At the Sunbelt Ag Expo, I had the opportunity to visit with numerous local farmers who stopped by the UF/IFAS Extension barn. I enjoyed asking them, “What was the coolest thing you saw today?” Several Florida farmers shared with excitement that they had seen a demonstration of McHale forage equipment that can bale and wrap individual grass silage bales (baleage) in one pass. Check out the following video developed by McHale that demonstrates their combination baler-wrapper machines.
One of the real challenges to farmers and ranchers in the southeast is preserving forage from the abundance at the peak of the summer rainy season for winter feeding. At the end of the last century there were a number of companies there were a number of campaniles that developed equipment to make baleage, or round bale silage made with wilted green hay with 45-65% moisture that was wrapped in plastic to prevent spoilage. Lots of ingenious designs have been built over the years that wrap the bales individually or in long tubes. While the inline or tube wrapper has become very popular, because it saves money on plastic, the baleage in the tubes are virtually impossible to sell off of the farm. The tubes of baleage also have to be made where the bales would be stored for winter feeding and require another tractor and machine operator. These machines eliminate the need for additional people and equipment to wrap baleage in the field, and also provides individually wrapped bales that can be sold for off farm income.
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If you enjoyed this video, you might want to check out the featured videos from previous weeks: Friday Features
If you come across a humorous video, ag innovation, or an interesting story related to agriculture, please send in a link, so we can share it with our readers. Send video links to: Doug Mayo
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