Speaking of baler twine

I don't want to hijack Randy's post below, but I was surprised at the cost of twine today 7200 sisal was $ 64.99? I see plastic is $30.99? Wow is sisal so much more? Heck I may go back to plastic even thought I can't stand plastic twine! Lol

I switched to plastic because the mice don't seem to bother it as much and because its cheaper but I hate the stuff. It doesn't matter how careful you are, it always ends up wrapped up in the beaters on the manure spreader or ends up on the lawn and gets wrapped in the bales or some dumb calf finds piece and decides to eat it.

Noticed today that round baler twine at TSC for 2/per in a box, 20,000 ft rolls of 140# was $35 for the pair. Been about that price for 4-5 years that I can recall. Haven't bought 9,000' sisal for about 8 years now; quit square baling.

Lol, you know what I'm talking about to a T! Lol I agree with you, but to save some money I may got back to plastic.

Plastic can be a pain but it's way more consistent than sisal and just plain works better. We try to pic up as much of the twine as we can. When the stuff we miss builds up on the beater a torch takes care of removal pretty good.

I used it up until I built a new hay barn about 20 years ago. When I stacked the plastic twined baled on end,the twine would start to slip and let the bales loosen up and get sloppy. The sisal is rougher and holds on better so the bales keep their shape.

That's one thing I don't get, I've fed how many thousands of small squares, as a kid and for about 10 years in recent times, to horses, stall and pasture. All of the twine, sisal or plastic is retained, I keep some of it to re-use, the rest is thrown out, its not in the pasture, its not in the spreader or in the manure, neither sisal or plastic twine.

Now that's not to say some of the help over the years have not done that, and I have seen it in the manure and spreader, but that was stopped immediately, by terminating the employee or advising them that's what it will lead to if I see it again, once, don't care how it gets there. Its no issue today, and the hay supplier uses plastic.

I had one intentionally load up my compost pile with it, also caught him stealing fuel, hay etc. One of the filthiest people I have ever known, sit in his garbage filled wreck of a vehicle, you'll get fleas. His home was an open landfill, he had to live in a travel trailer next to the home because it was not habitable, I have a photo of that as I did some investigation on him and was about to turn him in for animal abuse once I saw what was going on. He was enough of a jerk I took it this far. He came to the barn one day and showed me a bank statement and he was well off, said he did not get that way by not stealing or what have you, bragging about it actually ( well he got a settlement somewhere as I found out) Bragging that he stole from us, had he not been a fragile piece of.... I'd have certainly indulged in un-pleasantry! Still could not believe he did that with the plastic twine, every single load in the bucket I had to remove handfuls of it. It must have felt good to suffocate from asthma, he is now deceased. I've never been a bitter person, people like that, who work for you, then steal, and do things as such.... you reap what you sow.

Most of the stray plastic on my place comes from rounds fed in winter when the bales are froze up and iced on the outside. You cut as much free as you can, but you are going to miss some.