# What size round bales does everybody make? Poll!



## Shady Lane (May 24, 2011)

*What size round bales do you make?*​
*What size bales are you making?*

4'x4'611.32%4'x5'2445.28%4'6'23.77%5'x5'815.09%5'x4'11.89%5'x6'916.98%Something different. (please post and tell us!)35.66%


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## Shady Lane (May 24, 2011)

I'm curious as to what size round bales everybody makes.

It seems that there are a lot of different bale sizes out there and it seems to depend on your location geographically.

I make 5'x6' bales, as do most people in my area.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

4x5's here. No flack from the fuzz about being too wide and two layers high will stay under 13' 6" on the straight trucks.


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## rajela (Feb 15, 2014)

4X6 for a few cow friends........... 4X5 for John Q Public.


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## Waterway64 (Dec 2, 2011)

5x6 in western SD. It's the standees hear. Mel


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

4x5"s

I believe that is the accepted normal size here is the southeast.

Does not stick over when two wide on an 8 foot goose, fits between the finder wields on a pick up truck.


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## OhioHay (Jun 4, 2008)

4 x 4.5" for us. Most guys around are either 4x4, 4x4.5, or 4x5. Rarely do you see a 5' wide bale. If so, it sells for the same or less than a 4' wide bale


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

4X4.5


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## LaneFarms (Apr 10, 2010)

4X4.5


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

4x5


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

5x5.5 For my own livestock


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## Lewis Ranch (Jul 15, 2013)

4x5 to sell most custom jobs are 4x6 all net wrapped, north Texas.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

For those of you making 4*4.5'-do you feed them at all? If so what is the advantage v 4*5? I can see where the smaller bale may sell more profitably.


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## clowers (Feb 11, 2011)

5'5" here for my custom cow people 
Others get 4'5"


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## Shady Lane (May 24, 2011)

I'm assuming that when people say they are making a 4'x4.5' bale or a 5'x5.5' or whatever that they are running 4x5 or 5x6 balers but just not making them maximum size?

When I say I make 5'x6' bales in my 568, I don't generally make them maximum bale size to the last inch. Usually they are more like 60"x70" a lot of bale handling equipment works better with that size rather than a ful 60"x72"


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

deadmoose said:


> For those of you making 4*4.5'-do you feed them at all? If so what is the advantage v 4*5? I can see where the smaller bale may sell more profitably.


Dry depending on alfalfa to grass ratio 675 to 775
ry


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

5 x 6 The bigger the better here.Less bales to handle.

My netwrap sales are 90% 5' wide 10% 4' wide.


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## barnrope (Mar 22, 2010)

A friend just planted his first hay field and is getting his Allis Chalmers Roto Baler ready to go. Looks like those will be 3 1/2' x 1 1/2' roughly. Can't wait to see them again. Don't know if I need a whole bunch of them though.


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

The round baler I just picked up over the winter (but have borrowed before) makes a 4x5 bale. Ideally, I would like to make 4x4 bales since the size of the bale doesn't really affect the price in my area too much.


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

Shady Lane said:


> I'm assuming that when people say they are making a 4'x4.5' bale or a 5'x5.5' or whatever that they are running 4x5 or 5x6 balers but just not making them maximum size?
> 
> When I say I make 5'x6' bales in my 568, I don't generally make them maximum bale size to the last inch. Usually they are more like 60"x70" a lot of bale handling equipment works better with that size rather than a ful 60"x72"


Yes and some of my reason is a few rougher fields older equipment and keeping the weight around 1200 lbs which is easier on other equipment as well


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

barnrope said:


> A friend just planted his first hay field and is getting his Allis Chalmers Roto Baler ready to go. Looks like those will be 3 1/2' x 1 1/2' roughly. Can't wait to see them again. Don't know if I need a whole bunch of them though.


I still remember stacking those in the pole shed like cord wood.


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## foz682 (Jan 10, 2013)

4x4's here, mainly because most of our feeding is inside an older barn with low ceilings and a narrow feed alley. We tried 4x5's and there's just not enough head room.

5' wide bales don't seem to exist here, just never caught on.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Bales sizes range from 56" to 66".

Smaller for resale, bigger for my own use.

