Tired puppy this evening!!!

I have been busy today!!! Started right after chores hauling hay from a rented farm about 10 miles away. Can haul 30 bales at a time. I was loading them myself but here two of my sons unloaded while I wound up straps. I was averaging 1.75 hours per load. I got six hauled and the 7th/last one loaded but it was dark and foggy so I will bring it home tomorrow if the fog lifts.

I took some pictures with my phone but they did not store correctly and I can not upload them to this site. So here is a picture from earlier this year. I kind of miss hauling hay but the DOT got so picky that doing it for hire just was not profitable anymore. We had to have state width permits, county permits, then the worse was Towns and cities got into the act. When we started if you only hauled Ag. products, where under 12 foot wide and 14 foot tall, you had one state permit that cost $30 a year. The permits got to costing over $1000 a truck/trailer set per year just in Iowa, WI and IL was higher. Then DOT mandated that every row of bales had to be strapped if you where on a state highway. That meant 15 straps on every load. Often we were only hauling 5-10 miles. How I have the load in the picture straped was totally legal until 4 years ago. It still is if your not hauling for hire. I run farm/county plates and only haul our own products. So I am/was totally legal.

Guess I am lucky that Indiana does not bother farmers at all. We can even plate our semis for the empty weight!

We haul our cornstalk bales with a dropdeck just like yours. If we're going from field to farm with one row on top we don't strap it down usually about 8 miles or less. Two rows on top we strap down.

How would this load suit ? 4x4 bales 16 per load dry hay

Looks great to me but with the new "commercial" rules here in Iowa you would need straps on the bottom row and then straps over the top row.

I also forgot to mention that the bales are 5x6 ft. bales. So they would have over about a foot on each side of your bed.

One I hauled about 15 miles luckily the ytdot scales were closed

You got a lot of hay moved JD! A few years ago here they were going to mandate that wagons behind tractors needed strapped if you are piling 2 high but they backed off.

Enjoy that while you can still.

Here in Minnesota farmers were given a good break out in the rural areas and left alone for a long time.

The past several decades things are changing, the Twin Cities is in charge and everyone in the state needs to live under metro rules and needs, they know best how remote rural areas should be administered.

Paul

We have a 4?5 baler for this reason. Just can't sell hay across state lines in 5 X 6 bales.

Wow, this is a lot of hay. How long will it take for cows to turn that into organic fertilizer?

And how long will it take you to apply that much fertilizer?

Went to a DOT class about five years ago. Said a farmer did not have to tie anything down, but don't let it fall off either. You don't want us to get involved. This is in Kansas.

Why should ag hauling be any different than commercial freight hauling? You're using and wearing out the same infrastructure, and endangering the same driving public with unsecured loads.

I HATE hauling hay. Seems like no matter how many straps I put on, I still fight tipping bales. In 2013 my brother bought 100 loads of bales baled with a soft core baler. They hauled them from just off the Canadian border in North Dakota to the southern edge of Nebraska. As far as I know they never lost a bale, but 1 guy borrowed a skidsteer in the middle of the night to push his load back straight.

With what the brood cows eat and the tub ground hay for the steers it takes right at 60-70 bales per week in the real cold weather.

That's going to be a lot of fertilizer to spread come spring