Plastic free Baling: Testing the impacts of bringing back sisal

Summary

A group of farmers are trialing sisal string for binding their round bales to test the feasibility of sisal as a plastic free alternative. This field lab hopes to set the scene for bringing a forgotten but more sustainable product back to UK farming.  

This trial has been conceptualised by a farming group in Cornwall, many of whom are organic. They have been joined by other farmers across the UK. All are motivated by the aim of reducing plastic use/waste and from concerns around livestock ingestion of plastic. 

This field lab will help farmers access the product, use correct agricultural machinery (string round baling), and will work with farmers to research the feed quality and farm operational impacts of a switch to sisal bound bales. The trial will also include careful consideration of baling costs associated with switching to sisal. This trial will help fill current knowledge gaps in the industry around sisal feasibility, primarily about the operational implications of its use for winter feeding, especially considering its integrity when used for round bales.

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The Background

• Plastic net-wrap and twine are the conventionally used products for baling of grass forage and straw.
• These plastics have pathways into the soil, water and food chain environments through fragmentation, operating error, and poor waste management.
• They also have issues with ingestion by livestock.
• Sisal was used by farmers before plastic net wrap was available and therefore could be a sustainable alternative to plastic. Sisal for fibre is grown in South America and Africa.

Trial design

2,500 sisal twine wrapped bales are to be made and matched to an additional 2,500 bales using the farmers’ normal baling procedure. These are to be the trial bales from which samples and management observations are taken. The primary forage and bale for the trial is round hay bales as we believe these to have the most use in the industry but have the most questions that need answering. Some trialists are also entering haylage and straw into the trial.

Once the bales have been made and moved to storage, they will be stored separately under the same conditions.

Each final week of the month (during the feeding period) the farmers will be asked to fill out a questionnaire, which will gather information on breakages and bale manipulation, deterioration of forage, dry matter and water ingress, ease of use, speed of operation and the observed benefit of having a biologically derived product. 

In late November, early March and then again in November 2025 forage samples will be taken which will be assessed in the lab for dry matter content, crude protein and sugar content. This will give an indication of forage depreciation which may be attributed to sisal twine wrapping.

One of the strengths of this farmer-led approach is that the farmers are very pragmatically “having a go” with sisal

Conor Kendrew, Farm and Woodland Advisor, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Cornwall