Unofficial Time Study of Small Squares vs Round Bales

lastcowboy32

Well-known Member
So, I recently had a golden opportunity to compare.

I had a field all raked up and ready to do in small squares. I screwed up my baler... my neighbor round baled it for me to beat the rain.

Starting with a field raked into double windrows (double NH 56 rake windrows... so about 18 feet of swath per windrow)

In two hours, the round baler did 32 bales a little under 5' in diameter. My neighbor says that it's equivalent to about 800 small squares, give or take. Seems about right. I was guessing about 600 to 800, when I started baling.

Old small square balers, like a NH273 can do about 300 small squares an hour.

Newer and bigger balers, like a NH575 can easily do 400 small squares an hour. I timed by brother with his once, he was spitting out a bale every six seconds...

So... baling-wise... it's about a wash, between my neighbors Krone round baler and a modern small square baler.

As far as getting the bales under cover... a lot of variables there. I put his bale spear on my tractor-loader... and.. by the time he was done baling, I had all of the bales moved to rows at the end of the field. But, if I had to load them on a bale wagon... haul the wagon... unload... that takes more time.

With a crew of about six people unloading, you can keep up a pace of about 300 to 400 small squares an hour and keep the person baling fed with empty wagons.

This was interesting to me, because I've heard a lot about how round bales are much faster. I think in the end, it really depends on other factors, like available labor, equipment and storage facilities, when it comes to the absolute question of: "How much dry hay can be harvested and stored under cover in an hour"

I think that the wildcard with round balers is baleage. If your farm can use baleage... I think that starts to give an edge to the round baler.
 

I seriously doubt 32 soft core rd bales less than 5' in diameter yielded much over 500 sq bales if that many?? My neighbor regularly unrolls 4X5.5 solid core rd bales & only gets 17-18 small sq bales per rd bale.
 
One always makes more $$ with square over round because you can get more per pound of hay. But there is also a whole lot more work doing squares
 
(quoted from post at 10:48:58 10/13/21)
I seriously doubt 32 soft core rd bales less than 5' in diameter yielded much over 500 sq bales if that many?? My neighbor regularly unrolls 4X5.5 solid core rd bales & only gets 17-18 small sq bales per rd bale.

That also depends how "big" your "small" squares are. 17-18 small squares at 50 pounds, is 850 to 900 pounds of hay... which is equivalent to 21 to 23 small squares at 40 pounds per bale.

I usually figure about 20 bales per round bale, and I estimate at a 40 pound bale for small squares.

I think my neighbor's estimate is a little high. He figured the bales weighed a thousand pounds... I wasn't going to argue, though... since he just baled my field for me.

My comparison is "rough"... admittedly; because very few people put their small squares and/or round bales on a scale.

Just based on feel... because I've been around small square balers since I was a kid. I feel like that same field would have taken about the same two hours to bale up with a small square baler.

We can argue about how many bales it would be at what size... but that's what my gut tells me.

The numbers are definitely inexact.

Needless to say, part of why I was curious is that many people around me have gone to round balers, and they tell me some pretty wild stories about how much faster they can bale with a round baler...

I say... it all depends how much you want to spend...

If you spend 30k to 40k on a brand new New Holland 575... you'll be able to bale just as fast as you can bale with a 30k to 40k round baler... or so it seems.

If you spend 1000 dollars on a used small square baler... you'll probably bale just as fast as you can with a 1000 dollar used round baler...

I think it really boils down to labor, storage... and again, that baleage wildcard. But even baleage doesn't come for free... a lot of money in wrap. A lot of time in wrapping.

Ourselves? Our farm came with a nice, big overhead hayloft. I'm already paying for the barn... so it seems like a waste to pay for the barn and then pile all of my hay outside in round bales.

If I had a great big pole barn? I might think differently.
 

I think it depends on the weather a lot too.

People out west can stack large rounds and large squares outside for months and never get them rained on.

Here in the Northeast? They better be wrapped, or put under cover, because you'll lose a lot more hay to the elements... which changes the storage costs for round bales outside vs small squares in a hay loft.
 

Also, what do you mean by "soft core" round bale.

As far as the bales my neighbor did... I had a heck of a time getting the spears into them. Seems like the cores were pretty hard to me.

Is that a baler thing? He has a relatively new Krone baler. Is it correct to assume "soft core" with that?

I have no clue. I am definitely not the expert in round bales.
 
(quoted from post at 12:19:00 10/13/21)
Older model Krone balers were fixed chamber soft core BUT newer baler may be variable chamber hard core.

Probably hard core then? Because he mentioned that he changed the the bale size, when he started my field. He explained that he was going for somewhere around a 60" bale, because we were doing dry hay. He had come off of a field where he previously set it for smaller diameter for baleage. Said that 60" bales of baleage can bend your bale spears and do a number on your equipment.
 
