So, you’ve bought yourself a baling machine. Baling is one of the most comfortable and most rewarding types of composting to do. With a baling system, all you have to do is add the soil, add the bedding material, throw in the organic feed, and then let the machine do its magic. You will quickly have colourful bedding for your garden.
So, what happens when you’ve got your silage processing equipment and bin set-up ready? What happens to all that silage wrap and bale sheeting when it’s put into the bale/rolling machine? Well, in a word – rubbish! The very same material that you were using to make your hay is now going to be wasting your valuable fertiliser. Yes, – even if you haven’t composted it yet! The good news is that baling can still be an extremely efficient way of making sure that you’re getting as much out of your fertiliser as possible – no matter how much waste you’re dealing with.
The process starts by loading the bales into the bale compactor. Then the plastic film is laid on top of the bales. The heat from the burning twine (and of course, the heat generated by the grinding equipment) heats the plastic film, which then sticks to the underside of the hay. As it does, the plastic film lets out gases that make it easier for the bales to pass through the conveyor belt (into the bales).
The farmers can then sort out the leftover materials and use the leftover material in several ways. Most farmers dump the excess materials into their feed troughs – but some find that it’s quicker to get it sorted out into smaller bales and sell off what they can to other local farmers.
Another great way to make money out of your hay is to let others take care of the work. The farmer sorts out the waste and dumps it at the feed mill. The feed mill sorts out the baled hay then put it on a bale stack. That’s when the bale liner or cover comes on. The feed company then cuts through the transparent plastic film and sells the cleaned hay to the retailers who sell it to consumers.
However, some farmers have discovered a way of making their silage wrap even more lucrative. What if you could let others do all the work, while you take a little of the profit? That’s where one of these brilliant ideas came from – a company called Solway Recycling has developed a program called “The Art of the Silage Wrap” which lets consumers make money from the sale of unused paper products. Essentially, this means that you can make money from buying and selling the waste product. If you’re interested to learn more, look at this now.
For example, you could sell the bales to feed bags, companies and retailers. Feed bags are essentially pre-packaged, pre-taped, the pre-sliced paper that’s made to roll up, and sold for a premium price. These feed bags can be bought in bulk, so having plenty of them on hand would be an excellent way to increase your sales from existing customers as well as attract new ones with your unique selling proposition. If you get to the point where you’re getting calls about your silage wrap, then the bale sheets could even be pre-sold to the public. If you decide to go ahead with this business, you should be prepared for the amount of work you need to find the right locations to stock up.
To increase your sales, you will also need a place to store all of your silage wraps and bales until they’re ready to sell. Many businesses have large cardboard boxes on their premises that they use as a drop off points for customers, but what if you had a way to create an even bigger marketplace out of your house? This is possible through the use of garage storage units. If you get your garage packed with boxes or bales, then you can turn it into a storage unit where people can pay to store their items that they don’t have room for in their current living space. By creating a market for your silage wrap and using any of the methods above, you should see a marked increase in your sales and profits.
