Hay baler - GIF

[Altair]

Hay baler.




Previously:

Small square hay baler mechanism - GIF
Hay baler doodle - GIF
Manual hay baler - GIF
School bus converted to hay bale loader - video
Vintage tractor-pulled hay baler - GIF

[Frank S]

Never saw a 10 bale drop attachment on a baler our bailers always just dropped the bales out as they were tied, but we wouldn't have wanted our bales batched together like that anyway too difficult to load on a wagon or a truck either by hand or by a loading conveyor towed along side.

[BuffaloJohn]

These grouping machines are designed to be used with loaders which have a platform boom with grappel loaders, such as this:

[cmarlow]

I can remember my grandfather over half a century ago discussing with some other small farmers the merits of round bales versus square bales. They were part of an equipment ring and shared equipment that would have cost to much for any of them to buy on their own. They had a small Allis-Chalmers Roto-Baler and were thinking of buying a newer baler to replace it. They ended up buying a square baler and keeping the round baler too.

[BuffaloJohn]

Feeding animals becomes a material handling problem once the number of animals grows over a certain size - depending on the animal. I had big animals.

Had a big round baler (5'x5' string wrap) for many years and would put up hay (100+ bales) every year. Before that, I had purchased 4'x4'x8' bales. Before that, I did 2 tie bales (about 70# per bales) for a couple years. I couldn't do 3 tie bales - they kicked my butt (110+ # per bale) - couldn't buck them high enough to stack or to transport. After the round baler, I went back to purchasing large rectangular bales, 3'x4'x8' was the best.

I looked at one of these grapple loaders and if I had stuck with 2 tie bales, it would have been the way to do those bales. Folks that use those usually don't have a bale stacker wagon. But, I looked at the material handling and peeling leaves off a big bale was far less work, so I paid attention to that...

[cmarlow]

The big round bales solve some storage problems too. Even left outside the loss from the outer layers degrading is less than the loss on small bales just from handling and storing inside. At least that is what the people using large bales told me.

[BuffaloJohn]

The big round bales solve some storage problems too. Even left outside the loss from the outer layers degrading is less than the loss on small bales just from handling and storing inside.

Somewhat better storage space utilization with the big round versus small round and much better than 2 tie, but round bales don't pack as densely as big rectangular. The round bales are roll packed where the rectangular bales are ram packed, so gravity versus hydraulics. Yes, you could leave the big rounds outside in the rain, stacking them outside was a royal pain as the rain wouldn’t run off if you stacked them more than one layer, so tarps were needed and it cascaded from there.

Going to rectangular meant a place to store, but I could get way more stored. I even got to the point that I would specify the bales to be 7’6” instead of 8’ in length so I could pack the storage easier since I was moving two or three bales at a time.

Glad I don’t do hay anymore, I don’t miss feeding with the wind blowing little bits of hay into you face, getting into all the spaces between jacket and your skin… nope, don’t miss that at all…

[BuffaloJohn]

The big round bales solve some storage problems too. Even left outside the loss from the outer layers degrading is less than the loss on small bales just from handling and storing inside. At least that is what the people using large bales told me.

Forgot a comment on leaving them on the ground outside - it depends also on how well your soil drains and what your winter moisture looks like. If the ground contact is in wet rainy areas, like western Oregon where I am, the bale will rot from the bottom as well. If I had snow through the winter, leaving them outside would be fine, but rain - not much joy.