# Rebaling Rounds into Squares... Not what you think!



## Lewis Ranch (Jul 15, 2013)

Somehow ran across this on YouTube and found it strange. Check this setup out.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Interesting.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Somebody has too much time on their hands. And loves welding!

Causes me to wonder why go through this extra work.

Ralph


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Rounds into small squares can be a good enterprise but the fabrication of the handling equipment is great. I've kicked that around before just as a thought.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

It would work well on grass hay, but with alfalfa you could bag the leaves up and sell those separate as not a lot of chance of getting into the square baler.

A guy could roll all his hay quite tough or even wet and use a lot of acid then rebale it later when the round bales dried down to 17-18%. A lot of mine after being stacked in the hoop buildings all summer will read under 14% when tested with a probe.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Neighbors do a lot of this but it's a much more disgusting process. They rebale a bunch of junk (and I mean whatever junk they can get their hands on) into 4x4s for mulch. I think they're just keeping employees busy because they aren't adding much value other than getting more weight on their loads.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Because we own a machine and fabrication shop I was asked by a producer down the road if I wanted to design and build a round bale to small square bale processor. I passed. I think there are a couple available using your own bailer and their unroller and feeder mechanisms.

Actually, a moving floor feeder would work along with a bale unroller but only on grass hay you stated. Leaf loss on alfalfa would basically leave you bailing stems and thats it.

Lots quicker to gets rounds in and less labor intensive but I can see a round toi square process line would probably be labor intensive too.

Nice pastime for those winter months if done inside. You could run hay to order in say January, when the Horsey people are scrambling for hay because they lack the ability to 'plan ahead'.

If you happen to go shopping with your spouse (something I try to avoid because I don't like pushing the cart..) and you peruse the pet aisles, you'll notice that Hartz Mountain sells mini bales of Alfalfa hay for Gerbils, hamsters and such, plastic wrapped in convenient size (about 6"x8"x12") for an exhorbinant price.

Might be something to consider for cold weather.


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## PackMan2170 (Oct 6, 2014)

Hook the BigPack on the tractor and cut out the middleman


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

For alfalfa and bermudagrass hay the starting tonnage will be less than the tonnage loaded out as a differently packaged hay.

They could increase the efficiency of conversion if there is a system to re-hydrate the hay.

Re-package the shattered hay and sell that as Rabbit Hay and double your income.

Note I collect more leaves on my small sq baler in bermudagrass than alfalfa, and the handling losses for bermuda is higher to boot.

The real advantage for RB's to small Squares is the RB will wrap more tons a minute than a small baler and you can get the hay wrapped into a package before rain and save a lot of usable feed.

Just do not ask an AG economist to figure your cost per ton final product.
As long as you can say "I don't seen no leaves flying." then you can be satisfied.

If your market will support the inefficiencies you are "Good".


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

They must buy it cheap and sell it steep. Cannot imagine that would pay any other way.


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

Interesting that they are rebaling from rounds to large squares. Perhaps they are buying the rounds??

I would have liked to have seen how they were powering the baler.


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## siscofarms (Nov 23, 2010)

I agree . How can you make the investment they have in the system they have set up . The balerS cost . labor . Just cant see it being a profitable endevour .


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

I just don't get it. I do know that big squares sell at the best price per ton in my area at least but the increase would all be eaten up by a very expensive processor. I can buy rounds for 60 per ton around here. Figure losing 30% to spoilage minimum and another 15% to processing. Big squares of meh quality sell around 150 per ton. Small squares sell about 90-150 per ton. Once the losses are figured in you have 90 per ton into it. A lot of tons have to go through to pay for maintain and hopefully have anything left at the end. Maybe others have a sharper pencil.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

My Cowboy math.

RBs with string 20 bales an hour.
RBs with net wrap 40 bales an hour.
My older NH 315 wire tie is ( at best 420 bales a hour 360 bales an hour is closer to the mark).
I figure 18 bales in one 5 ft RB.
Being generous say baling efficiency RB to Sq Bale with some re-hydration of the hay going into the sq baler.

I will leave the math up to the math majors on the board.

Near College Station, TX is a grower who round bales all his hay and converts them to small squares as needed. Last time I heard he was happy with the system.
Who knows he may like TX Aggie Math.


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## Jay in WA (Mar 21, 2015)

I understand converting round bales to small squares but I can't figure out the idea behind going to large squares. Just square bale it to begin with and be done with it. Quicker, cheaper and less expensive in the end.

Unless they found a deal on dirt cheap round bales. Would have to be a lot of them to justify building that setup though.

I have a neighbor that rebales Teff grass from large squares to small squares. Large squares let him get the hay off the field quick but the horse market for teff is in small squares. Extra work but it works for him.


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## HALLSHAY (Nov 30, 2008)

I remember seeing this video a few years ago. Remember 2013 and the Texas drought? If I remember right, they could buy all the round bales they wanted in SK for $35-$40 a ton and they were rebaling just to be able to ship the hay into TX, KS, and OK. I wasn't the prettiest hay, but it worked at that time.


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## aawhite (Jan 16, 2012)

I'm with Rockmart...buying big round bales cheap and rebale for customers who only buy big squares. Also more efficient for long transportation.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

I'd hate to be the dude on the ground pitch forking the drops back into the dang feeder. Looks like they need higher sides on the round bale processor.

I agree with PackMan2170 why not just use the Big Pack to begin with but they're probably buying crap hay, mixing it with something half decent and making them look good out the back end.


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## central va farmer (Feb 14, 2015)

Last winter hay was in short supply in my area due to last summer drought. I had around 700 4×5.5 netwrapped round bales left over that was from 2 to 3 years back. I sold about 1/2 of them to several beef guys for $150 ton plus delivery. Bales were dry but weathered from sitting outside. Worked out to around $80 per roll before delivery. Had some horse/alpaca people call wanting around 2-300 big squares 3×4×7.5 they had to have big squares. I had the hay they wanted just not in package they wanted. So we hooked up bale processor and re baled it. It took 1 and1/2 rounds to make 1 big square. Big squares were dry dry dry and still weighed 1400 lbs. I sold them all for 250 ton plus delivery. Figuring the 1 and 1/2 rounds equals $120 putting it in big squares equaled around $180 for same amount of hay netting around 90$ ton premium. So I did 160+ tons at $90 ton premium netting me around 15k more than I had. Damn near bought my bale processor. Maybe they had a large scale order of what I did. We picked a day when ground was froze and you could do 2 tractor trailers in a day. That's 1 man on ground cutting wrap, dad on bale processor, and me baling. 1st time I ever baled hay with snow on ground lol. Maybe ya'll don't think it works but I was pretty satisfied with it and customer was in love with hay. I just never showed a before and after picture to them.


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