Well, you are saying a crew of 2 people on rounds can equal a crew of 8 people on small squares.

Not really equal time the way you are figuring that.

Paul
 
I have never understood a 40 pound small square. We shoot
for 70 pounds and that was even when we were hauling them
by hand. Now with a New Holland 1069 bale wagon, we
rarely have to touch a bale, even when putting them on a
customers trailer. There is a you tube video of a prison
picking up 160 bales with a 1069 in 11.5 minutes. That is a
bale picked up and stacked every 4.3 seconds
 
Very simple a 40lbs bale is for people like me who have a bad back and or women. I've known more then one woman who liked my 40lbs bales of hay
 
(quoted from post at 13:11:39 10/13/21) Well, you are saying a crew of 2 people on rounds can equal a crew of 8 people on small squares.

Not really equal time the way you are figuring that.

Paul

Definitely not what I'm saying.

A. The crew of 2 on rounds just baled and lined bales up at the edge of the field.

B. The crew of 7 with small squares (6 people hauling and unloading... 1 person baling) would have the hay put into the barn and stacked.

So, right now I really only have a comparison of baling time.

I'll have a better feel for overall time this weekend; because I'm going to borrow my neighbor's bale wagon, load the bales onto the bale wagon with my tractor and loader, haul the bale wagon to the barn, and then unload the bale wagon and stack the bales in my barn, with the tractor and loader. (I have enough room on the "dry floor" of my hayloft for this, since I don't have to pull any more wagons of small squares in)

Just like when John Henry battled the steam drill. Who wins the race depends very much on when you say "start" and when you say "done".

A lot of people touting the advantages of round bales don't account for the time required to store them.

I also see a comment about how fast self stacking bale wagons are. And they are... but you need to run two pieces of equipment around the field one to bale... one to pick up the bales. Same thing with those accumulator thingies that leave little racks of 10 bales here and there.

With a small square baler pulling a wagon... the bales are baled and loaded for transport in one operation. By one person.

There is no other method of baling that bales and loads the bales for transport in one pass, to my knowledge.

This post was edited by lastcowboy32 on 10/13/2021 at 01:44 pm.
 

Old! I'm with you on that one. If there is one thing that I've noticed about men and women, it's this...

Men want to bale bigger bales, and handle them with heavy equipment.

Women want smaller bales, and they don't mind the hand labor of moving them.

Age also matters. The "regulars" of our hay crew this year were 49, 51, 58, 31, 26 and 69 years old. 2 of them men... 4 of them women. We hired some teenagers here and there when someone couldn't be around. To have my 69 year old brother handle 75 pound bales on the regular would mean that he can't help me. Why would I do that to him?
 
seems a little unfair to compare; considering difference in labor required. round baleing is a one man show .i have done both and square baling alone is no picnic; the time difference is huge ; used a stackhand 30 in the early 70s ; that
makes round balers seem inadeqaute nowadays; its all apples to oranges
 
I can stack ten ton of big bales by myself in less time than I
can make the call to find help to load little bales and never
break a sweat doing it and the big bales keep a lot better than
the little bales do . And I can bale in 30 minutes what my little
baler takes half a day . A big round baler can easily bale
heavy hay 3 ton to the acre at 7 mph and not break a sweat
doing it either
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I also think that you have to compare the skilled labor required. When you say that round baling is a "one man show"...

That one man has to:

Bale
Load bales for transport
Transport
Unload and pile for storage

That's a lot of lonely, lonely time... because there is no room for unskilled labor... and it's a "serial" process... one process after the other.

And, to do that serial process quickly, you need massive equipment. So I think it's completely fair to consider labor costs and equipment costs. Neither are free.
 
A regular hay rack? You need the driver and the stacker, 2 people. Bale thrower or bale basket? Then yes one person, but someone needs to collect the bales that fly
off the rack with the thrower, or down time with the basket as bales push out on corners.

Big thing with a round baler is you can bale and let set outside. Pick up at your convenience.

Squares dont take rain, you have to have the people to stack then and get under cover.

There is some loss with rounds outside, but it is typically acceptable compared to any squares you try to leave outside.

Not arguing just discussing, enjoy the conversation. :)
 
(quoted from post at 13:54:43 10/13/21) A regular hay rack? You need the driver and the stacker, 2 people. Bale thrower or bale basket? Then yes one person, but someone needs to collect the bales that fly
off the rack with the thrower, or down time with the basket as bales push out on corners.

Big thing with a round baler is you can bale and let set outside. Pick up at your convenience.

Squares dont take rain, you have to have the people to stack then and get under cover.

There is some loss with rounds outside, but it is typically acceptable compared to any squares you try to leave outside.

Not arguing just discussing, enjoy the conversation. :)

Yup... Agree... and all of those factors are different with every operation, and weather conditions, family size.

We use a thrower... and yes sir, I spend time getting on and off the tractor getting the errant bale every now and then... checking bale tension, etc.

