Not many small square bales around. We used to buy straw ones when we milked. I know some of the guys that sell hay do a little bit, and make tiny round bales out of their big round balers. Most people did big stacks years ago then went to big round.
I've always been told soft core round balers take a bigger tractor. I don't know of very many around, and I know nothing about operating one, so how true that is I don't know, but it's what I've heard more than once. I bought a few truckloads of alfalfa soft cores during a couple years, I didn't really care for them as much. They were a little stemmy and they didn't like to unroll as well, even in my Haybuster, sometimes the core didn't want to fall apart enough for the flails to hit and feed it through.
If you do a number of bales, either a kicker or a bale ramp is nice, gets the bale out of the way of the door so you don't have to back up every time. Net wrap would save time wrapping over twine, but that's personal preference, twine is cheaper, net is less wrapping time. If you sell, around here net wrap bales are preferred.
As far as how long they keep, apparently that depends on where you are. Here, there is a very tiny amount of rot on the bottom of the bales when stored outside for a period of time (which EVERYONE stores them outside, as it would not be practical to build a shed or cover hundreds to thousands of bales). I've bought older than year old hay especially the drier years, it doesn't have the nutrition as much, but aside from the very outer layer, still perfectly fine. Just feed extra grain with them. If it gets too bad, people hire a truck grinder to grind it in to piles, and then mix it with other stuff in a feeder wagon.
Moving them in, haven't done mine yet, been a late year. Depends how far you have to go. Most guys around have a Kosch or similar bale retriever, pile them in the corner, then truck them home. They aren't cheap, around here there aren't any used. Small ones would work if not that many bales. The neighbors generally hay together so there are enough tractors/trucks to do that (or pickups with flatbed trailers). A shorter distance, they'd just haul them in with the retriever. Me, I typically bunch them with a bale fork into piles of ten, then use a stackmover to bring them in. This year, might do something else.
Feeding them, bunch of ways. Some people set them out. With more cows, can't beat a Haybuster which most people have, spreads bedding good too. For lower HP and not as rough, they have some that just use like sickle sections to cut up the bale. Either breaks up the bale pretty evenly and makes a nice windrow so they all can get to it without having to crowd feeders. For me, less waste as well, and no manure piles if you feed them in different spots each time.
Vermeer is developing a big round baler that you don't need to stop at all. It finishes the first bale and ejects it while the next one is starting. I doubt it will be cheap....
This post was edited by rview_ at 16:24:42 10/27/14.
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