# Small square bale baleage



## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Was conversation awhile ago about wrapping small squares. Look like alot of work....






Appears it is from across the pond


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

It would probably work put ok for a small homestead coop. I did a small amount this year. Huge PIA and dreadfully slow.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Took almost one minute to pickup, wrap and unload one bale. Using my fuzzy math, that is 60 bales an hour (per machine, they were using two wrappers), If you had a 300 bale an hour baler, wow, every two hours of baling, would mean 5 hours (with 2 wrappers) of wrapping.

Seems a small round baler or larger square baler, would be a lot more efficient (not counting the amount of plastic used).

Interesting, but I don't think I would work well in my neck of the woods.

Larry


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

My opinion would be that the only way wrapping small bales would be practical is if they were bundled first, and then the bundles wrapped, which opens up a whole new set of logistics!


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

The Amish wrap small bales. There's a guy in Lancaster County that builds an inline wrapper they put six or eight baless on the platform. Then the inline wrapper advances while it wraps those and I believe they can stack another six or eight Bales on behind it it's just like any other in line wrapper only their stick in small bales on the platform instead of one big Bale


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

https://www.farmshow.com/a_article.php?aid=27286


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## JMT (Aug 10, 2013)

Getting silage moisture hay through a standard square baler would be a problem to wouldn't it?


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

Should work, back when I was a kid, some 63 years ago, my cousins made grass silage by baling green with a McCormick 50T baler, and running the bales through the McCormick ensilage cutter at the silo. Those bales were heavy enough that it took both of then to pick them up and put them on the truck! don't remember, but would guess they had the tension rails backed all the way off!


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

The amish guys make those old balers work. I feel bad for all involved...the poor mules aren't going to fast, and the guy on the wagon doesn't stack past waist high cause the bales are so heavy...

We have a neighbor who wraps the bales, or hauls the bales back to a chopper with table at the silo. He then cut the twine off, and throws the bales into the chopper....way too much work for me...


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## notmydaytoday (Sep 16, 2016)

i don't know about silage but could a person wrap some properly dried hay and sell to horse people for travel to trail rides or rodeos so they don't have to tarp it on top of their trailers.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

One of my amish customers said he built one. Have not seen it yet. The are easier for him to handle than the round bales. Square balers can handle damp hay just makes for heavy bales.


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## Wethay (Jul 17, 2015)

My customers buy small squares because they are all handled by hand. Looks to me the plastic would get in the way of that. Watching the video I was wondering if that had enough equipment of enough size for that big of hay field.


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

They do look like they would be a challenge to handle. Not only are there no strings to grab, they are probably 100+ pounds if they are 50-60% moisture.


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## skyrydr2 (Oct 25, 2015)

There is no way those bales were at 50% they would be 120 lbs .. ever try to picl up a bale of wet Pro mix soil? Its wrapped in plastic too .. you wont do that for long.. a (small) large square baler i would think would be much more efficient? Maybe not for a small farm with only a few critters to feed? Maybe they do it for lack of storage space under cover? 
I like the idea but not the cost. They wrapped the heck out of those little bales..


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

It added about .90 per bale when I did it this year. I knocked the bale length down to 28 in. Tried to make.a fairly tight bale came in around 65 lbs. They are surprisingly not bad to handle . I couldn't use my elevator but it is such a small amount it wasn't too bad. Just stacked it on the field edge. I did about 150 bale test run. I don't feel the quality is as good as a large square or round bale. Density is drastically different and that is a problem.


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## skyrydr2 (Oct 25, 2015)

Almost $1 per bale is not that bad, plus the extra time and careful handling.. 
Have you opened one up yet to see how it fermented? Im definately curious.


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

I just started feeding it 2 weeks ago. Pearl millet baleage. Although I don't think I got the bale density right the steers loooove it. I can only feed it every other day because i didn't make much of it. Between the millet baleage, dry SS, and a couple lbs. of 325xy from doeblers they can get too fat.


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

Dang that looks like so much extra work. I understand the reasoning behind it but dang...


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

stack em up said:


> Dang that looks like so much extra work. I understand the reasoning behind it but dang...


When idiot bricks alone aren't enough to keep you busy.


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## bool (Mar 14, 2016)

I had an IH B45 baler once, from the 1950s, and in the operator's manual it mentioned a double-sided trip lever option for making half-length bales of silage. That would cut the weight in half and make them much more manageable. When I lived in New Zealand I saw half-length small square bales of fresh grass made to take to agricultural shows and fairs.

Roger


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

My uncles had one of those double trip dogs on their 45T. I always supposed that they had it fabricated locally, but maybe it was purchased as a dealer option. They made the 24" bales of dry hay, as they were along in years, and didn't want to deal with the 36" bales. I thought it was clever the way they changed from 48" bales to 36" bales by swapping the gears that drove the trip mechanism.

I didn't want to deal with the 24" bales when I took over the operation, so I switched it back to 36" bales.


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## Redleg (Nov 22, 2016)

I sell most of my hay to the amish. They have asked me about doing this for them. It seemed like a great idea. I went with my father last year to the huge ag show in germany they had two or three of these small bale wrappers. With importing ect about 65k to get started. Not worth it for the slow slow time it takes. I have how ever thought of the 9 pack that the bale Baron puts out and having a big baler wrap that up. It is still a slow process except much easier to handle.


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