The weather loss factors are very dependent on where you live. I enjoy SVCummins posts, because he has a much different environment than us. In dryland conditions, you can leave bales out. Where I live? Our weather conditions can rot an uncovered round bale mercilessly. And what doesn't rot can get moldy.

I sure as heck was glad my neighbor had his round baler. Yesterday :) I would have baled the stuff in triangles, or hexagons... I don't care. I just wanted the field picked up.
 
I enjoy loading big bales all by myself in fact I love it love love
it . Its easy work and it doesnt take any equipment I dont
have a least . And yes one man does it all but he still does not
even 1 tenth the labor he would even if he had 10 guys
loading little bales .
 
I like feeding the little bales I really do because for what I feed
they are easier to see how much You are feeding but boy is it
miserable to get em loaded and then uploaded and stacked
again and you better get em covered or in the barn ASAP
because If a rain comes and then another rain before they are
dry it will ruin 75 percent of em I guess need to start making
tighter bales again but I cant handle them anymore like I
could once . The only reason I have little bales this year if
because like you I had to get em put up and little bales was
the only way to do it .
 

It's implied when I say our weather can rot an uncovered round bale... that I also mean... small square left on the ground in that same weather is trash after one day, if the rain is bad enough. Been there, done that.

Big rounds and big squares beat small squares hands down; when it comes to sitting outside.

Around here... the difference is... you completely lose the small square... you lose a fraction of the big square or round bale.

In dryland conditions... it's a different calculation. You can even leave small squares laying around for days, waiting to get them with a stack wagon.
 

Ground speed isn't the only consideration.

With our small square baler... I purposely make the biggest windrow I can. I figure it's better to run around with the rake and then let the baler just chug along spitting out bales.

In heavy hay, I can move along a 2 mph and spit out small squares in a hurry.

One thing I notice about our neighbor is that he has to keep the windrows small enough to drive over with his round baler... so he goes faster than me by ground speed... but I make a bigger windrow.
 

So, I guess what I'm saying is... I ignore ground speed comparisons and use tons baled per hour as the better comparison... because tones baled accounts for ground speed and windrow size.

I could easily run my NH276 small square baler at 5mph on small rows. I could run even faster...capacity-wise... but I'll bang the crap out of it. That's why I rake monster rows and bale at a slow ground speed.

I think round balers, in general are more tolerant of bumps, though... give you that. Seeing as how I just ruined a set of needles in my small square baler... :)
 
no; i am not a loely guy and ,yes you are fortunate if you can get cheap unskilled labor not so around here. central wi. ; also our round bales are good outside unwrapped for many months ,.so i dont know what kind of bales you are
making there. one more thing ; i have been making hay for over 60 years with many different types of equipment. so tell me how that compares to one experiment! sorry ; but sometimmes i just do not care for the spin put on things.
 

I make 4x4 rounds and square bales. I run an old NH 630 and MF 9, so older slow balers.

I round bale 4.5 MPH in same windows my square baler needs to be at 2 MPH to eat. Square baler no stopping, round baler I spend a lot of time tying.

I have rebaled my 4x4s into squares before, there are consistently 12-13 small squares in my 4x4 bales.

I did one field this year that was 80 round bales, I baled and hauled them all home (approx 1 mile road travel each way) + individual wrapped them in 8 hours. I did have the wife on the wrapper tractor that day but I have done the whole process alone and the extra person saves my joints jumping between loader & wrapper tractor.

If that same field was square bales, it would be about 1000 small square bales. Guarantee I would not have them baled, loaded on wagons, hauled home, put on elevator, stacked in barn etc by myself in 8 hours.

I can load 22 rolls (approx 275 sq bales), make a short haul and and stack in my pole barn in 30 mins..by myself.

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(quoted from post at 14:52:03 10/13/21) no; i am not a loely guy and ,yes you are fortunate if you can get cheap unskilled labor not so around here. central wi. ; also our round bales are good outside unwrapped for many months ,.so i dont know what kind of bales you are
making there. one more thing ; i have been making hay for over 60 years with many different types of equipment. so tell me how that compares to one experiment! sorry ; but sometimmes i just do not care for the spin put on things.

So..

A... I pay help well. More than 15 per hour. So, I agree that help isn't cheap. But neither is heavy equipment.

Lonely is also a relative term. Some people like the independence of working by themselves. Myself, I have an office job that's lonely enough. When I come home to bale hay. I like to have a few people around.

B. Most of us here have many years baling hay, feeding hay, etc. I'm 51, and been around hay if all shapes and sizes as long as I can remember. I've bought round bales as a customer for many years. This isn't my first rodeo. I've fed out beautiful baleage from round bales... and beautiful dry second cut stored inside. I've also seen bales that would make you cringe with rot and mold.
(I can say the same about small squares)

This IS the first time that I had a field of known size and known time to small bale... baled with me there helping... keeping time and thinking how it compares.

