round bale size in your area ?

swindave · Oct 30, 2020

whats the most popular size round bale in your area?
seems like in my area, sw indiana its about half 5/6, the bigs ones,and the other half
4/5, a nice load in the back of my truck ! with a few 4/4 bales, but not many. easy to roll around, and unroll!
whats your area look like!

SVcummins · Oct 30, 2020

Five wide buy six tall

David G · Oct 30, 2020

Same as SV, come out 1800-2000 pounds.

Fred Werring · Oct 30, 2020

Lot of 5x5 bales around here. Only a couple larger that I'm aware of.

I need to find me a baler capable of 4x6 bales for me, but able to choke the diameter down to 4ft to sell for the reasons you stated.

My current baler is an 855 Nh chainer, 5.5x5.5. Makes a good bale, but people won't pay for the amount of hay in the bale.

Or maybe I should just buy another smaller baler, so I have one for a backup.

Fred

tomstractorsandtoys · Oct 30, 2020

I have 4x4 but it is the only one around. Everyone else is 5x5 and a good many 6x6's. I have a small skid loader and a Deere 3020 with a 46A loader and for hi-moisture hay 4x4 is heavy enough. For bedding I wish they were bigger sometimes. Tom

Farmer Rock · Oct 30, 2020

around here in SC PA,most farms make small squares,there are some 4x5 round,and the bigger farms use 4x8 big square bales.

Rock

4520BW · Oct 30, 2020

I make mine 5x6 but the ones I sell i make 5x5.

dcarp · Oct 30, 2020

I make mine 5 x 5ft 8 in. Easier to put a hay ring on those. Most rounds here are 5 x 5 to 5 x 6.

fixerupper · Oct 30, 2020

In my area if the bales could be twice as big as a 5x6 they would be. Tons of corn stalks are rolled up here in northwest Iowa for the cattle feeders. A few years ago a neighbor a few miles away had a baler that put out smaller bales, maybe 3x4? He had planned on doing custom baling but couldnt find enough customers because of the small bales.

Bruce from Can. · Oct 30, 2020

I have a Baler that can make 4x5 bales myself, but mostly make 4x4 bales because they are wet silage bales. 4x5 are the most common size bales. Mostly used for beef cattle, and are dry hay.

paul · Oct 30, 2020

5x6 bales, they spit out 5x5 silage bales from the same baler.

Anything else isn’t serious baling around here.

Paul

Keith Molden · Oct 30, 2020

I bale 4x4 for sale. They load into a pick up truck and won't push the sides. Too many have older pick ups with weak sides and no tailgate so the 4x4 relieves me of any "you broke my truck and it was in great shape". I've never had any complaints but know of people that have with bigger bales.

cowranch · Oct 30, 2020

5x6, been many years since I've seen anything else, driving 100 miles in any direction and beyond. No big squares either. Never seen a square baler sitting at the dealer, and it's been about 15 years since I've seen anything that did smaller than a 5x6 at the dealers around. One neighbor makes a few small minimum diameter, and another does a small number of rebaling into small square bales to sell.

My baler does about 1300lbs. It was set there when I got it, worked, never touched it. Most I buy are 1500-1600, trucks like that around here. I have gotten many around 1900lbs., but not very often.

banjoman09 · Oct 30, 2020

All I know is this; when I buy my round bales from my neighbors for my cattle my old tractors wont lift them anymore!!!

PJH · Oct 30, 2020

Most people around here make bales that approach 2000 lbs. These people have 100+ hp tractors to handle these balers and the bales that they make. The custom balers around here always make super heavy bales. I make 600 lb bales because they match my 50 hp tractors real well. It works out real well for everyone until they try to mix the 100 hp custom bales with the 50 hp tractors. My neighbor is a good example. He seems to always have blown cylinders and hoses from overloading his loader with the heavy custom bales. I'll see an oil stripe in a road a 100 miles from home and I'll tell the wife that the neighbor has been here.

SVcummins · Oct 30, 2020

You can stuff a lot of hay in those big bales that’s for sure.

paul · Oct 30, 2020

Anything come of the 9 foot baler that Vermeer put together?think it was a one off and only a demo, not sure it performed all that well?

Paul

paul · Oct 30, 2020

Here is some of it, guess it was based on Vermeer, but not in their shop.

