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Implement Alley Discussion Forum

Why Twine?

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Chad Franke

06-02-2005 09:18:36




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Why is it that the only discussions I see on here about older square balers involve knotters? Are twine tied bales really that much more popular or saleable? Growing up we cussed twine bales, made looser bales, twine got everywhere, wire tie bales were tighter, held together better handling, wire was easy to deal with, didn't wrap around axles... Twine balers (in general) were known to make lighter bales, have fussy knotters, wire tie made nice, tight, heavy bales, wire tie mechanism worked day in day out...

Personally, if I were still baling with small squares, I wouldn't look at a twine tie, but wonder, there must be a reason, wondering what. I welcome any input.

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Scott(MO)

06-10-2005 20:48:13




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
I personally like the wire tie the best as you can pack more hay and straw in and you don't have to worry about mice chewing the wire into on straw bales. Plus when you are done you can wire your muffler up with the left over wire or wire the gate shut. However , all the horse people around want twine tie because it is easier to get rid of and you don't take the chance of a piece of wire running up into the horses hoof and causing them to go lame. Plus , some fellows around here have a habit of packing wire bales too tight and the horse ladys have a hard time packing them , so with a twine baler they wont back them as tight. Also , it's easier to remember to stick a pocket knife in your pocket to cut the twine then it is to dig up a pair of dikes for wire bales. Just my 2 cents. Scott

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bvomark

06-03-2005 07:12:55




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
For most of us it has a lot to do with where we are located. In SW Mo where I grew up there were very few wire balers. Most people used twine. In the area around Tulsa you see alot of wire balers. It seems to be a geographic preference.

Just a note the sisal twine as stated is not normally not harmful to cattle or horses. The plastic twine is not good and can cause problems in both. I lost a cow a few years ago to plastic twine ingestion. If you use wire or plastic twine you must keep it cleaned up. The wire probably rusts away faster than the plastic twine rots. In my case I looked for a wire tie baler because my neighbors had them and could help me keep it tieing. My previous baler was string tied and even the service techs didn"t know how to make it work.

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Mattlt

06-03-2005 06:00:34




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
I've never used or seen a wire tie baler. In my neck of the woods (south central MN) it's twine, or nothing.

One question: What did you do with the wire after opening a bale? With twine bales, we just hung the twine on a nail. When the nail got full, you took it out to the burning pile, and problem solved.

I hate having even a small pile of wire laying around. Hard to get rid of. Seems like wire-tied bales wouldn't be my idea of fun.

Suppose you could save it for the next time you poured cement???

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Joe(TX)

06-03-2005 05:28:14




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
In my area, you can't get any money for a twine baler. Can't make a tight bale, the twine rots off or is eaten by mice. Plastic stretches in the heat. A few custom balers tried to use then, but the customers complained about light, loose bales. String broke if they were tight enough. I have seen animals cut by string also. Housekeeping is the best way to eliminate these type of injuries. I have not had any animals hurt from baling wire. You do have to watch which end the tie is on when handling the bales.

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kyhayman

06-02-2005 20:38:23




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
I really like wire tied bales, my customers dont. Nicer bale, no broken strings. But, just like with plastic, you have to get it all cleaned up. Last time I went baler shopping (and I am in an area with thousands of square balers) local dealer told me he had sold 2 since 1964 (year he started at the place). I love plastic, cheap, all the pluses of wire, etc. Customers want twine and my baler likes it better so I switched back. In my off farm job, my job is to educate the people, as a farmer, my job is to produce the product my customers want not convince them to buy the product I want to make. If they want bales with pink bows on them and pay me to do it, they'll get it.

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Leland

06-02-2005 20:15:24




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
Growing up in cent ILL I must have handled about a 1/2 million wire bales by the time I was 25 , around here that is all there was maybe 1 out of a hundred balers were twine. Twine would not work here when baling the back swath we would get bales up to 150 lbs and it took 2 guys to load them up on wagon , and I know only of 1 cow that died from hardware poisoning , wire rules around here.



