I talked to a buddy this afternoon that is the head guy for a big, commercial farming operation (the ones I made the bale buster for). Given that they provide wheat straw for some of the big box home stores, they tend to have ALOT of it on hand at any given time. In this instance they had a HUGE barn/structure filled to the rafters with big, square bales, until a couple of local kids decided it would all look better if it was in flames. Sadly the stuff was stored in a little community around an hour from their main place, so no one was there to really see, or do anything until it was pretty much too late.
As of today they are starting salvage operations to save as much of the material as they can. I believe he said they might end up with 30,000 bales left out of the whole deal. (((Not sure how big the structure was, but I assume that"s big bales broken down into small bales. Then again I have seen a small part of their storage facilities and it consisted of two 500x100 turkey barns sitting full to the rafters, and know there were several other storage places in the area))))). Given that the last baler hooked to the bale buster was at well over 100,000 bales when it crapped out, that"s not many, especially when you figure it was either the 4th or 5th one worn out feeding it constantly at well over 400 bales an hour. (Beyond the 400 bales an hour, which I have seen with my own eyes, I can't give exact numbers here, but this is just what I can remember, all pieced together from several conversations about the bale buster
In any case he said the whole mess would wind up costing them somewhere in the range of a million dollars. He didn"t say, but given the situation I would assume their insurance would cover at least part of the loss, but beyond prosecuting the kids responsible, he said they really didn"t have much recourse against the kids or their parents. Like he said how many poor, country folks carry insurance with a payout in the million range. Basically you can"t get blood from a turnip.
In the end I guess that the kids, due to age, will probably get not much more than a slap on the wrist...and who cares that their bright idea cost someone a million dollars.
As of today they are starting salvage operations to save as much of the material as they can. I believe he said they might end up with 30,000 bales left out of the whole deal. (((Not sure how big the structure was, but I assume that"s big bales broken down into small bales. Then again I have seen a small part of their storage facilities and it consisted of two 500x100 turkey barns sitting full to the rafters, and know there were several other storage places in the area))))). Given that the last baler hooked to the bale buster was at well over 100,000 bales when it crapped out, that"s not many, especially when you figure it was either the 4th or 5th one worn out feeding it constantly at well over 400 bales an hour. (Beyond the 400 bales an hour, which I have seen with my own eyes, I can't give exact numbers here, but this is just what I can remember, all pieced together from several conversations about the bale buster
In any case he said the whole mess would wind up costing them somewhere in the range of a million dollars. He didn"t say, but given the situation I would assume their insurance would cover at least part of the loss, but beyond prosecuting the kids responsible, he said they really didn"t have much recourse against the kids or their parents. Like he said how many poor, country folks carry insurance with a payout in the million range. Basically you can"t get blood from a turnip.
In the end I guess that the kids, due to age, will probably get not much more than a slap on the wrist...and who cares that their bright idea cost someone a million dollars.