A bale slice will be a relatively new concept to many, but there’s no doubting its usefulness.

The product does exactly what it says on the tin. Attached to a front loader, a bale slice looks similar to a normal silage grab.

The added advantage is it can sever the bale in two while retaining the plastic and the netting.

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For farms that feed a lot of bales, this tool can be major time-saver.

It means there is no longer a need for getting up and down out of the tractor when opening bales and no more tedious cutting of silage plastic or netting.

Costs

A bale slice will cost in the region of €4,500 to €5,500, depending on the size and brand of the product.

In terms of the return on investment, it’s difficult to quantify, as every farm will feed different numbers of bales each year.

Most dairy farmers will be using pits, but bales are still used on a big cohort of farms at different times of the year.

Doing a rough calculation, we can take a 100-cow herd, eating six bales of silage per day over the winter.

Say the farmer is working alone, it takes roughly three minutes to open every bale. That’s a total of 18 minutes each day opening silage bales. The bale slice cuts that time to at most, one minute per bale, saving 12 minutes per day.

Each week that’s a time saving of 84 minutes or close to 1.5 hours. Over 12 weeks of a winter period, the time saving adds up to 18 hours.

The bale slice also allows silage bales to be spread more evenly along a barrier. This means less forking back of silage, another chunk of time saved.

Besides the hours saved, the big advantage is one of the more boring jobs on a farm that can be avoided.

Dairy Day

At Dairy Day 2026, on Saturday 14 November in the UL sports arena, there will be a live demonstration area in which the bale slice will feature.

To see it in action, visit here and get your tickets today.