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We dont have any trouble with them at all. Most of our livestock is outdoors in the winter with sheds or barns to get under and we have to feed outside anyway. One good size tractor with a loader and a cab and you can move the balage bales all day and never get cold. I will agree that the plastic is hard to get off sometimes if it freezes to the bale and you have to dispose of the plastic, but it is not that bad. First, I have no place to store the amount of hay we bale in the dry, so it would be outside getting weathered or under a tarp losing quality, and tarps are a real PITA in the winter-- did that for years. Second, we can run wet hay and balege days ahead of when you can square bale, and can run the round baler and wrapper faster then the square baler can even begin to run. Third, when you are done baling the wrapper comes along behind the baler (normally at half throddle or more) and wraps and stacks the hay long before you can get the wagons unloaded and in the hay mow. And if it rains after you bale the round bales you can still wrap them and put them down, even in the rain, and there is no harm done. I hate backing hay wagons into the barn in the rain in a hurry..... Forth, the labor to round bale and wrap is less, with only two tractor operators, or one if its just you, where it takes several people of manuel labor to unload square bales in the mow. This is just my 2 cents and what works in our operation. As with anything you have to find what works for you in your situation. For me, I square bale VERY little anymore and dont really care to do much of it at all. Too slow to get the hay dry, too slow to get the baling done, and too much labor to get the hay put away. I just dont have the time or the labor to mess with many square bales anymore. As with anything on the farm now a days it is a trade off with the cost of the machines vs. the time savings. For example, you can spend $4,500 on a haybine that moves at 2 MPH or $14,000 on a discbine that moves at 6+ MPH. It just depends on what you can afford and how much time you have. Same way with wrapping, you have to have a round baler that "can" bale wet hay and a wrapper, vs. a lot cheaper square baler and a few flat wagons. Time vs. money all the time..... Ok, that was my thoughts for the day..... .
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