Bale weight for different sizes

[baleflipper]

Many times I am asked what a bale weighs.I have hauled more than a few to local scales to see.My experience is that hay put up dry enough not to mold will weigh in the neighborhood of 10 lbs a cubic foot. Grass hay,I have no experience baling alfalfa.
Here are the cubic foot volume of different size bales if my math is right. round bales,5' x 6' =141.3 cubic foot.,4 ' x 6' = 113 cubic foot. The big square bales are not common here but here are my figures on them. 3 ' x 4' x 8 ' =96 cubic foot.
4 ' x 4 ' x 8 ' =128 cubic foot.
From this I figure a 5' x 6' round bale is in neighborhood of 1400lbs. I hear lots say their bales weigh 1800lbs. moisture makes a big difference.hay that is baled damp will weigh more but will mold. I have heard the 2000lb Figure from many hay baler dealers.To this time I have never encountered a 2000lb bale that was baled dry and is grass. Alfalfa is baled damper than grass to keep leaves from falling off I am told.I have seen several 1800 lb round bales of alfalfa.

When I build trailers I use the 2000lb figure to be on safe side. Same with the loaders. How hay is put up depends on where it will be fed. Big squares are better to load in train cars or on trucks. The draw back to them is a barn is needed.
Folks that put up hay less than 20 miles from where it will be fed and that have no barn are better off using round bales.
Most small operators use the rounds around here. The two major cost of feeding hay are labor and freight.Makes no difference where a bale is fed it is usualy hauled there.Never saw one teleported yet.
Many years I used a front loader to gather the round bales into groups.Then later came back with trailer and loaded them with front loader on tractor. At the feed yard I used another tractor to unload them. I found myself moving tractors real often. I saw the self unloading trailers and figured that was only half what was needed. So after a few years I built my first Bale Flipper loader. It worked well.
I started baling hay in 1968 for myself,before that did it for Pop. I had a New Holland stack wagon for several years.It only worked in certain barns or to stack hay out side then tarp it. Started Round bales in about 1973. I have been in the custom hay baling and hauling ever since.
In this area there are lots of custom balers but few haulers. I have a better income from hauling than baling. I can move more in a day than I can bale,if you figure cutting raking and baling. Many days I move 150 round bales 10 miles and yard them. The video on you tube was taken on a customers place in November two years ago.It was a short haul from the field to the hay yard.I moved 144 bales in 9 hrs that day.would of done more but that was all the hay there.Charged the man $4 a bale.
Thats why the screen name Bale Flipper,have moved a few bales.

 

[mlazyj]

The difference in bale weight for us is what we are baleing . CRP and alfa alfa will be in the 1100-1200# range . Barley hay will weigh up closer to 1800# . Straw is right around 1000# . We move all our round bales with semi's , 28 bales to the load.

 

[shaz]

I rolled some 1800lb 4x6 bales a couple of years ago. After that I got a tedder :frowns:

 

[bigbull338]

we always figure our 5 by 6 bales at 1500 to 1600lb bales.the new 5 by 6 balers can put up bales weighing 1800 to 2200lbs.

 

[lavacarancher]

I glad to read someone has done a little study on this. I've had folks say they have 2000 lb bales, mostly from folks hauling hay for sale in my area. To them I always say BS.

I guestimated my bales are in the 1500 to 1600 lb range but I will scale it back a couple hundred after reading this. Thanks.

 

[john250]

As I put the hay into the barn I weigh a sampling on the cattle scales. 4*5 bales made with a Vermeer 554 XL weigh 800 to 1050 lbs. Most are in the 900 lb range.

 

[gravy]

We have a 568 deere, at the biggest setting in too dry to mess with hay, Johnson grass and bermuda. After 3 months they avg. 1206. They are 5/6 bales.

 

[TexasBred]

We have a 568 deere, at the biggest setting in too dry to mess with hay, Johnson grass and bermuda. After 3 months they avg. 1206. They are 5/6 bales.

Everybody's 5x6 bales weight over 1500.....don't believe me just ask them... ;-) Your numbrs sound about right. Bought hay for years by the ton but of course delivered in bales. Average would be around 1200 year in and year out for good low moisture coastal bermuda. Only 2000 lb. bale of anything I've seen was alfalfa and some baled milo stalks.

 

[bigbull338]

We have a 568 deere, at the biggest setting in too dry to mess with hay, Johnson grass and bermuda. After 3 months they avg. 1206. They are 5/6 bales.