C. "Fine" is a relative term. If you're happy with 15% to 30% spoilage... and that's fine with you? That's your business. I actually wonder if accepting that spoilage is more efficient in the long run. Maybe I have a "small square" mindset with spoilage. Is it better to bale exactly what you need and put it under cover to prevent spoilage? Or better to just bale more hay faster and accept the spoilage?


D. Tone is hard to tell in a forum. I'm not trying to "spin" anything.... maybe I'm unsuccessful at that

Myself, if I had to pick the one disadvantage of small squares that irks me? It's knotters. I think rhe small square baler knotter is one of the mechanical engineering marvels of the 20th century.... and also the bane of my existence.

Any time study to compare the two processes would have to consider maitenance... and knotter setup/maitenance time gets on my nerves. But. my neighbor with a round baler has down time too... I have no clue how good/bad round baler maitenance is.
 

I admire your setup... Looks nice.

I think either system can work well... depending on your conditions and such.
 
Is the cost of twine or wrap a factor. One of the last years I did small squares I spent over 800$ on sisal twine, with the rounds I do at 5x5 I don't think I would use
300$ for the same volume of hay. That's twine not wrap.
 
We used to do all versions of hay back in the 70's/80's with loose hay blown in the barn mow,little square bales with lots of help and work, then round bales setting out side. The loose hay blown in the old barn was the easiest to feed for us. The next was round bales. Squares took the most labor to make store and feed. The loose hay was a one man job load and unload without hitching all day. Could get about the same hay in as the neighbor with 8-10 people working. Round bales here are stored inside in the same oil barn mow as the loose hay was and we put about the same or more hay in as the loose was. 2 people for putting in otherwise 1 for the rest of it. We used to put up about 100 acres per year with 2-4 cuttings and squares were the slowest most labor intensive method to do it. We also chopped wet hay for haylage and bagged it for the most of the first cutting then blow some in the barn. With a regular flat rack wagon or trailer round bales can be hauled rather fast. I load 20-40 on my semi or about 12-15 on a wagon. depending on the weather and quantity I have done both no hay sets outside here for more than the hauling time. I usually have round bales in the next day or same day depending on weather and amount to bale.
 
Not agreeing, disagreeing, or arguing with you, but I have a few thoughts on your comparison. First is you have an established method, crew, and equipment which are set up to handle, and store, small squares, which is a good thing for you. While you dealt with them because of a breakdown, you are not set up in an equivalent manner to handle round bales, so I have to believe you were in somewhat of a learning curve and not as efficient as your squares operation is. You borrowed a spear and could have had wagons in the field to load rounds directly onto. Loading direct onto wagons (trucks, trailers, etc.) when you gathered them would have been nearer equal to your squares being loaded on wagons direct from the baler. You could have had one person shuttling full ones to the barn and unloading, if set up for maximum handling (like you do with the squares).
By gathering rounds at the end of the field and loading at a different time you added a step. I am not sure your thoughts on building a huge windrow by raking multiple passes is a real time saving over less time raking and traveling at a higher ground speed while baling. To me a bigger saving would be using a vee rake to make a big windrow in one pass and save raking time for either baler.

In general I don't think there is a real right, wrong, or best way. It all comes down to what works for anyone and the equipment they choose to have. Equipment does cost, but if you have to deal with non-family help where wages, taxes, risk of an on the job injury of an employee (insurance) really come into play; a mechanized operation can be more attractive. You may find if your help dries up in years to come, that rounds will be more attractive to you, just as they have become to some others.
 
(quoted from post at 03:28:22 10/14/21) We used to do all versions of hay back in the 70's/80's with loose hay blown in the barn mow,little square bales with lots of help and work, then round bales setting out side. The loose hay blown in the old barn was the easiest to feed for us. The next was round bales. Squares took the most labor to make store and feed. The loose hay was a one man job load and unload without hitching all day. Could get about the same hay in as the neighbor with 8-10 people working. Round bales here are stored inside in the same oil barn mow as the loose hay was and we put about the same or more hay in as the loose was. 2 people for putting in otherwise 1 for the rest of it. We used to put up about 100 acres per year with 2-4 cuttings and squares were the slowest most labor intensive method to do it. We also chopped wet hay for haylage and bagged it for the most of the first cutting then blow some in the barn. With a regular flat rack wagon or trailer round bales can be hauled rather fast. I load 20-40 on my semi or about 12-15 on a wagon. depending on the weather and quantity I have done both no hay sets outside here for more than the hauling time. I usually have round bales in the next day or same day depending on weather and amount to bale.

Loose hay blown into the mow?

That is interesting. Chopped? Or, just loose hay?

A friend of my father used to blow chopped bedding into his hayloft. That was a really inexpensive and fast way to make/store/use bedding.

