Small square bales in wagons

muley280 · Dec 16, 2013

I'm going to be kick baling with a NH 276 baler and I think my bales are about 14"x18"x4' long. Can anyone give me an idea of how many bales can fit in a 7'x16' hay wagon. or give me some sizes and how many bales fit. They will not be stacked. Thanks

tessiers · Dec 16, 2013

I'm guessing about 100, we used to kick 180 to 200 onto an 8x20, but they were closer to 3' long. 4' bale is a long bale to be kicking, seams like they might want to come apart.

muley280 · Dec 16, 2013

tessiers said:
I'm guessing about 100, we used to kick 180 to 200 onto an 8x20, but they were closer to 3' long. 4' bale is a long bale to be kicking, seams like they might want to come apart.

They might be 3' long, I can't remember how long I was making them. Thanks

rockinmywaypa · Dec 16, 2013

20 or 30 yrs ago when we were starting out using throwers we didn't shorten the bales from what we were using on the old stooker. I rebuilt a whole thrower apparatus before I realised that the bales were still clinging in the chamber when the rollers were trying to start throwing it to the wagon. I had another "operator" running the tractor in the field while I unloaded at the barn and it seemed like every couple hours something was broke. As soon as I realised the problem then no more stoppages and we used it until I switched to using big round bales. I hand mowed 30000 bales in three barns that last year so the round baler was a welcome change. Point here is that shorter bales can make your life easier in more ways than one.

Paul N · Dec 20, 2013

We have 9 x 16 foot wagons, and our bales are about 3 foot. We can also steer the thrower, which helps a great deal. A typical load is 120 bales without stopping. If I stop to re arrange the bales, I can get another 15 on.

I just put a new floor in this wagon last year. I tried something different, and put the boards on cross-ways. It takes less lumber, and it worked very well on the first season.

SSdoxie · Jan 8, 2014

2 things we found out when Dad first started using a thrower. Shorten the bale and pack them as tight as possible. Long or loose bales get really tangled up in the rack and are pain to unload. He used 16' wagons with 7' sides (if this old memory is correct) and normal load before they started falling off the sides was around 90 bales.

sixdogs · Jan 8, 2014

I'd say four ft is way too long. I can't remember the length I used but three ft sounds better. On a 7 x 16 wagon and a three ft--or a little longer--bale I'll guess you can kick (actually it's a "thrower") around 80 to 90 bales. Eight ft would be a better width for a wagon and I'd guess the narrower seven ft will keep you at that 80-90 number.

If you kicked 35 bales in and then went back and stacked them you could get more in and it would be easier to unload. As someone else mentioned, you will need to pack them really tight.

Eight ft wide makes a better wagon because that's the width of five NH bales with a press fit.

Canuck07 · Jan 10, 2014

We have a Gehl 3210 with the bale thrower on it but someone usually is on the wagon and stacks the bales as they come in (less trips in from the field) and we get around 120 maybe a bit more like 140 on a big load in a New Holland rack wagon, I don't remember the dimensions off the top of my head (see pic, don't mind the mess on this load my sister was stacking). As stated above with the length, the bales will bow when they land if they are too long or not tight enough. I would say 4' is too long.