To allow the plastic sheet to better cover the ends of the bales, the top row of bales contains one less bale than the ground row. The bales on the top row are then offset by of a bale. The edges of the plastic need to be sealed to the ground by placing soil on top of the plastic. The pipe needs to be placed close to the center of the stack and attached to a fence post to prevent it from moving. Open the valve on the anhydrous tank carefully and apply the anhydrous slowly to keep from blowing the plastic off the stack.
Anhydrous ammonia is applied at the rate of sixty pounds per ton.
A roll of 40' x 100' plastic will cover 38 bales. If the bales are 1500 pound bales, the stack will contain 28 tons of forage. Plastic meeting these size and weight specifications is available through many farm supply outlets but may be a special order item. While ammonia treatment of forage has been used very successfully, there are some possible problems. Ammonia toxicity can occur.