But loose hay? Blown without chopping? And without unhitching? How? I'm not understanding.
 
I do both and find with the biggest advantage to the round bale is I can do it all myself. It takes about the same amount of time either
way but I have very limited labor to unload and stack bales in the barn. We have a 4x4 baler and have sold a good many to horse people as
two fit in a truck bed and can be rolled of fairly easy. Tom
 

Jim.ME... I get everything you're saying. When my neighbor bales for himself, somedays he's a one man show. If he has a long haul back home, he hires a couple people to help, and they do just what you're saying... they get a couple bale wagons and bring them into the field and they start running a ferry back to his farm where there is another tractor with a bale spear waiting to unload. They can get a lot of hay done in a hurry.

Funny thing is... I don't think there is a "right" or "wrong"... this neighbor and I... we take advantage of each other's operations and work together.

I rent 160 acres of hay ground. There is a big (by local standards) 60 acre field and another 25 acre field in that. We can't get to it for first cut. He comes over in June or July and mops those fields up in a hurry. But to do so? He has equipment that I can't afford. Plain and simple. Then, later in the summer; when we're done with first cut... we do one for second cut and graze the other.

In the mean time, with our smaller equipment, I'm spending June and July baling smaller fields and what I call "The second-third" of the pasture. (This is my own rotational grazing concept... which would take a small book to explain...)

His round bale operation enables my small square/rotational grazing operation and vice-versa.
 

Tony... here is how I think about that...

100 bales 4 x 5.5... let's say they weigh 850 pounds? For argument's sake.

Let's say that "good" hay is about 2 tons per acre.

At that rate... you'll get 2.35 bales per acre.

So, to get 100 bales, you'll need to cover... 100/2.35

Or 42.6 acres.

If you are baling 18 feet of swath... you need to go 43560/18 .....or 2,420 feet to get an acre.

If you are baling 20 feet of swath... you need to go 2,117 feet to get an acre.

So... at 18 feet, you are travelling 2,420 X 42.6 = 103,092 feet
in two hours... or... 19.5 miles.

Now... we can start talking about how fast you must be travelling...

You're baling at somewhere around 10 miles an hour on 18 feet of swath?

Or you're baling at 9 miles an hour on 20 feet of swath?

Or you're going 5 miles an hour on 36 feet of swath?


None of that happens with a baler that is comparable to a small square baler, in size or cost. That happens with a big, big machine... you need to compare that machine to a big square baler.
 
https://www.fwi.co.uk/machinery/speedy-round-balers-krone-v-deere

These things ARE fast... but no mention of how much swath they raked for them or how big the tractor is... or how fast they travelled... but it's interesting...
 
This year I have made over 2,400 4x4 round bales, in first ,
second and third cuts also straw behind a late model rotary
combine. My stare bales I weighed, cause I was paying 4
cents a pound for the straw, and they averaged 526 lb. Most
of my hay was made high moisture and shrink wrapped to
ferment into silage. The dry bales I made weighed well over
600lb. The wet bales 1,000 lb or more.
I run a Vee rake and with a single pass can put 22 feet of hay
into a wind row, at a ground speed between 5-10 mph,
depending on how smooth the field is. I almost never have
issues with my tractor not being able to go over the wind row.
The the fastest I have ever baled hay was a field of first cut,
dry hay, very consistent crop all across the field. Travelling at
6.5 mph, I made 72 4x4 bales per hour. Normally I dont travel
faster than 5 mph, and usually get 40-45 bales per hour in first
cut. It only requires 12 seconds to stop the tractor, let the net
automatically wrap on the bale, discharge the bale, and
continue forward motion. There isnt any square small square
balers that I have seen that can match this kind of capacity.
As for moving hay, I have a 32 foot wagon, and can load 30
4x4 bales of dry hay or straw in one trip , by myself. Load and
und load. One tractor, one wagon, one man. Most of my hay
goes into a in-line wrapper, wet or dry. And the wrapper can
wrap the bales as fast as I can unload the wagon. Yes there is
capital cost in ownership of a wrapper, but I can resell the
wrapper if I choose to stop making hay, cannot resell a hay
barn very well. Plastic wrap cost me $1.50 per bale, net wrap
cost near to $2.00 per bale. Zero issues with mice chewing off
bale strings while hay is in storage.
I often just wrap hay on the edge of a field where the bales
were made, they keep just as well there, and save time
hauling from distant fields during haying season. I have all
winter to fetch hay as needed.
I can and do stack bales 3 high on the ends in my old bank
barns with a skid steer. Again all alone. No BS looking for
help, or being let down by young lads that cant put in a days
work.
Small square bales were a step above loose hay, and a vast
improvement over picking up hay with a fork, or hay loader,
and hauling it to the barn to pitch it in the mow, but are not
even in the same league as a modern round baler.
 
