After bagged silage is fed to cattle, the leftover plastic bags can leave quite a mess. But not at the Columbus, Wis., farm where Kevin Weisensel works. Every spring after the ground firms up, workers bale up the plastic debris.

"You don't have to do anything to the baler," he explains. "Just take the skid loader and stretch the plastic out so it's in a narrow windrow with no big knots. Then just straddle it and the plastic will feed right in."

Weisensel says they spread the plastic on ground sprinkled with lime. Spreading out the plastic helps shake out debris, so the plastic bales are relatively clean and can be hauled to a local recycling center.

Twine does a good job holding the compacted plastic. Eight 200-ft. rows of 10-ft. bags net three 1,000-lb. bales of plastic.

There's some prep work, Weisensel notes, but the job goes fast, and it's nice to get rid of the plastic debris rather than seeing it blowing around in fields.