Smaller if premium quality, bigger for poorer quality.

Smaller if OG, bigger if alfalfa.

For round bales, most people don't understand selling by the ton, but they do understand by the bale. So, I cater to them even though I price for myself by the ton.

Most people think that two 1000# bales @ $50/bale is a better deal than one 2000# bale at $90/bale.

Maybe they're right?

Ralph


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## Shady Lane (May 24, 2011)

I sell most of my hay by the ton. But I also sell some by the bale. I make them around 60" x 70" as lots of bale handling equipment handles those size better. When feeding my own cattle I want as big of a bale as possible.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Like I already mentioned, a 4'x5'. The auctions set the price around here by the ton. Simple enough to figure per bale then. I have no problems getting rid of my hay so if somebody wants a bale smaller than 60" they can keep on looking. Smaller bales are lighter bales which means more to handle hauling them home, more trips to haul them home and more to handle while stacking which all translates into more time spent on a slightly smaller bale. I like no less than a 800lb bale on first cutting, like around a 1000lb bale or a little better on the rest of the cuttings.


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## bluefarmer (Oct 10, 2010)

4x5


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## AndyL (Mar 9, 2013)

4x5 and 5x5 Which ever customer wants. I try putting more 4x5's in barn. Why poll doesn't let you select more than 1?


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## dubltrubl (Jul 19, 2010)

4 X 4.5 for us


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## MT hayer (Mar 1, 2014)

I like make the five foot wide by about 64 inches. They aren't too big to be over height and most all loader tractors can pick the bale. Six foot tall bales just get too big....


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

4x5's to sell here and a few 5x5's if they haul. 
4x6's and 5x5's to unroll for our own feed and 4x5's to put in round bale rings for our own feed 
We'd make more 5' wide bales but the ole 567 is on it's last leg


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## Shady Lane (May 24, 2011)

How many bales through your 567 Colby? I've seen 567's with a pile of bales on them. I never owned one, I had a 566 and then traded it on the 568. I missed the 567 generation.


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## GawasFarm (Jul 10, 2013)

4x5 here for dry

4x4 for baleage


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

Shady Lane said:


> How many bales through your 567 Colby? I've seen 567's with a pile of bales on them. I never owned one, I had a 566 and then traded it on the 568. I missed the 567 generation.


Actually not many, it has 96xx bales but it needs a 5k pickup rebuild. But the trade in on it is still 21,000 deere offered us. So it's kind of a go either way. The baler will last a lot longer time if we spend 6-7k to get everything right on it. Or it'll pay for almost half for a new 569. Just don't know which way to go with it


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## rajela (Feb 15, 2014)

Dang looks like I am the only one that makes a 4X6 bale.


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## Shady Lane (May 24, 2011)

I was a salesman for Deere and New Holland for many years. In all of my days I only ever sold one 4'x6' baler. Had to special order it. 468 it was.


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## nanuk (Aug 29, 2011)

When I started baling for a guy, I had a 5ft wide pickup on my old 605C.

He cut with a wornout 114 that laid out a 4ft wide windrow.

Needless to say, my bales were footballs half the time.

When I had made enough $ off of him, I went looking for a better baler.

He wanted a heavier bale. the 605C made them around 1000lb, he said he'd like a 1300lb.

I charge him 0.01c/lb to bale so made no difference to me really.

Due to the 4ft windrow, I chose to buy a JD430 that made 4x6 bales.

I did some math, and set the diameter to about 68 inches, and a rack of bales averaged about 1200-1250 with MC at around 7%, with the bales being nice and hard... difficult to push the moisture probe in when the MC is running around 18-20%.. weight should be about 1350-1400.

he doesn't like the 4ft wide as they don't carry well on the wagon. He's tipped a few off....

he now has a discbine that can spread the windrow from about 3.5ft to 10ft... the deciding factor is wheel width on our tractors.

I bought a 5ft wide JD567, and will make the bales about as hard and bring the diameter down some to equal the same volume as I was getting with the JD430.

when looking for balers, there are 100 5ft wide ones for sale for every 4ft wide one up here....

up my way, people buy by the bale mostly and want BIG WIDE bales.


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