I think the biggest factor with small squares versus round bales is the end-user what they intend to use it for,
we could never use round bales on the horse farms I worked at no way to get them in a 275 foot long barn, you
cant use them at the race tracks, ect.
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Dumping round bales in a bale feeder for cows to eat outside its a lot quicker than using small squares, each has their
place,
 
(quoted from post at 10:18:26 10/14/21)
Tony... here is how I think about that...

100 bales 4 x 5.5... let's say they weigh 850 pounds? For argument's sake.

Let's say that "good" hay is about 2 tons per acre.

At that rate... you'll get 2.35 bales per acre.

So, to get 100 bales, you'll need to cover... 100/2.35

Or 42.6 acres.

If you are baling 18 feet of swath... you need to go 43560/18 .....or 2,420 feet to get an acre.

If you are baling 20 feet of swath... you need to go 2,117 feet to get an acre.

So... at 18 feet, you are travelling 2,420 X 42.6 = 103,092 feet
in two hours... or... 19.5 miles.

Now... we can start talking about how fast you must be travelling...

You're baling at somewhere around 10 miles an hour on 18 feet of swath?

Or you're baling at 9 miles an hour on 20 feet of swath?

Or you're going 5 miles an hour on 36 feet of swath?


None of that happens with a baler that is comparable to a small square baler, in size or cost. That happens with a big, big machine... you need to compare that machine to a big square baler.

A note of correction: 2 tons is 4000 pounds, divided by 850 pounds is 4.7 bales per acre, not 2.35. 100/4.7 would only require about 21.28 acres needing to be covered.

This post was edited by Jim.ME on 10/14/2021 at 09:31 am.
 
(quoted from post at 09:28:29 10/14/21)
(quoted from post at 10:18:26 10/14/21)

Jim.ME.... thanks...

I did it in my head, roughly and came up with what you did.

Then I sat down and used a calculator to make the post... because I didn't want to say anything wrong... When the calculator came up as it did... I though... oh well... must have done it wrong in my head.

So, yeah... it makes a lot more sense now that you double-checked... because the ground speeds I came up with were FAST... :)
 

JayinNY...

I'm in the same boat. Our old-style cowbarn doesn't lend itself to feeding round bales.

If you follow the regenerative, low input farmer philosophy... they say... leave your cows outside... let them scratch through the snow and throw them a round bale in a feeder... And... I'm not against that BUT... in our part of NY State, you have this thing called lake effect snow... and sometimes mud during the winter.

Last year, we got along with our animals outside until the last week of January. The longest ever. Then the snow got too deep. It covered the fences in a few spots.

That means feeding in the barn for a couple months... then, at the start of spring thaw, we leave them in because of mud. I don't want them to ruin the pasture.

So... I can get along with some round bales to feed outside... but, unless I build another building, the small squares feed inside better.
 

The lake effect snow and mud also dictates that, if I DO use round bales, they have to be put somewhere that I can get at them.

I know that some people park them along the roadside during the summer... and gather them in the winter.

That can be dicey around here.
 
(quoted from post at 17:46:55 10/13/21)
I admire your setup... Looks nice.

I think either system can work well... depending on your conditions and such.

Thanks, used to be 100% square bales too. Labor was the challenge.
 
I didnt start the comparison between a small square baler
and a round baler. Im just telling you what can be done in
good conditions. 26 foot swath with a 4180 Kubota baler on a
1086 moving 7 miles per hour. Thats two swathes from a 13-
6 foot cutter raked together and hay making 8 to 10 bales per
acre. Tony
 
The loose hay blown in was with the McKee system from Canada. The chopper was the blower. We built a wagon 26 feet long. fill then go unload with the chopper. There is a pipe to connect the wagon unloader to the back of the chopper and a drive shaft to do the same thing needed to be connected each load the tail board ratcheted forward to push the hay to the front for unloading. The pipe for loading swung to a pipe in the barn mow to blow it up in the barn. The top of the pipe had a spring loaded deflector to adjust for height and a swivel to position the hay in the mow. This would let us fill the barn to the peak al the way back to the end of the pipe. When My dads uncle at Canajoharie NY retired he bought the pipe and hauled it home. That gave us enough pipe to fill both ends of the pipe without having to unbolt and reassemble to fill the west end of the barn. We could also swivel it enough to fill the void in the middle with straw for the bedding. One man could do this alone.
 
(quoted from post at 19:33:00 10/14/21) I didnt start the comparison between a small square baler
and a round baler. Im just telling you what can be done in
good conditions. 26 foot swath with a 4180 Kubota baler on a
1086 moving 7 miles per hour. Thats two swathes from a 13-
6 foot cutter raked together and hay making 8 to 10 bales per
acre. Tony

Texas Cowboy.... *tips hat* Thanks for filling in the details.
 

Caterpillar guy,

That was pretty ingenious.

