Today's experience with my new McHale 995LM small, square wrapper

olPete · Feb 2, 2017

Thanks for your reply.. most interesting reading!
I made about 280,000 4 foot round bales in my short time as a baling contractors' pet driver.. so it is interesting to see your findings regarding preferred feed for the stock. We always wanted to go and see the bales being fed out but always being bullied into making the guy more money....
Some farmers would mow in the rain and let it dry out slowly over a week or so before baling.. the slow drying does make some sense so long as there's no mould in the bale. My own personal preference was 'a day away from hay' as there is usually plenty of moisture in the winter, without tractoring it around, making bigger ruts!
Roger the hard work moving them, we don't nickname them "loony cubes" for no reason. Glad when the bales got too big for manual labour.
I just made our own stash for winter lamb fattening/finishing. Would have preferred to get it off earlier as it was losing quality, but I did take a photo or two of the grass in case I sell some.
You would need a good team to roll these guys around. In kg terms, the 6 I weighed were between 930-945 kgx2.2046 will give you pounds. Heavy anyway and just to my liking moisture wise.

Quite a lot of red, strawberry, and white clover. So dense that it was keeping the grass at bay..

and it stacked up well

AKfish · Feb 3, 2017

Beautiful pictures! Thanks for posting them! Whew.. That's several lifetimes worth of hay. What was the moisture content for alot of the hay that you wrapped?

olPete · Feb 3, 2017

AKfish said:
Beautiful pictures! Thanks for posting them! Whew.. That's several lifetimes worth of hay. What was the moisture content for alot of the hay that you wrapped?

We don't really measure the moisture scientifically, more just a farmer's measure.. also we tend to talk more of the dry-matter or DM%, as then it's easy to convert back to animal intake.. eg a dairy cow you would offer 18kgDM. Or a sheep 2kgDM..
The way we 'measure' is to grab a fistful of grass, wring it till it breaks, twist up the grass again.. if your hands are damp it's too wet by far. If there's just a tinge of moisture then it's good to go. If your hands are dry but you can rub the broken ends under your nose and feel dampness then it's perfect.. any drier and it's hay!
Pit silage you would have wetter than baled silage as the baler will compact it better than gravity, no matter how you roll it or what you roll it with. Wheels are a lot better than tracks.
As this had a high % of clover, I didn't want it too dry or wilted, then you'd lose so much leaf as it gets raked and baled. I'd suggest 35% dry matter or so, and 30% in the bunker

There's a bit of chewing in there too. This is the cattle feed, for feeding in the barn.. a lot denser so I can feed about 4 cubic yards twice a day for 120 cattle, whereas I can only fit 2 bales in the trough and need to feed at least 5 bales.

it's fairly small, 18 x 30 metres so 20x33 yards? Keeps them from ploughing up the pasture though, and then I can run heaps more lambs.

AKfish · Feb 5, 2017

Whew... That's a pile of tires! You've got a great lookin' farm! Like that bale hugger, too. Is the roof material reinforced plastic? We've got a much smaller "hot house" 35'x60' (half size your barn) and have had to replace the roof covering after 3 seasons. 'Course the snow and ice is an unforgiving adversary!

olPete · Feb 5, 2017

AKfish said:
Whew... That's a pile of tires! You've got a great lookin' farm! Like that bale hugger, too. Is the roof material reinforced plastic? We've got a much smaller "hot house" 35'x60' (half size your barn) and have had to replace the roof covering after 3 seasons. 'Course the snow and ice is an unforgiving adversary!

Yep it took me all morning to throw them all on! Estimate there's 1300 or so tires on there.
Those bale grabs are actually really handy for more than just wrapped bales. I can pick up my silage grab bucket or bale forks with them, and put planks through them and use them as a mini lift platform for putting drums of fert up on the stand so I can let gravity do my work.
The roof is just thick clear plastic. They guarantee them for about 10 years but this one should last longer. The windward end is attached via a small lean-to, to the woolshed. That helps reduce the 'wing effect' that seems to be the destroyer of these types of roof. I have curtains at the other end and put mesh along the front to keep the drafts to a minimum. Notice the barn has reduced the feed required per animal by 25-30% vs feeding outside.