Hay Tagging

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15 Feb 2005
By Colin Peace

The hay industry is establishing bale identification by using a new tagging system. The system will be a part of an industry-driven national hay bale identification system for domestic and export markets.

The AFIA is coordinating the project. According to Exective Officer Colin Peace the project has two main components - the tag which provides a number distinguishing both the property and paddock of production and an automated attachment device that fixes tags to large square bales as they leave the chamber during baling.”

AFIA Chairman Charlie Williams of Elmore Victoria says that “It’s the way agriculture is moving. Unlike the grains industry, we have a great natural advantage with our hay commodity. We are able to retain the identity of hay through the supply chain.

Livestock industries are all keen to provide their markets with quality assurances and traceability and the fodder industry has the capacity to support this. All that is needed is system to identify the bale at the point of production. While the system has immediate application in the export sector, the largest opportunity remains in the domestic hay market” said Charlie.

The identification of hay bales with tags is not new and is done currently by hay exporters. Exporters are required to demonstrate sampling, testing and tracking of hay in the export pathway. At the moment, tags are typically applied by hand using an adhesive paper label that wraps around a string of large square bales.

Colin Peace added that “Hay exporters are currently spending a lot of time at a busy period of the hay-making year applying these tags to bales. The tag and its attachment device will have immediate application by producers and contractors in this export sector. This baler-mounted tagging device is the only practical way to identify individual bales in the long term. As well as saving time, the tag should improve customer confidence through better traceability” said Colin

The tag is to have capacity for a number and a bar code and could be adapted to fit an electronic transponder in the future. While transponders on hay bales are of interest to the hay industry, there are some concerns regarding the cost of the necessary reading hardware. By applying tags to large bales between the two knots, any tags on the bales will be collected when the strings are removed. This will make it impossible for any tags to contaminate hay and cause problems for livestock.

Still in development, the tagging device is to be retrospectively fitted to any large square baler.(See a prototype automatic bale tagger under trial with sorghum stubble near Toowoomba in June 2004.)

“The project has come together with the expertise of some clever people,” said Colin. Noel Payne, a former Service Engineer-Baler and Hay Tools for New Holland, has developed the device. Chris Berggraaff, an Engineering student, has contributed heavily in overall project concept and the electronics.

The hay tags expect to be commercially available later this year and can be applied by hand or by a baler-mounted device. The attachment machine should be available some time next year.

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