making square bales out of rounds

rick1 · Nov 22, 2014

thought about making some square bales out of rounds
i have stored inside to sell this winter.i only have
around 40 rounds.while setting around this winter in
the of work season thought i might try it.
RICK

Traditional Farmer · Nov 22, 2014

Depends on the hay, grassy hay like Fescue and Orchard Grass would work fine but with leafy hay like Clover you'd probably end up with mostly stems

RayP(MI) · Nov 22, 2014

I have some experience forking broken squares and straw from a stack (off of a threshing machine) into square baler. Not fun, a lot like work. You may end up with some pretty nasty bales, prone to buckling and breaking all over again. Will depend on how successful you are in keeping hay intact while removing from round bales.

RayP(MI) · Nov 22, 2014

Be very careful while working around front of running, stationary baler. Especially not to back into running PTO shaft.

sd pete · Nov 22, 2014

Grass hay may work ok. Alfalfa and you might end up with all stems.[/b]

Tx Jim · Nov 22, 2014

rick1
My neighbor rolls out rd bales of Bermuda grass hay every Winter. I just sold him 30 rd bales that he rolled out and got 20 sq bales(55 #) per round. He delivers this hay to feed stores & horsey people.

Tx Jim · Nov 22, 2014

rick1
nt double post

Texasmark1 · Nov 22, 2014

Jim, "horsey people": Just curious about the comment. Is that
people who care for horses or people who think the hay is for them
sort of things. Grin, sorry couldn't help myself.

Mark

rick1 · Nov 22, 2014

it is mostly grass hay i will probably try it one of these days just to see how it goes.and thanks for the safety tips.
RICK

Super-H-Mike · Nov 22, 2014

I have done this, its a lot of work and fairly messy. In the end, it just wasnt worth the work to me.

Hay hay hay · Nov 22, 2014

It is an interesting question and an idea that most of us with both types of baler have considered. I have never personally tried it, BUT. There was a long discussion of doing it on this forum a year or two ago and some of the folks that have tried it said it is a lot more difficult than it sounds.

Check the archives.

There is a youtube video of a machine that does it stationary.

Hay hay hay · Nov 22, 2014

I just looked at the youtube videos again. Most use 2 tractors, 2 skid loaders, an accumulator and a grapple, while 3 or 4 people are working. Way over my budget.

todd hamilton · Nov 22, 2014

Of course I'm retired from farming now but I think if I was going to try that I would spread the round bale out on the ground, let it dry/cure for at least a day and then rake it into a wind row. Round bale hay could be pretty most in the center.

4xMF · Nov 22, 2014

I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. I have tried many times to just roll out a bale of straw that got stuck in the baler before I got it tied and then pick it up again with the same baler. Don’t see why a square baler couldn’t pick it up and bale it just as well if the pickup is as wide as the roll.

showcrop · Nov 22, 2014

I would say that it depends mainly on your square bale market. Around here they go for up to $17.00 for 55lbs. in the latter part of the winter. That can pay for a lot of labor and equipment if one is ambitious.

Tx Jim · Nov 22, 2014

(quoted from post at 08:49:35 11/22/14) Jim, "horsey people": Just curious about the comment. Is that
people who care for horses or people who think the hay is for them
sort of things. Grin, sorry couldn't help myself.

Mark

Mark
Just advertise some fertilized,weed sprayed Coastal for sale and you'll find out exactly what "horsey people" are. :wink: :lol:
Jim

WellWorn · Nov 22, 2014

We do it, but only because we have heavy ground and hay season was too wet too often to get enough of our own off this past summer. We ended up buying some 5' rounds of first cutting mixed grasses from a guy who farms on gravel a couple hills over, but we don't have equipment to stack them or a good place to store them. They get peeled/unrolled by hand, baled with an IH 46 (usually powered by our SA), then put up in the mow. Works best with 3 people - one unrolling, one feeding the baler, and one clearing the output end. It's a lot of work, and makes for a goodly bunch of chaff (that goes to the pigs). The bales themselves seem to turn out ok.

