# West coast bale size? Dimensions of small squares



## zubiedoobydoo (Sep 22, 2011)

Hi there...I purchased some slow feed hay nets for the small square bales. The place sold two sizes, small square bales, and the slightly larger "west coast small square bales". I was not aware there were two sizes of small squares. Judging by the nets, the "west coast" size is longer but not necessarily bigger in circumference. My old JD14T baler is making bales about 14 x 16 x 36. (I realize the 36 length is variable) I was reading that 12 x 18 is the typical square bale size, and larger ones are 16 x 18. What is the size of a small square and what is the size of a "west coast" small square?


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Most small square balers in use are of the 14x18 variety. The next step up is 16x18 as you noted and seems to be more in use in the western part of our country. There is another baler that uses three tie strings instead of two and it measures approximately 22x15. I would expect that the 16x18 is what your feed nets are referring to as "west coast".

Regards, Mike


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I suspect it is intended for the 3 string bales as that is what is commonly baled on the west coast "California" for some reason. There really isn't to much of a difference in the size of the 16x18 inch bales compared with the 14X18 inch ones for these feed nets I wouldn't think. I have quite a few transplant to Colorado from California hay buyers and they all say all that you can buy in CA is 3 string bales. We had a guy years ago here that bought our hay standing and baled with a 3 string baler. He couldn't sell them as people didn't like them around here. I found it interesting how regional customs affect hay. Like the 3 string bales in CA or the lack of the use of NH stackers much east of Kansas.


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## jeff outwest (Sep 13, 2009)

3 tie bales have the capability of all machine handling. I bale with a 3 string Freeman balers. Never touch bales by hand till cutting the twines and feeding off the wagon. I use a balefork to put them in my barns as we had 2 wire balers back in the 70s and the barns are not right for squeeze loading. Most guys around here make 100lbs bales. The capacity of 3 tie balers is huge compared to a 2 tie also. Baling 40 to 80 ares of 1 to 2 ton/acre is common with only 1 or 2 balers. Lots of merits to 3 tie bales; fewer broken bales, square stacks, squeeze able. the list goes on. If I were ever to consider 2 tie a Bale Barron would be part of my operation.


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## zubiedoobydoo (Sep 22, 2011)

Thanks guys! I wish someone who made bigger bales would come to Iowa. We have "three stringers" here, but those are what we call BIG squares, 800-1200 pounds, 3 x 4 x 6 to 8 or so, I am guessing - they vary also in length. I have used them before, and tried to feed by the flake, not easy! I finally bought my own baler and am going to start making my own hay because the small farmers I can get to do custom my small field wants to make bales that are 25-45 pounds (they always claim they make a 50-60 poung bale but it never is). The typical bale in Iowa was always 50-75 pounds but like everyting else in the marketplace, people are downsizing in order to cheat us. We don't have a "three string small bale" that I know of, but we do have the hay stackers. Still kind of a luxury in country where everyone seems to be plowing up their hayfields to plant corn for the ethanol craze. Thanks!


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I looked up the 3 string small balers awhile ago to see who makes them new anymore. I've never seen one in person. Hesston does and according to the website they are list price for around $80,000. Quite a bit more then your standard 14X18 inch baler. Maybe I'm wrong though I just don't know about those that much. Not to much more money and you can get the 3X3X8 balers. By the way the large squares are at least 4 strings.


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## haystax (Jul 24, 2010)

The 3 string bale system is the only way to deliver premium retail hay on a large scale. You can't get the quality with big bales and you can't handle 2 strings efficiently to deliver to customers around the world.

