Eddie and Gavin Hartnett (father and son) own and operate a large silage contracting business in Ballynoe, Conna in East Cork, Ireland. Last year, using a McHale Fusion balewrapper, they wrapped thousands of bales of grass silage for local beef and dairy farmers using Berry’s Film&Film® system.
With farmers using less fertiliser (due to high prices), there was less grass available to conserve and so the number of bales made last year by the Hartnett family was down on the previous year.
The good news is that Berry’s new technology is helping to improve baling efficiencies. The Film&Film® system is an innovative dual wrapping method, which combines the use of SilotitePro1800® balewrap and Baletite® netwrap replacement film produced at Berry’s specialist agricultural films site at Leominster in the UK. This results in better shaped, denser and more compact bales which can better withstand handling.
The Hartnett customers have a choice between netwrap and using the Film&Film® system. “Almost 70% of my customers are now using the Film&Film® system and will never go back to netwrap. They were delighted with silage quality over recent years” according to Eddie.
The Hartnett’s are using the Baletite® mantle film successfully to replace netwrap on the recommendation from McDonnell Bros in Fermoy who also supply the SilotitePro1800® balewrap. According to Eddie “there is a very good tack on this film.”
Gavin says that “using the Film&Film® system -the combination of the Baletite® and SilotitePro1800® was definitely the right decision. This is the way forward for anyone doing a volume of bales and has time constraints. Farmers using the Film&Film® system are quite happy that it is good value indeed.”
Feeding out silage is quicker, no netwrap gets mixed up in the silage while recycling is easier as there is no netwrap to be kept separate.
Eddie and Gavin know how important silage quality is for milk production and liveweight gain with cattle. They both agree that using Baletite® is more user friendly than netwrap, bales hold their shape better, are denser, easier to move and are far less likely to rip during handling.
“Silage quality is definitely better” says Gavin “especially for higher dry matter (DM) grass.” “Silage is sweeter and there is no mould so our customers appreciate this and had no problem switching to the Film&Film® system. Farmers with bales left over know there is no problem keeping them for much longer in storage.”
You can check out the Hartnett’s silage baling operations at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pFxefsQUJwg
