o/t Net wrap and cow belly question?/rant

kyplowboy · Feb 6, 2009

Ok got a question about net wrap. I have always heard that if a cow gets it in the rumen it can kill'm. Never seen it and never fed alot of net wraped hay. Bought some off a guy this year that was net wraped and noticed yesterday that they were not eat'n one bale very fast. Went out to feed this morning and the 1/3 of a bale that was left in one of the rings was a wad of hay and net wrap. I guess when he was start'n the bale the baler messed up and started feeding the wrap, I have had this happen with hay string so I can see how it happens. Any way alot of the net wrap was pulled loose and there was was chewed up hay in it.

Has any one ever had a problem with cows eat'n wrap? Any one ever heard net wrap cause'n problems in the belly of cows? Would you sell a bale of hay that had a big wad of net wrap in the core?

Thanks, I know it turned into more of a rant than question.

Dave

Michael Soldan · Feb 6, 2009

I've had cows eat baler tyne off of large rounds, it all came out in a big undigested wad, but you could tell it had been chewed up..don't know about the wrap, I suspect if they got the whole thing it could be bad

Anonymous-0 · Feb 6, 2009

Dont know what problems may come, but my neighbor just hauls out 4X5 round bales some net wrapped and some twine wrapped and just drops them in the pasture. Does not even try to remove any of the net or strings. He has been doing this for at least the last 5 years that I know of. I would not and do not, always remove all the net or string. Tom

Walt Davies · Feb 6, 2009

I always remove the twine when i feed large bales in the summer just easier to clean things up that way. Nothing hate worse than seeing the stuff lying all over the place it will last forever they say.
Walt

fixerupper · Feb 6, 2009

I used to hear that years ago when plastic twine first came out but I've never heard any cattle man talk about a cow having trouble with it. Cows eat a lot of things that just pass through them. Jim

Larry59 · Feb 6, 2009

Got some manure from the local cattle sale barn recently. It was loaded with the net wrap in some small and some longer net wrap lengths that had been some what chewed up. So must be ok I guess from what I seen. The only problem we had was using it in the field to fertilizer for planting. Found that the stuff hung up in equipment we were using to get the ground ready for planting soon. Had to stand at end of field on each round and pull the net wrap out. Real pain in the you know what. Won’t do that again.

kyplowboy · Feb 6, 2009

I have always taken the net wrap off. Had a guy tell me one time he lost two calves, vet cut one open and it had a wad of net in the rumen and had it bound up.

That stuff does make a heck of a mess if left out. Will bind up disk, mowers, and just about anything else.

Dave.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 6, 2009

You were fortunate, if it had blocked the small intestine where I read is 2 inches wide, you are minus one animal.Cows eat nails, wire etc and it's up to you as its Carer to keep these things out of their reach, anything that can break down in their stomach is acceptable, plastic wrap and baling twine are not, so it is only sensible to keep these things away from them,Don't rant if it is dead in the paddock with a gut full of plastic.I have on one occasion chased a cow to grab a plastic rope it was chewing , on pulling , 6 feet of rope came out of its stomach.
that would have been a death warrant.

msb · Feb 6, 2009

Just recently read of a case where a large piece of net wrap caused a cow to die when it got wrapped around her gut.

M w J · Feb 6, 2009

I know a guy that owns a tub grinder for hire and he said about 1/2 of the people take wrap off and the rest just grind it with the hay . I have seen a neigbors cows standing in a pasture eating net wrap that hasn't been ground. I very rarely see a dead animal there he has about 300 cows so he must be lucky.

Amo in nebraska · Feb 6, 2009

I think its very rare, but once in a while yes. My neighbor lost 2 yearling bulls. Never used. His son (a vet) cut em open and thats what the deal was.

MN Scott · Feb 6, 2009

I've been using net wrap since 1992. When I feed I just cut the wrap and unroll the hay. The wrap is much easier to pick up in the spring when everything is thawed out. The cows clean the hay from the wrap leaving the wrap lay. In 17 years I have not lost a cow to net wrap. In fact I have never seen a cow eating it.

petetx · Feb 6, 2009

yes it will kill same as plastic twine i see fellas leave it on down here they also lose cows it only takes a minute to remove why run the risk ?

kyplowboy · Feb 6, 2009

I stand the net wraped bales up and remove it because I have heard of folks kill'n cows with it and it makes a heck of a mess. This is bought hay and I did not see the mess in the core of the bale when I unloaded or fed it.

Even it it don't hurt cows, I would remove the stuff just to keep from have'n to mess with it for years to come.

Dave

ohiojim · Feb 7, 2009

even if it don't kill stock,..how do you get the bushhogs and other equipment to digest it..?? i pick up and get rid of all i can and i still have bearings eatin the stuff

kyplowboy · Feb 7, 2009

I always take it off when I feed. I just did not know that the core of the bale was a wad of the stuff. That bale is away from stock now. I don't want to fight with it on disk, disk mowers, and bush hogs forever. It gets hauled to the dump every spring when I have bought wraped hay.

I am still wrap'n my mind around how a guy could get a wad of the stuff in a bale with out know'n it. When my old baler starts eat'n string, I notice pretty quick.

Dave

olgentdc · Feb 7, 2009

Plastic Twine makes me Nervous, CASE IN POINT : Butchering time , We have found a wad in a cows stomach, wound with Grass twine and God only knows what else too ! ,Some cows are dumber than others I guess!,, Keep in mind , all butchering animals were healthy ,, sometimes You lose one out of the herd for no appparent reason ,, READ all the comments and it will make You take extra effort to keep this stuff from gettin in the cows mouth in the 1st place ..good Luck , Jim

colekicker · Feb 7, 2009

Guy must have used a JD, Hesston or Vermeer baler. They feed their net in from the back of the baler off the tailgate. The New Holland and Case IH balers have a positive net wrap injection system that mechanically moves the net wrap up to the bale after the bale reaches a certain size.
Another reason to use a New Holland baler.

CumminsMan · Feb 7, 2009

You sure haven't looked very close at the others. Better go do some research before you go and spout off about how the other brands net systems work.

fixerupper · Feb 7, 2009

We always used to remove the twine. For one thing, it can take the bearings out of the manure spreader beaters.

There was a bee hive in the twine pile once and everytime I'd throw more twine on it the pile would start humming. The bees never bothered us but I didn't hang around the pile to wait for the artilery to come out. Jim

Tx Jim · Feb 8, 2009

colekicker,
I never seen a NH with net wrap but I will assure you that if net wrap is embedded into hay on a JD rd baler it is caused by "operator error" not the machine. Just because it feeds down tail gate doesn't mean it's worse enginering than NH.

kyplowboy · Feb 8, 2009

Sorry to bust your bubble but it was a NH 664.

Come to think of it, every bale of hay I have ever bought that was net wraped was balled with a 664. There's several of them round here. This is the first bale I have ever had that was wadded up like this one. I am sure it was operator error and had nothing to do with the color of the baler.

Dave

o/t Net wrap and cow belly question?/rant

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