Paul
9 foot baler

rockyridgefarm · Oct 30, 2020

(quoted from post at 20:47:53 10/30/20) Anything come of the 9 foot baler that Vermeer put together?think it was a one off and only a demo, not sure it performed all that well?

Paul

Paul,

Vermeer made a 706 7 by 6 baler back in the 70s. Every once in awhile they come up for sale. Obviously they didnt take off.

5 by 6 reigns supreme around here and has for at least a couple decades. Most guys make 5 by 5ft6 or 10 because it can be a little hard on the baler if you overfill them. When making baleage, theyre taken back to 5x5, and fodder bales are made 5 by 5, 4 by 5, or even 3 by 5.

I have a 4 by 6. I like that they are 8 feet wide on the trailer. I hate pulling 5 foot bales side by side. You cannot see what traffic is doing behind you. Those single wide auto dump trailers look like they would be a slick rig, but those double wide auto dump trailers confuse me. Why would anyone wanna be 12 feet wide going down the road???

JayinNY · Oct 30, 2020

5x5 or5x6, however guy i used to work for taking care of his beefers for the winter had a new idea with a slicer to cut the bales in half. ?? He never used it while i was there.
Seems like the marshmallows around here look smaller than 5x5, maybe just looks that way because there wrapped.

Texas Cowboy · Oct 31, 2020

4x5 to sell and 5x5.5-6 to feed. Tony

caterpillar guy · Oct 31, 2020

5x6 for feeding and 4x4 for selling. They will not pay for the hay in the bigger bales and the infinite wisdom of MI they will not issue permits for hay as it is considered a divisible load so only 1, 5 ft bale wide if hauled on the road. There are plenty hauled on county roads 2 wide. 4x4's are easy to move by hand if needed for the horsey people when it gets muddy for their little loader tractor.

rick n ohio · Oct 31, 2020

In my area of zanesville ohio 5x4 for cow guys 4x4 for the horse people I have a newholland 638 twine tie baler

Determined · Oct 31, 2020

5x6 would be the most common baler size but depending on crop and conditions often they are made a little smaller as weight and handling can become an issue.

I have my baler set to start the auto tie cycle at 66 inches, when it beeps I don't jump on the brakes I just push the clutch in and roll to a stop, they usually end up at 68-70 inches.

Easier on belts and bearings if you don't push the baler to max+ all the time.

If baling green feed or a mature grain crop it is easy to make the bales 1900 lb+, they can be hard for the shredder to pick up and process especially if frozen together.

At 68-70 inch I can comfortably haul 12 straw or hay at a time, if I make them 72 inch I get the odd one wanting to fall off.

If I am having a custom hauler move the bales for me I will push closer to max size as their trucks can handle it and I am paying by the bale.

Some with wrappers do them smaller as well to accommodate the machine's capabilities.

I would hate to think how much a max size silage bale would weigh.

jon f mn · Oct 31, 2020

4x5 is getting to be the most popular around here. And as most said, horse people will pay more for a smaller bale. 4x4 and 4x5 sell the highest here. I like them because my old dc has a hard time with big bales.

jaoneill · Oct 31, 2020

For all the reasons stated above, I make 4x4's for sale, mostly to backyard farmers and horse people.

banjoman09 · Oct 31, 2020

Yes- I have older tractors and have always done fine picking up 1000-1200 lb bales but when they went to 1400 and up I give up.

495man · Oct 31, 2020

4x5 likely most popular. Most people make haylage.

4x4 be second.

4xMF · Oct 31, 2020

I dont think I have ever seen a 5 wide baler. Everything is 4 in my country as probably in mos if not all of Europe. Max width for hauling on the roads is 2.5 meters so thats why.
4 diameter seems to be common for silage. 5, 6, or 7 for dry hay and straw.
I usually make everything 4x4 so I can roll them by hand on my hay loft. Sometimes smaller for silage if they are really wet.

Destroked 450 · Nov 1, 2020

Here it's a mix between 4x5 and 5x5 with a few making 5x6 bales, I've always made 4x5 bales as they work best with the 40-60 hp tractors I normally feed with. I have to transport half of the bales we make between farms, I can load 14 4x5 rolls on my 25" trailer double wide and still be legal width.

round bale size in your area ?

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