Imagine two bales leaving the same field on the same afternoon. The first holds its shape through the loader, the stack, and the feed bunk, and the wrap comes off in one clean piece when you open it. The second sags at the shoulder, sheds a strip of wrap on the trailer deck, and takes a pocketknife and patience to get into. Same hay, same day, different result, because the wrap on each bale was matched, or not matched, to what happened to it after it left the baler.
Net wrap is not automatically the better option, and twine is not automatically the budget fallback. The useful question is what the bale has to survive once it leaves the machine: how far it travels, how it gets stacked, how long it sits, and how it is fed. The second half of the question is what the specific model's option package actually includes. This article walks through dry-hay baling and bale handling under Penn State extension guidance. The John Deere 451E appears only as a named model example drawn from a Canadian product page, and that page does not establish what is available, priced, or configured in the US.
Why Net Wrap Is Not Automatically the Upgrade
Twine and net wrap hold a bale together by different means, and that difference drives everything downstream. Twine is a set of linear tensile members tied around the bale: several bands under tension, each carrying load along its own line. Net wrap is a sheet. It spreads load across the curved surface of the bale instead of concentrating it in a handful of bands.
The reason a sheet resists rough handling better comes down to contact area. A wide sheet distributes abrasion and shape stress over more of the bale surface, so a bale that gets dragged, stacked high, or handled with a spike has less chance of losing its shoulder or shedding wrap. Twine's narrower contact patch means the same rough handling concentrates wear at the bands and in the gaps between them.
Twine remains a real option because not every bale needs surface protection. A bale tied tight, moved a short distance, and fed soon spends little time under stress; the bands do their one job and the bale is gone. Which means the choice comes down to bale destination and handling route.
Suppose two growers bale the same field on the same day. One stacks bales in a barn and feeds them out over months, moving each bale twice with a loader. The other drops bales at the field edge and feeds them within the week. The first operation puts every bale through repeated handling and long storage, and a sheet that holds shape and resists abrasion is doing useful work there. The second operation asks the wrap to hold a tight bale for a few days, and the extra cost of a sheet buys protection the bale never needs. Neither grower is wrong; they are matching wrap to route.
The Dry-Hay Baling Sequence Before the First Bale
A moisture tester can determine when the hay is at the proper moisture level and ready to bale. That one fact sets the order of the day, and the order matters more than most operators expect.
Test moisture first, and write the reading down. The record is what lets you compare this field to the last one and to the next cutting, and it is the only way to know later whether a problem bale came from wet hay or from wrap setup.
Then confirm the baler is set for the wrap system you actually intend to run, twine tie or net wrap, and that the monitor is in the matching mode. Make one bale, then check its wrap coverage and tail security before you make the second.
Moisture comes before wrap setup because no wrap choice fixes wet hay. A tight band of twine or a clean sheet of net holds a bale together; neither removes moisture from the crop, and neither changes what happens inside the bale afterward. Setting the wrap first and testing moisture later reverses the order that matters.
The evidence here gives no moisture threshold, and inventing one would be worse than leaving it to your tester. Your crop, your tester, and your local conditions set the number you work to. The sequence, test then record then set then sample then inspect, is the part that transfers from one farm to the next.
Set the Baler for the Wrap You Bought
A short set of checks keeps a twine-tie or net-wrap baler from making a bale it cannot wrap cleanly. The baler does not know which roll you loaded. Confirm the twine spool or net-wrap roll matches the system the machine is set up for, and that the material is the width and type that system expects. Route it per the baler's own manual, because a misrouted roll feeds badly no matter how carefully you load it. Select the monitor mode that matches the material, and run a test cycle only as the manual allows.
Setup is a system check, not a loading task. The material, the feed path, and the control mode have to agree before the first bale. Watch the tail being captured and the edges being covered on bale one, before you trust the setup for the whole field.
The reason to spend time here is arithmetic. One clean first bale proves the configuration, and one bad configuration repeats itself across every bale you make before you notice anything wrong.
What the 451E Monitor Package Reveals
On the John Deere 451E Canadian official product page, the G5e monitor-controller is included with the automatic electric twine tie option and with the Edge-to-Edge net wrap option. That is a configuration statement, and it is worth reading slowly.
The takeaway is not that one wrap is superior. It is that on that named model the option choice comes bundled with a monitor and control package, so the wrap option and the display that runs it are one purchase. The reason this matters at the buying stage is that you compare package against package, not roll against roll.
A US buyer who wants the same clarity should ask the dealer to confirm the current US-model twine and net-wrap configuration and the monitor package that comes with each, in writing, before signing anything.
How to Confirm the Wrap Did Its Job
The first bale is the test. Twine strands or knots should sit where the intended pattern puts them, and net coverage should span the bale the way the wrap pattern intends. The tail should be secured and not lifting, and the edges should not be rolled under or left short. A bale that is already lopsided at the baler will not improve in the stack, so shape belongs on the list. Then glance at the monitor for faults.
Wrap failure usually shows first at the tail or the edge, because those are the places where the material starts and stops and where the curved bale surface turns away from the sheet. Which means the most informative part of the bale is also the easiest part to check.
None of this needs a number. You are checking pattern, security, coverage, shape, and fault status, all of it visible, and any of it enough to tell you whether the configuration held or whether you need to stop and recheck the setup.
Where the Evidence Stops on Safety and US Fit
Two boundaries matter here, because both are easy to blur once you are shopping or already in the field.
Treat the 451E page as an example of how an option bundle can be structured. Whether the same bundle exists on a US model, and what it costs, is a question for a dealer quote, not for a Canadian web page.
The safety guidance from Penn State extension is general to working around large bales: disengage the PTO, shut down the engine, and remove the key from the ignition before getting off the tractor. That is an extension-level instruction, not a 451E manufacturer procedure. The distinction matters because your own tractor and baler manual is the document that governs your machine, and a general instruction cannot stand in for it. Use the extension statement as a reminder to open that manual and confirm the shutdown steps for your specific tractor and baler before you operate.
The practical output is a verification list that lives with the machine: the wrap path and the shutdown steps from your own manual, checked before the first baling job rather than after the first problem.
Your Next Move Before the Next Baling Job
Before the next baling job, write the bale's destination and handling route on the baler checklist: barn, stack, or field edge, and how many times each bale moves between the field and the feed bunk. That single line turns the wrap question from a preference into a specification you can hold against a quote, a manual page, and the first bale of the season. It takes a few minutes on paper, and it is the part of the decision you can verify.