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devildawg(tx)

06-02-2005 19:34:13




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
I"ve heard of the wire getting tangled up with horses and causing some very nasty cuts. I like the twine because it"s biodegradable. Just bought two bales of twine today for 28.53 apiece, wire was 57.something a box. I don"t know how far wire goes in a baler, but our twine lasts for quite awhile. There is a Ford wire tie baler on Ebay right now in Tyler Texas. It"s interesting to look at the pics because I haven"t seen one in my short time in the hay biz.

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wolfmantractor

06-02-2005 19:03:07




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
You can plow the used twine under.



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Ryan

06-02-2005 17:36:50




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
I heard someone say once they didn't want wire because it could poke an eye out either on a cow because you left a wire lay or on yourself. If you were handling a few bales everyday busting them open maybe that would be a concern? I don't know just what I have heard....you hear all sorts of things.

Ryan



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Ryan

06-02-2005 17:36:34




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
I heard someone say once they didn't want wire because it could poke an eye out either on a cow because you left a wire lay or on yourself. If you were handling a few bales everyday busting them open maybe that would be a concern? I don't know just what I have heard....you hear all sorts of things.

Ryan



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Hayfarmer

06-02-2005 16:20:26




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
In my part of the country wire was the only thinkg to put on bales especially if you wanted to sell them, that was back in the 60s and early 70s. We had a lot of 3 wire balers around for heavier bales and as you say most of the twine bales were little and hard to handle. Then Plastic twine came out and now it is hard to sell a wire baler here. Most guys use 3 twine balers but don't think you could find sisel here, plastic only. 3 tie plastic twine bales go 100 plus pounds, I have made tight 110 lb bales with my NH282 twine baler. Different parts of the country vary so much, on this board guys talk mostly of the smaller balers and some use "kickers" behind. Here it is all bigger balers, mostly 3 tie, and big bale wagons to barn it.

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paul

06-02-2005 14:04:35




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
Here in southern MN I've heard of wire tie balers, but have never seen a single one. No one, I mean no one would want bales with wire in them around here. Kills the animals, wrecks the cow yard & fields where manure is spead. Couldn't give the stuff away if it had wire on it!

Hard to sell bales with plastic on them actually, for all the resons you mentioned. Sisal twine is fine. :)

Just a regional thing I'm sure. :)

--->Paul

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caseyc

06-02-2005 11:09:14




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
i'm just a young guy here but i'll admit i've never heard of wire tie until i came to this board about 2yrs ago. i still have yet to see one (a bale or baler!)

casey



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Iowa Jim

06-02-2005 11:04:12




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
Don't forget about disposal of the spent wire after the bales has been fed, much easier to burn the twine than getting rid of the wire. Plus with most of my hay going to horse breeders, they don't want the wire as it could lead to cuts and hoof sole injuries.



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James2

06-02-2005 10:04:16




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
The old problem of bovine "hardware" disease. I heard the old wire tie "knotters", trimmed the wire "knot" and left short pieces of wire which could get on the bale. Farmers can have a long memory, and although newer balers didn't have this problem, the perception remained. I believe we originally used a wire stationary baler. Before I was born, Dad went to twine and never looked back. I have heard tales of 150 lb wire tied bales, which caused the one of the barn's post braces to break.

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Allan in NE

06-02-2005 10:22:18




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to James2, 06-02-2005 10:04:16  
James,

You took the words right outta my mouth and that is exactly why they lost favor. They made a far superior bale but the problem of the broken knots stayed on a farm for years.

I was still buying magnets as late as 1982 from baling one silly cutting with a wire-tie way back in the fifties.

I notice this place I'm buying has the knots laying around too from days long gone by. If anyone is interested, I can sure get a picture of a "lost knot". :>(

Allan

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Indydirtfarmer

06-02-2005 13:52:18




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Allan in NE, 06-02-2005 10:22:18  
Is that anything like a "'fraid not" ?



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Farmer76

06-02-2005 11:31:55




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Allan in NE, 06-02-2005 10:22:18  
I would like to see the picture.



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Allan in NE

06-02-2005 12:03:03




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Farmer76, 06-02-2005 11:31:55  
Okay, you bet.

