baleflipper
Well-known member
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.
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.