We have family around Canjo ourselves. Pretty area. I played one game of high school football against Canjo... (long, long time ago) We did a trick play for 80 yards first play of the game... lost 35-10 You could say that we came in like a lion...went out like a lamb...
 

Bruce from Can. That was a really detailed description.

Thank you to everybody that responded. Disagreement is healthy. If I was in an environment where everybody agreed with me, then there's something wrong.

What I like about this whole conversation is that it was honest in the sense of bearing out the details. I don't know about you people, but myself, when I talk to locals and friends... most people want to talk about their exceptions.

You know... the day that you're baling the one field right next to the barn; and you have all the help you need... and your equipment runs like a top from sunup to sundown... and you put in 4,000 small squares with one baler and two wagons (yes, this can actually be done)

But... that's a "John Henry" task. John Henry beat the steam drill... and died the next day.

Same thing with round bales. I hear the stories about the one day when they're baling on a field a half mile long and smooth as asphalt in hay thick as hair on a dog... and they're just pounding out bales left and right.

I listen to all of those stories and run them through the sieve of experience, where I've been around enough to know that those are exceptional days...

This discussion put some metrics on it... swath width, hay density, ground speed, equipment size, etc.

It has been enlightening!

Thank you.
 
A long time ago there was a poster on here named Hugh McKay. He was from Canada, and was dairy farmer, and
also did some logging, I think. Anyway, one time he posted about this same topic, and said he once baled and
stacked 4000 bales in one day baling with a 300 Farmall and a New Holland baler. I think they even dropped
bales on the ground, at least some of them, so the baler never stopped and waited on anything. He did this
in the sixties and everything worked perfect that day. And his main point was his helpers were willing to
work hard and were in good physical shape. Does anyone else remember that story? Mark.
 
(quoted from post at 08:11:49 10/16/21) A long time ago there was a poster on here named Hugh McKay. He was from Canada, and was dairy farmer, and
also did some logging, I think. Anyway, one time he posted about this same topic, and said he once baled and
stacked 4000 bales in one day baling with a 300 Farmall and a New Holland baler. I think they even dropped
bales on the ground, at least some of them, so the baler never stopped and waited on anything. He did this
in the sixties and everything worked perfect that day. And his main point was his helpers were willing to
work hard and were in good physical shape. Does anyone else remember that story? Mark.

Yes, would have been easily possible towing a wagon with 2 men on the wagon and two tractors hauling wagons and 2 to 3 in the hay mow.

7-8 men
3 tractors
one baler
3 wagons
hay elevator

Hugh was in NS at the time, our weather would have meant perfect day he'd be baling no earlier than 10:00am and have to be done by about 8pm tops, so 10 hour day, 400 bales an hour, he'd only be stopping for fuel and twine.

Not hard to find 8 able men in the 1960s who could handle bales all day.
 
EXACLY. I have put up my share idiot cuubes, 4x4/8and 3x4x8s and I can say that small bales, in HEAVY well fertilized dry hat cut in a 12 foot swath and conditioned and raked 2 into one in our extreme dry irrigated desert... we get well over 2 tons per acre, sometimes north of 3 ton/acre and even on fall planted triticale over 4 tons of dry hay. Ionce hit the right year with cool weather, rain, fertilizer, and a low insect damage season, I had just over 15 acres of grass second cut yield over 60 4x4x8 bales, even with a marginal cutting job, that was about 56 tons, so 3.5+ tons/ acre of grass. On second cut, after cutting once. Anyway, With a new holland stack wagon, and a good operator, and a non stop bale maker in a hesston 4590 in absolute magnificently maintained baler, in a nice shaped square field, with a haul of 1/4 mile, both behind powershift tractors well over 100 hp and putting in long days in the longest sun hours in june and a walker in the field totie the balewagon and fix all bales working hard at it, windrows to stacks was pretty much maxed out at 1500 bales per day, give or take. that was 20-30 loads in the satcker so that is a solid 2 load per hour, traveling back and forth, dumping, making round after round to reload, so figure 5 minutes to backup, center up, raise load rack, dump, push off, retract feet, lower rack, back to field, reload, re tie, back to yard and do it again. that is 70 bales 2 times per hour, minus unload time, (5-10 minutes) so 140 bales picked in 45 minutes, that is 3 bales per minute while in the field. pretty hard to out do a big baler with small squares, but, hey, a big baler to do that still needs a loader guy, s truck and trailer, a truk driver, another loader, or road the loader to stack yard, a baler and accumulator, a baler driver, so lets face it, more equipment, same operators, to beat a little baler crew, but that crew can work through the night.
 
Read the book Gold In The Grass by Margaret F. Leatherbarrow published 1954 It tells about the McKee bros.
developing the chopper on the Leatherbarrows Friendship Farm in Ontario,Canada and the Leatherbarrows using it.
 
