Baling net wrap and twine containing less plastic will be hitting the Australian market this year, as trials of more environmentally friendly crop packaging products continue.
And in a national first, there will be a limited amount of silage film containing recycled content available this fodder harvest.
This new range of Tama net wrap, silage film and twine are the results of years of trials in Australia and New Zealand and global innovation.
“Tama has been working hard to decrease the carbon footprint of its products without sacrificing quality and consistency — the important on-farm profit drivers,” Tama regional technical manager Darrell Butler said.
“Tama products with significantly less plastic have been sold for years here and in overseas markets, it’s just been a matter of making sure they work under Australian conditions.
“That’s why we conduct extensive trials in Australia, so we know we are not only offering ground-breaking products, but we also know they will work for local farmers in our unforgiving environment.”
Net wrap
New to the Australian commercial market this year TamaNet Royal enables farmers and contractors to bale high density cereal crops and complete heavy-duty baling with less bale wraps.
“Each bale wrapped with TamaNet Royal only requires 2.5 wraps, compared to the traditional four wraps,” Mr Butler said.
This means there’s up to 45 per cent less plastic used for each bale, or up to 1km less plastic for every 100 bales.
“There’s cost savings too, up to 34 per cent less expense per bale,” Mr Butler said.
“The savings come from baling faster, you get more bales per day, using less fuel and there’s less maintenance.”
In Australian trials, it took only 8.3 hours, or 12.5 seconds per bale, to wrap 4000 bales in TamaNet Royal using 2.5 wraps per bale.
This compared to 13.3 hours to wrap the same number of bales four times per bale using other net wrap.
Rutherglen contractor Jack Wood trialled the TamaNet Royal at the end of last season and was pleasantly surprised how fast he could bale with it and is planning to use it again this year.
“It was a lot quicker, getting more bales per hour,” he said.
“There was also less need to get out and change the roll because we were getting more bales out of a roll of net.”
Tested locally, TamaNet Royal is an evolution of Tama’s existing lightweight wrap range which has been in the Australian market for years, Mr Butler said.
He said Tama’s net wrap already contained less plastic than competitor wraps, and its lighter weight meant reduced machinery fuel consumption and maintenance costs.
Twine
Limited lots of the new generation twine will also be available this season. This thinner twine has longer spools and contains less plastic than other twine varieties.
“There was no disadvantage to using the thinner twine as trials have proven it to be a much more consistent knotting product with minimal breakages and slips,” Mr Butler said.
Silage film
Tested in New Zealand, the Australian industry will also have a chance to use the first silage wrap containing a minimum of 30 per cent post-consumer recycled plastic.
Called TRIOWRAP loop, the recycled content reduces the carbon footprint of the silage wrap by 29 per cent.
After a small trial in Australia in 2020 and a larger trial in New Zealand earlier this year, Mr Butler said “the plastic stood-up to the local conditions and ran through baler wrappers well”.