Handling round bale silage after wrapping

overlapping and 70% stretching. The stretch film used (Tenospin 750x0,0025x1500 m) wassupplied by Trioplast AB and was 0.0025 mm thick. The five treatments included in the studycompared the effects of when the bales were handled using a Trima Quadrogrip afterwrapping: (1) Within 1 hour; (2) between 3-5 hours; (3) at 24 hours; (4) after 3 days; and (5)after 10 days. The bales in the control treatment were not handled at all. At each handling,the bales were gripped, lifted and moved twice with the gripper applying a hydraulic pressureof 100 bar, resulting in a force on the bale of 14500 N. The force was measured with a scalemounted between the gripping arms.FIGURE 1: The baling and handling process. A) Baling. B1+B2) Loading bales on pallets.C) Loading pallets on trailer. D) Gripping. E) Storage of bales.TABLE 1: Number of bales, proportions of clover/grass, DM content and DM densityStudy Cut No. ofbalesProportionsclover/grassDM content,%DM-densitykg DM·m -32006 1st 25 40% / 60% 42.4 1582006 2nd 28 0% / 100% 75.8 1802007 1st 40 20% / 80% 43.3 Not measured2008 1st 29 20% / 80% 35.4 156