round bales vs. square bales

[patrickg]

Bird, I forgot to mention that the big load of round bales was on a narrow blacktop 2 lane state highway (102) between Wanette and Pink. Yes there is a town named Pink, I once looked at property to buy there. A couple wags fronting on state hwy 9 have painted their mailboxes, what else, pink, about the color of Pepto Bismol. That area has soil that is pretty bright red so why pink not red? (Political thing no doubt, wouldn't call thenselves Reds)

Anyway there was a " W I D E L O A D " pilot car in front of it by a couple hundred feet, not much warning. I know the trucks that carry fully built frame houses (not in sections, not on their own wheels, not a mobile home, not a "manufactured" home but a complete stick built frame home 18-1900 sqft, 26 feet wide) don't travel at night or on weekends. This was Saturday evening (yesterday) at about 21-2130 hours (9-9:30 PM o'clock in the evening).

I don't recall how many bales long it was but at least 4-5. If you just wait and watch you will eventually see all sorts of strange stuff. In Northern Texas on I-35 I saw a stretch limo with at least 5-6 doors on the side. What a terrible waste, this thing couldn't have gone off road anywhere there was a slight convex whoopee along the way without hitting something in the middle of the vehicle. It was an expensive head turner but a waste of good vehicles to make it. It was a fire engine red s u p e r s t r e t c h e d Hummer. GO FIGURE!!!!!!!

Maybe some time I'll take to carrying a cheap camcorder and just let it run looking out the windshield a bit to the left of center and recycle the tapes with no interesting events. Had I been doing this already I could have probably sold footage to some TV shows.

Patrick

 

[ddl]

I was wrong about the twine and plastic. And you guys were right. What my brother says th problem with the plastic, is what to do with it after you remove it from the bale. It will not rot away and you are not suppose to burn it.

Dan L

 

[Bird]

Patrick, I've seen a wide variety of those "wide loads", including lots of houses; just have never seen hay moved like that. And I agree that the stretch limos get pretty ridiculous at time./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[Bird]

Dan, it seems to me there's a problem with what to do with not only the plastic but also the twine when you remove it from the bale. It's not unusual to see a lot of the twine on the roads and everywhere else around here. A neighbor was telling me this is the first year he's tried the biodegradable twine and he said it does; in fact it's rotted off the bottom of the bales before he can use them and they tend to fall apart when you move them so he doesn't plan to buy anymore of it./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[ddl]

The mass of the twine is much smaller than the mass of the plastic wrap, besides a farmer always have a need to tie a gate shut or such. When the switch from wire to twine happen, this removed half of the farmer ability to fix things, leaving only the pliers. Hope my Brother does not read this comment.

Dan L

 

[Bird]

Yeah, Dan, with no more baling wire, all the farmers had to buy welders./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[DVerbarg]

Bird.

My parents use the bio-degradable twine and had the same problem with the twine rotting away prematurely. They found it only happened on the bottom row of bales and just changed the stacking pattern to put the first row on its side, hence keeping the twine off the "ground". This solved their problem with rotting twine and if they now drop a piece in the hay field or in the animal stalls don't worry about the twine interferring with equipment later.

The success of this technique may vary by local heat/humidity conditions. Has anyone else done this or heard of this technique?

DaveV

 

[Bird]

Dave, that sounds like a solution that ought to work, but I don't know anyone around here who doesn't store their hay with the bales end to end to minimize the weather exposure, and only a very few people "stack" round bales at all. They just make more and longer rows./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[poorboy]

I don't the situation but here's what dad and I do. We run about 60 beef cows now and sell their calves in the fall except about 10 replacement heifers. We have baled about 1000 4x4 rolls the past two years in a row because of the excessive rainfall. we have feed about 500 to 600 bales a year and sell a few to cover expenses. We also stockpiled some excess in the barns that we could stack three high and three wide. After we see that we have enough to feed that year, this we stack outside because the loss the first year is minimal, we begin to square bale to sell to neighbors. We also square to fill the barns in which stacking rolls is a waste of space or impossible. The rolls are no problem to put up for two people and quick and easy to haul in and feed out. We can can haul 9 on a 16 tag a long short distances pretty quick and I estimate 10 to 12 squares in our rounds. I love fooling with the squares if time allows and not rushed but I would quit if I had to do it all with just me and dad. As far as waste with the rolls if their is enough stock to finish off a roll in a few days and they are hooped or contained in some way little if any loss. Same goes for squares. The only loss is if the hay is of poor quality and then it doesn't matter what it was baled with. However since you don't have to touch it their is a tendency to rush it a little. The specs. on my little roller requires 45hp min.. There my be smaller rollers but the percentage of loss probably goes up a little. If manpower is a problem and enough stock or space is present I highly reccomend a roller. The price of a good roller is about the same as a good small square baler. Don't even think about a roller that is older than ten years, go with a newer design that rolls tight. Twine is a personal choice. With sisal the strings will rot in a few weeks on the bottom but that is no problem because they are usually where they are going to be fed. The hay makes it own caps and most of the rot after the first year is from the bottom up. Just stack it on a place with good drainage. I would love to own my own gravel quarry or at least be closer than 100 miles from one. Sorry about being so long winded!
P.S. I wish I had gone with a 4x5 but the old 4000 may of had problems and I didn't think I would fool with so much hay.

 

[WindWolf24]

Hello, im a student in West Virginia and im taking an agricultural class, and need some help, we are doing a paper on round bales v.s. square bales and i cant find the answers on other sites can you help me answer some questions?

1. Labor costs
2. losses of dry matter, energy and protien
3.percent moisture they should be baled at
4. how should they be stored
5. how well do cattle do when fed large round bales free choice
6. how can you cover them
7. do you need a round bale feeder? why or why not? how do losses compare for ring or nonring feeding?
8. how can i reduce losses
9. how often should cows be fed
10. how is feeding round bales compared to square bales?

if you can help with any of these questions I would be very glad. Thanks

-Jamie