Everybody's 5x6 bales weight over 1500.....don't believe me just ask them... ;-) Your numbrs sound about right. Bought hay for years by the ton but of course delivered in bales. Average would be around 1200 year in and year out for good low moisture coastal bermuda. Only 2000 lb. bale of anything I've seen was alfalfa and some baled milo stalks.

ok TB ive got a q for you 1200lb 5 by 6 bales are real lite.so how is it weve had several that would make a loader groan an pop as you was lifting an moving them.the last big rd baler we had would do that all day long.now if you ran a 5 by 6 as loose as you could the bales prolly did weigh 1200lbs.but we always ran emm as tight as you could get emm.

 

[baleflipper]

Its easy to add weight to a hay bale,just add water! Ten percent moisture by volume can be a lot of weight. Front end on most tractors have 2 tires. the weights for ballast with a 3 point plow are limited to about a ton. When a front loader is installed it adds weight.I would suspect at least a thousand pounds. so if you are lifting a 1500lb bale you are over loading most front tires. They will stand up if you put enough air pressure in them but the life expectancy is shortened. 4 wheel drive tractors have bigger tires etc.They seem to hold up better with a loader. The cost of a bigger tractor is involved.
All of this is why I use my machine to load bales. As I get older I find climbing up and down from a tractor gets harder. I tend to get tired real fast from walking back to trailer to dump bales. The Ideal way to move hay is let some one else do it! That wont pay my bills,so Im still moving hay.
My latest machine has from the cab start so I dont have to get out and start loader engine. Best part is the lazy man hook up I came up with. The front section of the attachment rail extends out electricly so I can adjust it to hit the loader arms perfectly. That way I drive into loader ,pull it back against trailer and go bump first bale. I have shortened the cycle time to load a bale down to 45 secs.It takes about 15 seconds to get bale clear of the ground,rest of load time I drive to next bale. Loader unhooks itself after last bale,I kill it with remote. By doing all this I have eliminated lots of walking time. The unload is unchanged I still push a button and all bales dump.
The fact is there is no easy or free way to move hay,Most of the cost for hay is the labor and equipment to raise it and bale an move it.

 

[TexasBred]

We have a 568 deere, at the biggest setting in too dry to mess with hay, Johnson grass and bermuda. After 3 months they avg. 1206. They are 5/6 bales.

Everybody's 5x6 bales weight over 1500.....don't believe me just ask them... ;-) Your numbrs sound about right. Bought hay for years by the ton but of course delivered in bales. Average would be around 1200 year in and year out for good low moisture coastal bermuda. Only 2000 lb. bale of anything I've seen was alfalfa and some baled milo stalks.

ok TB ive got a q for you 1200lb 5 by 6 bales are real lite.so how is it weve had several that would make a loader groan an pop as you was lifting an moving them.the last big rd baler we had would do that all day long.now if you ran a 5 by 6 as loose as you could the bales prolly did weigh 1200lbs.but we always ran emm as tight as you could get emm.

No idea about your hay BB....I moved these around with a 45 hp tractor with no problems and no creaking or poping. A few of those rolls of milo stalks would make it creak and pop some and almost tip the tractor but they did weight at ton...some closer to 2200 lbs.. but not coastal bales. I also used a moisture tester on all hay I bought.

 

[bigbull338]

thanks that tells me alot.im using a 52hp tractor to move the 5 by 6s an they will raise the rear end off the ground picking them up if i dont have enough weight or another bale on the rear end.

 

[TexasBred]

thanks that tells me alot.im using a 52hp tractor to move the 5 by 6s an they will raise the rear end off the ground picking them up if i dont have enough weight or another bale on the rear end.

All I had on the back was a shreder.

 

[dun]

thanks that tells me alot.im using a 52hp tractor to move the 5 by 6s an they will raise the rear end off the ground picking them up if i dont have enough weight or another bale on the rear end.

All I had on the back was a shreder.

HP doesn;t really mean much, it's weight and it's distribution that counts.

 

[bigbull338]

i wish tractor dealers knew there head from a hole in the ground about that.i had 2 dealers tell me that 55hp tractors cant carry 2 5 by 6 bales at once.if they did the tractor would flipp or nose dive.so i made my dealer prove it before i wrote the check.TB when i was lite on the rear i had a renovator on the rear.the shredder will hold it down.