Are the machines over priced? Hell yes! But I would absolutely quit before I endured a 2 string operation.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Why can't you get as good of quality with large squares as the small bales? Around my area there are equally as bad small bale operators as large baler operators. By that I mean the ones that bale hay when it is right for the person, but not right for the hay. Such as baling alfalfa when it's 95 degrees in the afternoon. All you get is powder that way. Hay quality in my area is dependent upon the operator more then the actual bale size. I will admit I'm new to the large baler operation as we just bought ours in Sept. but I baled some 4th cutting alfalfa that was equal or better then what I could have done with small bales. We don't ship our hay much of anywhere so it doesn't really matter for long hauling it, but the one year a guy bought our hay standing and bales with a 3 string baler he really had a hard time selling it. He said the people didn't like the 100 pound bales. Somewhat heavy to lift, but yet to small for machines for small hay buyers to have. This was in the 80s before skid steers were really poplular. Apparently hay buyers on the west coast are much stronger and less whiny then the rest of the country.


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## haystax (Jul 24, 2010)

Until recently, we baled all our hay with Freeman 3 string balers. We have an ideal climate for making nice hay, low humidity, cool nights, lots of sunshine. We always baled with dew moisture, no stem moisture and would push dairy hay to around 20% and it made the nicest, softest hay that way. Our customers flaked hay to the cows, no TMR wagons and paid a premium for the nicest hay in the 3 string bale. Once we all got tired of working so hard, the big baler was the only way to go on both sides of the equation. Big bales in big feed wagons made more sense, now we can't push the moisture and the hay isn't as soft but the leaf loss is less due to the bigger chamber and it all is a wash as far as the tests and cows are concerned.

Same story for premium racetrack and retail quality grass - you need a little dew but not much. No one in the feed store game is going to sell many big bales, the few guys processing the big bales down are doing it because they don't want to pay for premium hay in the first place and are blending big bales down under a sprinkler system in their press to make "premium" hay. So big balers and that increased efficiency is pretty much ruled out around here - unless you want to just give the hay away.

An average Timothy field here is 125 acres and should yield 10,000+ bales at 100lbs each = 500tons. To do that in one day we use 5 Freeman balers and 2 1095 Balewagons and it is a long push to get around it with this much equipment and the operators running through the night. It ends up around 160 loads on the bale wagons at about 5-6 loads/hr per machine. Everything is slower in the dark too. The squeeze can fill the barn at around 30 blocks/hr so after 5-6hrs it's in the barn.

So educate me a little on how much time/machinery/manpower does it take to bale/stack/barn 500tons with 2 string bales? I genuinely don't have any idea on the capacities of the balers or how you barn store the 2 strings efficiently.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I would never bale grass hay at night unless is was about 10 percent humidity and 100 degrees in the day time. We don't grow timothy at all. Just Orchard and brome. We are much smaller outfit and when baling grass hay with one 2 string baler and one 1089 hay stacker we will bale and stack about 30 acres on average 3-4 hours. So I guess if conditions were perfect about 90 acres in 12-14 hours. But that won't happen much. I should say our balers are 16X18 not 14X18 so we can bale more and stack more faster. 1st cutting takes longer as production is more. 3rd cutting takes a little less time due to lower production of grass, but a tractor and baler can only go so fast. I can stack and dump in our buildings in a 20-25 minutes per load of 160 bales if all is going well. No need for a hay grab to stack in the buildings as we just dump the stacker in the building. Big squares of grass sells for slightly less then small bales. This last summer they sold for more then the small bales as so much was being shipped out of state. I never sell to feed stores. They never want to pay enough plus they have a habit of asking it to be delivered in small quantities on a consistant basis. I won't do that. Then they jack up the price to about double with them taking no risk. So out of principle I don't like dealing with feed stores. There are many hay buyers that will take the large square bales as they do have a small loader to handle them and they tend to keep better if the hay buyer is planning to store them outside.


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## zubiedoobydoo (Sep 22, 2011)

Thanks guys...would one of you who has the three string balers tell me what size those bales are? Dimensions and weight wise? Thanks!


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## haystax (Jul 24, 2010)

Regular size is 16x23x46"

Chambered is 15x22x48"

Hesston and MF are slightly smaller yet and fit a little better in containers and on standard doubles.


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