Going to comment more on why and how with a goal of speed: I started baling hay as my parents
became owners of a boarding stable (horses) had a bank barn and 2 tractors. Easy decision to bale
small squares. Today, we have limited available acres as BTOs farm everything that doesnt have
houses on it. So the target customer is still the horse. My steady workforce is down to two now. So, we
now use a discbine, 4 star tedder, 2 rakes, 2 balers and multiple tractors. Balers have throwers and tow
rack wagons. Put the wagons into the pole barn and unload over the next few days. Point is our
operation was always a function of small available land and targeting the highest possible product value.
Large pets.
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cvphoto104879.jpg


cvphoto104880.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 08:11:49 10/16/21) A long time ago there was a poster on here named Hugh McKay. He was from Canada, and was dairy farmer, and
also did some logging, I think. Anyway, one time he posted about this same topic, and said he once baled and
stacked 4000 bales in one day baling with a 300 Farmall and a New Holland baler. I think they even dropped
bales on the ground, at least some of them, so the baler never stopped and waited on anything. He did this
in the sixties and everything worked perfect that day. And his main point was his helpers were willing to
work hard and were in good physical shape. Does anyone else remember that story? Mark.

I don't have to read that story.

I've been there.

Growing up at the home farm, we did 2900 to 3000 bales (small squares) in a day a few times with a NH273 baler and two 8x 16 kicker wagons... and lots of help.

After I went off to college, my brother upgraded to a 575 baler and another brother bought some 9 x 18 (maybe 9 X20... can't remember) wagons. That setup was able to do 4000 small squares in a day... raked in the field in the morning... stacked safely in the barn by the end of the day. Again, on an exceptional day. That setup could comfortably do 2500 to 3000 in a "normal" work day, ending at sundown.

All of those days took lots of help, often working in shifts. One of us would take a load off here and there to grab a bite to eat.

The big days with the 273 happened when dad still had dairy cows... so we had to give up a couple people for a couple hours to bring 120 cows in from the pasture, milk them and put them back out. (that also meant that a couple of us were back up at 6AM the next day to milk again...)

All of that assumes a nice, long paddle elevator.

Under the right conditions, we timed our crew... from the point when the chain was removed from the front of the wagon... to the time that the load was empty and stacked in the mow...

70 seconds, for about 120 small squares. The mow wasn't that high, and the elevator had a low slope. They had four people on the wagon... two digging... two putting bales on... Some of the paddles had three bales on them.

I was in the mow for that load. We also had four...two taking bales off and throwing... two piling... I wouldn't want to go at that pace all day. There may have also been a little questiona-bale stacking in the mow for that load.
 
Its just me and I am not a speedster. I bale small square 14x18x42 and try to get as least 80
pounds. 14 ft swather means 3 bales per minute in third gear with 4010. I usually start about 10
pm and bale until it gets too dry, or the morning dew makes it too wet. I stack with a 1036 bale
wagon. I quit when it is time for whisky. The rest of the work gets done the next day. Retired ,
75 and not working my butt off any more. Bud
 
After reading all the comments I guess I'll add my 2 cents
worth. I really prefer the squares and could have sold a
lot more this year. I just didn't have the help that I
have in the past years. All the grandkids were working
and couldn't take time off to help so I had 1 neighbor and
one grandson in law on some 90+ days and it was rough on
them. I bought 2 bale baskets and will use them next year
and see how it goes. Myself, the rounds require a lot
less manual labor and I can do them myself from the air
conditioned cab so my wife and I can do all the labor
required and no trying to do hay to fit everyones
schedule.
 
(quoted from post at 06:14:05 10/20/21) After reading all the comments I guess I'll add my 2 cents
worth. I really prefer the squares and could have sold a
lot more this year. I just didn't have the help that I
have in the past years. All the grandkids were working
and couldn't take time off to help so I had 1 neighbor and
one grandson in law on some 90+ days and it was rough on
them. I bought 2 bale baskets and will use them next year
and see how it goes. Myself, the rounds require a lot
less manual labor and I can do them myself from the air
conditioned cab so my wife and I can do all the labor
required and no trying to do hay to fit everyones
schedule.

I'm starting to "feel" the 90+ days part of your comment.

We can debate the overall veracity of "climate change"... but what isn't debatable is how hot our summers are now.

I may like small squares, but I'm changing our work methods towards more wagons, as opposed to ferrying wagons back and forth while we bale.

During the 15 or 20 years that I put in hay at home, there were a couple of "heat waves" with 90 degree days of unloading hay. And those were in early August.

Over the last few years, we're seeing 90+ degree days in June.

I'm too old for that, and if I won't do it... I'm not making the crew do it. We are baling during the heat of the day, and unloading in the evening; whenever we can. We're also trying to do more first cut in late May/early June... so that by July and August; we're down to second cut...

Even pushing some of the first cut out until late August or early September... with the old time philosophy of
"If you can't get first cut by July 1st, leave it until September 1st."
 

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