Next time we run out there, I'll snap a few. Darned things are laying in the main yard and especially in the hay yard area. I saw a few while I was out walking one of the hayfields too.

Evidence that this old gent sure owned a wire-tie at one time. :>)

Allan



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Steve (Magnolia, TX)

06-02-2005 09:53:54




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
Growing up in Illinois and working as a hay hand, I had never seen a wire-tied bale of hay, in my life, until I moved to Texas (and even now I see more twine-tied than wire-tied). From the hay hand's perspective, I like the twine better, 'cause it's easier on the hands.... and after a 12 hour day of throwing bales, they're plenty sore with twine.
From the animal owner's perspective, I'd much rather have bits (ends/pieces) of twine in the hay than of wire (something about horses not digesting wire too well) as well as the whole "rust" thing.
As a buyer of hay... I'd MUCH rather get the larger, tighter, heavier bales of hay (more hay for the money) that you can get with wire-tied (unfortunately I've paid $4.50/bale for ~40# twine-tied bales that had about 12" of free space between the twine and bale, when you picked 'em up).
Now that I'm baling my own... I've got a twine-tie baler, since the twine-tie "pluses" outweigh the wire-tie "pluses", for me (especially since I may be the seller of said 40# bales ;-) ).

Steve

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Steve (Magnolia, TX)

06-02-2005 09:52:43




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
Growing up in Illinois and working as a hay hand, I had never seen a wire-tied bale of hay, in my life, until I moved to Texas (and even now I see more twine-tied than wire-tied). From the hay hand's perspective, I like the twine better, 'cause it's easier on the hands.... and after a 12 hour day of throwing bales, they're plenty sore with twine.
From the animal owner's perspective, I'd much rather have bits (ends/pieces) of twine in the hay than of wire (something about horses not digesting wire too well) as well as the whole "rust" thing.
As a buyer of hay... I'd MUCH rather get the larger, tighter, heavier bales of hay (more hay for the money) that you can get with wire-tied (unfortunately I've paid $4.50/bale for ~40# twine-tied bales that had about 12" of free space between the twine and bale, when you picked 'em up).
Now that I'm baling my own... I've got a twine-tie baler, since the twine-tie "pluses" outweigh the wire-tie "pluses", for me (especially since I may be the seller of said 40# bales ;-) ).

Steve

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FC

06-02-2005 09:44:45




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to Chad Franke, 06-02-2005 09:18:36  
I think twine balers were more popular in some parts of the country. I know I have been around haying or involved in haying for around 40 years, and I have honestly never saw a wire tie baler (or at least to my knowledge). All we or our neighbors ever had were twine tie balers, and that is all I can remember seeing on the dealer lots growing up in the 60's. Other parts of the country seem to have had more wire tie balers.

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joe e-tx

06-02-2005 16:04:28




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to FC, 06-02-2005 09:44:45  
well i got a jd 224tw (W as in wire) picked up hay in early 70s behind this baler.nice 50-60 lbs bales,no banana bales,some thing to get hands on pick up. sold 1000 last year. wad old wire up throw in stock pond, rusts away in no time.that i know of manyyyy, fences repaired,and some tractors running with balin wire.what yall use barbed wire to temp (ya temp) repair some thing.
joe



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edchainsaw

06-02-2005 21:31:30




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to joe e-tx, 06-02-2005 16:04:28  
Ive been handling Hay for 40yrs ( I started reeeeally young)

Grampa baled hay for a 100 head dairy and later for his own 50 cow Hereford heard.

as soon as Twine was made available he switched as Hardware disease was a problem. There never was exess wire you always had a use for it.


I have baled some 100# bales with twine. but mostly that does have to do with the baler not the wire or twine...

Local JD dealer told me in his 27yrs of beeing a dealer he sold 1 wire baler and he was the only guy that sold HUGE quantities and shipped across the country. he never even stocked wire for balers.

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steveormary

06-02-2005 21:15:53




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 Re: Why Twine? in reply to joe e-tx, 06-02-2005 16:04:28  
Twine gives your critters a little more fibre.

steveormary



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