Round bales or square?

[WildRoseBeef]

I never thought of that. I'll mention that to my dad.

We only feed large round bales. My dad won't have anything to do with little ones. I like square bales, A: Because if the tractor breaks down, we have no way to feed B: It offers more intimate time with the animals, throwing hay over the fence daily.

That's just my opinion.

Yes, they can be unrolled. There's a device that can be installed on the back of a pickup truck that grabs the bale by the flat ends and as the truck goes along the bale unrolls: going opposite of how it was created in the baler. We don't do that, but it's something I learned from another forum a while back.

Another thing I forgot it add in comparisons is that SSB's are a pain in the a$$ when a) they're not tied proper or b) you're handling them wrong and they break apart on you too soon. I've had that happen and had to make a couple trips with the wheel barrow to get the one square bale to where I should go. LRB's don't have that problem, breaking apart.

One disadvantage of LRB's though is the occaisonal (but rare) occurance of having strings throughout the bale. Had that happen with a straw bale and had to leave it until spring to get the strings.

My dad has had LOTS of trouble with SRBs. It's not just LRBs that get the strings throughout. Last year we had half a batch that had that problem. Our baler was just getting up to speed...

You've given me some great ideas. Thanks!

SRBs are non-existent around here because of the problems they've posed to farmers; can't remember exactly but it was something about the amount of forage wasted with these was like 30% in comparison with LRBs, SSBs and LSBs which only had an average waste of 10%. And the waste I mean is from the forage being baled up.

But yeah, your welcome.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

If there's string throughout the LRB it's because someone tripped the tyer. At least with any of the round balers we've used here.

We've had LRB start to unwrap when in process of feeding them too. But, I wouldn't want to feed the number of SSB needed to equal the LRB to an outside group. Feeding LRB inside just isn't going to happen with me feeding.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

If there's string throughout the LRB it's because someone tripped the tyer. At least with any of the round balers we've used here.

We've had LRB start to unwrap when in process of feeding them too. But, I wouldn't want to feed the number of SSB needed to equal the LRB to an outside group. Feeding LRB inside just isn't going to happen with me feeding.

You just presented an interesting point: you and other dairy folk have different management criteria than me and other beef folks like me, GHG JHM and wyne: you have to feed inside whereas we are able to feed outside. Thus the fact you have to feed SSBs instead of LRBs.

 

[Thewife]

Around here all hay pretty much has to be put undercover unless it's the nasty silage marshmellows!
Our barn is not designed to store the LRB, unless I want to lose all of my pens!
I can feed LRBs out of one side of my barn, but that means forking it down the manger. I don't mind if it's just a few animals, but if I had to feed them all that way, I would cut the herd to 10!

Dad used to roll out the LRBs in the field, it always seemed to me that more hay was wasted by them walking on it?

 

[jhm47]

About 90% of our hay is put up in round bales. The remaining 10% is in square bales, which are stored inside, and used during calving season. Before round bales, we used to put up around 20,000 square bales. Had to store most of them outside. Sure don't miss those days. Although, we were in much better physical shape, and had flat tummies then!

We still have an old (50+ years) Snoco bale loader. It is a machine that we attached to the side of a hay wagon. It rolled alongside the wagon, and guided the small square bales into an arm that raised them up and threw them onto the bed of the wagon. It could lift them four layers of bales high on the wagon. Saved lots of work. If I get the chance this summer, I'll try to take some pics of it in action. It's fascinating.

 

[GrassFarmerGalloway]

About 90% of our hay is put up in round bales. The remaining 10% is in square bales, which are stored inside, and used during calving season. Before round bales, we used to put up around 20,000 square bales. Had to store most of them outside. Sure don't miss those days. Although, we were in much better physical shape, and had flat tummies then!

Haha!

SRBs are non-existent around here because of the problems they've posed to farmers; can't remember exactly but it was something about the amount of forage wasted with these was like 30% in comparison with LRBs, SSBs and LSBs which only had an average waste of 10%. And the waste I mean is from the forage being baled up.

We only made 'em to get the baler fired up. Those days are GONE!!!

 

[Farmer Kitty]

If there's string throughout the LRB it's because someone tripped the tyer. At least with any of the round balers we've used here.

We've had LRB start to unwrap when in process of feeding them too. But, I wouldn't want to feed the number of SSB needed to equal the LRB to an outside group. Feeding LRB inside just isn't going to happen with me feeding.

You just presented an interesting point: you and other dairy folk have different management criteria than me and other beef folks like me, GHG JHM and wyne: you have to feed inside whereas we are able to feed outside. Thus the fact you have to feed SSBs instead of LRBs.

It depends on the operation. I know of some that put very little SSB up. Instead they put up alot of chopped forages and some round bales. It really depends on the setup for feeding. Smaller dairy farmers, like DH and me, are more apt to put up the SSB verus a large dairy operation.

 

[wynedot55]

if i can talk my buddy into getting a ssb handling system.i may have to help him when he hooks the sq baler up.crazy joker wants to put up 10,000 bales or less if he gets the system.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

If there's string throughout the LRB it's because someone tripped the tyer. At least with any of the round balers we've used here.

We've had LRB start to unwrap when in process of feeding them too. But, I wouldn't want to feed the number of SSB needed to equal the LRB to an outside group. Feeding LRB inside just isn't going to happen with me feeding.

You just presented an interesting point: you and other dairy folk have different management criteria than me and other beef folks like me, GHG JHM and wyne: you have to feed inside whereas we are able to feed outside. Thus the fact you have to feed SSBs instead of LRBs.

It depends on the operation. I know of some that put very little SSB up. Instead they put up alot of chopped forages and some round bales. It really depends on the setup for feeding. Smaller dairy farmers, like DH and me, are more apt to put up the SSB verus a large dairy operation.

And some dairy operations are more apt to put up LSBs like those that are neighbor to us. Plus silage as well.

 

[kstaven]

Not all dairy folk feed indoors. We feed outdoors and do use LRB. Far more convenient. In this area they are also MUCH CHEAPER to buy.