There are many things to consider when using a forcing tool to catch silage or move it around the farm, but probably the most important factor is tying the silage on your binder twine. It would help if you remembered that silage comes in two forms, low moisture and high moisture. Low moisture silage that runs down the chute is best tied on a knot of shearing shears with about four to five feet of binder twine.
As the binder twine is held by the shearing shears, the silage is slid through the shearing shears which cut the silage into strips or strands. This produces a tight coil of binder twine as the cutting is done. There are other types of silage tools that also make use of binder twine. The two common ones are balers twine and criss-cross shears.
Balers twine is usually formed by winding a single strand of the spiral (rarely all spiral) of binder twine around itself and then making a loop by twisting it around a binder stem. A loop is made as one end of the spiral is cut. The binder loop is then tied around a point of shearing shears, and the loop is pulled tight with the end of the shearing shears. In most cases, the binder twine is so tight that it may be easier to twist the twisted binder twine around itself before turning it again.
Another tool useful in tying silage is the criss-cross shear. The best way to make use of this tool is to bend the binder twine into a spiral and tie a piece of shearing shears to the very end of the spiral. Now you have a loop of binder twine that is connected to the shearing shears through a bend. You could also make use of this for tying silage by inserting a few strands of binder twine between the shearing shears and twist it.
Silage should not be tied directly onto the shearing shears or into a shearing shear. You need to be careful not to create a ring of loose silage because if this happens, the shearing shears will pull it apart. You should let the silage come loose first and then pull it onto the shearing shears. If you do not have the silage on the shearing shears, the silage will slip off as it is cut.
When silage is caught up to the point where it looks like it is going to tear, it is easy to tie silage onto the binder twine. The method is to take a spiral binder loop and fold it into half. You can then tie silage onto this with the balers twine while wrapping it around itself. You can also wrap the binder loop around a binder stem instead.
For tying silage that is still coming together, you can turn the binder loops by hand or push them under a machine. After the silage has been tied, you will then have a nicely silage rope that is ready to be used for silage. While these methods will not get you the silage to the chute, they will help you get it to the chute as quickly as possible.
