ain't wewlcome on my place!
Larry NEIL
 
(quoted from post at 18:31:38 11/18/12)...I use an 8 bale drag on the ground accumulator, and if the hay is thin and bales drag a little too long the sisal won't hold up....Larry NEIL

Great info Larry

I actually use Sisal and prefer it for all the good safety reasons already listed by all other posters. I buy from my local AGCO dealer and seem to always get consistent quality sisal. AGCO dealer is always cheaper than the chain stores like TSC to boot so double win situation for me the way I see it. (Note: I am a tiny small time hobbyist and do not get any discounts whatsoever from AGCO dealer either).

However, I would love to have one of those drag on the ground 8 bale accumulators like Larry mentions. If I am ever able to build a primitive one or buy one reasonably then I might consider switching to Poly for the excellent reason Larry posted. For me this is the only reason that I would consider ever using Poly.

Larry - If you ever get a chance could you post some pics of your accumulator in a new thread? (please use a new thread as I do not want to hijack this one - thanks).
 
7200 poly in the square baler and 20,000 poly in
the round. I'll custom apply sisal for a dollar a
roll more and try to put sisal on what Im feeding
since I dont like cutting strings off but I
usually end up feeding my rejects so I cuss and
cut, lol. The 30 percent cost savings and 30
percent more twine make it something I cant afford
not to do. Last year we used 3 pallets of twine,
and I still ended up begging at the farm stores in
October trying to find some. Ended up using 9000
sisal on my last few hundred rounds.
 
Only Sisal, my customers all but demand it, and as posted above,
the plastic twine makes a mess in bearings and getting wrapped up
in equipment. My equipment works better with the sisal, but most
importantly my customers tend to only want sisal around their
animals.
 
There is not a problem with plastic square baler twine laying around unless someone is too lazy to pick it up and dispose of it. Sometimes a little plastic can get left on a round bale if it is froze in.
 
Women love sisal they just leave it where it falls. I use poly my MF120 absolutely loves it can make a bale so tight you can hardly get your fingers under the string.
 
I have been using 7200 poly in my NH 570 with belt thrower for 5 years now, and have [u:b7825ff98f]never[/u:b7825ff98f] had a problem with the belts melting the twine! I wouldn't dare guess whether you have an adjustment issue, or I'm just plain fortunate! I would hazard a guess that it might be the former!

JMHO, HTH, Dave

PS: I'm on board with those that say "good housekeeping" takes care of poly twine problems.
Interestingly, I've never had a customer tell me that they would prefer sisal, or that poly caused problems for them.
 
I use sisal on a few rounds and 9600 170# poly on squares. I don't have a thrower but my 326 NH seems to like the heavier string. I have a 273 wire that I use as a backup and for straw. Personally I like wire on squares they stay together Period. But as expensive as it has gotten I just use it on straw now. I use the black netwrap on most of my round bales. The white crap is only good for rolling up on axles and spreader beaters because it is impossible to get it completely off the bales.
 
I use plastic 20,000 in my round baler, and just make an effort to find it all. The only color I prefer is orange, because it's easier to find. The stuff we miss finds the beater on the spreader the next spring, and it burns off fairly easy when I clean the beaters. As for square bales, I used to use sisal when I was younger. Then I went to rounds, and a few years ago was given a square baler. It had two bales of almost new sisal in it that was about 25 or 30 years old and had been in the baler when it was parked in a shed. In bringing the machine back to life, I just used the twine that was in it, and baled a few hundred bales without a miss. But, we have had some mice and rat problems, and as a result, I lost some straw to them. I went to 9000 plastic, which solved the problem. But it was hard on hands and would snap a few times on really tight bales, so now I use 7200 plastic. No more snaps. And it didn't make any difference to the baler.
 

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