If you have far more time and round bales than you know what to do with, if there is a better market for small squares than big rounds, and you aren't looking to make much money for the time, effort and fuel invested, go for it. Then use (or go buy) a square baler for next year to save more than a few steps.

fixerupper · Nov 22, 2014

I waited till some other guys posted before I came in. Twenty years ago or maybe a little more I pitched a little over 30 round bales into a silage chopper to feed to the cows. It's a LOT of work but it can be made easier if you quarter the round bales with a chain saw first. The chain saw opens the bale up and you are left with perfect sized pieces to sink your pitchfork into. Your problem is the bales you are working with are grass and tough grass wants to wrap in the chain saw and take out the crankshaft seal. I never did try unrolling the bales and picking up the green carpet with the chopper because the pickup on the old Gehl fan type chopper was too narrow. Oh yes, a regular four or five tine pitchfork won't let go of the hay very well when you pitch it into the baler. A three or four tine hay fork with long wide spaced tines works much better. Shiny tines help too. The more work you do trying to get the hay OFF the fork means you will wear out faster. Make sure the business end of the fork doesn't come off the handle when you pitch it in. Not a joke!

Oh yes, be very careful. This fall my son who is on a local fire dept helped remove a very unfortunate fatally injured person from a silage chopper. When that pickup grabs you, you are going in. Nuff said!

RodinNS · Nov 22, 2014

If you like working for nothing, you just found the ticket. We've done a bit of it just to satisfy some orders now and then but generally it's a pain in the arse doing work you won't get paid for. Discount the rounds by 5 bucks and get rid of them and you'll be time and money ahead.

Rod

Nate V. IA · Nov 22, 2014

I think NCWayne built a machine to do just that, maybe he will chime in.

Nate

Tx Jim · Nov 22, 2014

(quoted from post at 13:47:42 11/22/14) If you like working for nothing, you just found the ticket. We've done a bit of it just to satisfy some orders now and then but generally it's a pain in the arse doing work you won't get paid for. Discount the rounds by 5 bucks and get rid of them and you'll be time and money ahead.

Rod

My neighbor that is buying round bales for $70 from me then rolling them out sq baling them then selling them for $8 per sq bale making $90 over cost per rd bale isn't exactly what I'd call "not getting paid for his efforts"! Rolling out a rd bale that hasn't been baled very long with the frt tire of a tractor is easy.

Texasmark1 · Nov 22, 2014

Is it the fertilizer that gets them or the weed spray to kill the
weeds they just abhor knowing full well if as much as one weed
per acre should show up in their pet's diet it would die from
Colic? And then you see these "real" working ranch and
producers horses out in the open right along side the cows that
they control eating what they eat.

I don't waste my time with them. Got one down the road and I
swear she's nuts.

Mark

RodinNS · Nov 22, 2014

Have you ever unrolled and rebaled a round into squares? There's nothing 'easy' about it. It's just hard slogging. I suppose if he's getting 8 bucks a bale for it then he's making a little bit... but when you factor in the labor, equipment cost, loss etc... he's not making much. I'd call it busy work. I guess if you need something to keep busy at, that's great. If you don't... you're just spinning your wheels.
The market here struggles to get 4 bucks for a square. Personally I'd not even entertain the idea for what we can get out of it.

Rod

wolfman · Nov 22, 2014

Have done that a few times. one two-hour period last winter, I square-baled 3 4X5 thousand pounders worth $35 ea and made 90 squares worth $3 ea. Turned $105 into $270. Tough on baler (didn't feed it steadily as I rolled and turned the big round and went to chute to toss squares out of the road) and tough on me. Would be a better two-man job. Once I unrolled a couple rounds in a field and drove the baler out and back and let the baler pick up the very crooked windrow. Kinda made a mess.

rview_ · Nov 23, 2014

Couple of the neighbors have hay companies, I've seen one of them do that years ago. They used a Haybuster to make a windrow. The sickle kind would take less HP if you don't have a bigger tractor, like a Buffalo 7700. Don't know what it's like there but most livestock operations have a Haybuster around here (few Buffalo or like Bale King), either the 2 bale or one built on a hay mover, maybe you could find one to borrow/rent/work out a deal with.

rusty6 · Nov 23, 2014

I did that with one partial round hay bale this past summer and it was a lot of work. Rolled out by hand not too bad but too wide for the baler pickup and way too heavy . I spent most of the time with the tractor standing still as it could not go slow enough for the baler to handle the amount of hay coming in. Shear pin broke anyway. Wasted some of the hay too. I might consider it for $8 a bale though.
Baling

formenwhogrow · Nov 24, 2014

No offense, but it sounds like jacking off the dog to feed the cat. Not worth all the work to do it. You will probably just end up getting dusty and tired, wasting a bunch of fuel, shear pins on your square baler, etc., and for what? to make another $40 per round bale? Nah, not for me.

making square bales out of rounds

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