hay bails
Lead Driver
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 5,947
Likes: 63
From: in the woods of MA
Once again I am wondering about the regional differences of how we do things, and I've got some questions.
Fifty pound hay bales? You guys must tie bales shorter than we do out west, a 50 lb bale would be so soft it wouldn't hold up to any handling and certainly wouldn't run through a bale wagon. I've always set the baler to tie at 48"+/-, and if the bales aren't at least 70 lbs they are too soft to handle. So what length do you tie them at and how do you stack them, all by hand?
Fifty pound hay bales? You guys must tie bales shorter than we do out west, a 50 lb bale would be so soft it wouldn't hold up to any handling and certainly wouldn't run through a bale wagon. I've always set the baler to tie at 48"+/-, and if the bales aren't at least 70 lbs they are too soft to handle. So what length do you tie them at and how do you stack them, all by hand?
We stack/load all ours by hand - we don't use kickers or bale wagons as we just don't do that many square bales - we put 95% of our stuff in round bales. We only do squares if we're going to sell some to a horse customer (and in that case *they* can load them themselves!), or maybe some second/third cutting we're going to feed out by hand when finishing critters.
Hotshot
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 12,177
Likes: 40
From: Newport, WA
Out here has is retarded expensive... we got a bargain basement price on grassy alfalfa for $140/ton. Typical pricing is around $200-$230/ton for grassy alfalfa horse hay. The bale sizes and weights were all over the place so it's hard to give a good cost/bale.
For tying down hay loads I've found camper tie downs to come in quite handy- my old 95 had them and that's what I used. Since buying the SD I've only had to make short hauls and haven't worried about it too much.
For tying down hay loads I've found camper tie downs to come in quite handy- my old 95 had them and that's what I used. Since buying the SD I've only had to make short hauls and haven't worried about it too much.
Senior User
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 363
Likes: 0
From: Indiana Cornfields
Wow. Sounds like the midwest has the best hay prices. We usually sell for about $3.50 a bale for good alfalfa hay. By the third cut we are usually selling them for about $2.50-3. Our bales usually run in the 75lb range. I would crap my pants if I had to pay 8 buck for a bale.
Lead Driver
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 7,406
Likes: 52
From: Wheatland, Mo
Wow. Sounds like the midwest has the best hay prices. We usually sell for about $3.50 a bale for good alfalfa hay. By the third cut we are usually selling them for about $2.50-3. Our bales usually run in the 75lb range. I would crap my pants if I had to pay 8 buck for a bale.
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