I'm hoping to be cutting and bailing hay this year. I'm planning on using a JD 348 w/ a bail ejector. I'm thinking about using an old cotton wagon and putting sides on it to catch the bails. The more I look over this system it sure starting to look alittle more like work. I'm kinda starting to think that picking hay out of the field is'nt so bad. I've never minded myself. Does anybody have any advice on how to use this setup?
More work than it's worth?
- Thread starter TheLazyM
- Start date
Help Support CattleToday:
Jim62
Well-known member
Never had dealt with a bale ejector. Back in the old days, we would pull a flat trailer behind the baler, which would push the bales right up on the front of the trailer. You just had to have one good stacker on board the trailer. This beats the heck out of picking them up off the ground.
Florida cattle
Well-known member
An old cotton trailer with a load of hay is going to be too heavy for the frame on the square baler, You would proably be able to run it for a little while but before long it would start tearing the baler apart. Plus the length would make it a real challenge to turn when baling.
dyates
Well-known member
I have to go with Jim on this one. We use the old New Holland balers to make small squares. I have a 268 and a 273. One person driving and one person loading can bale a lot of hay in a day. Now that we have two balers, we can really put it away, at least by my meager standards. I have a neighbor with a big 570 that he pulls a wagon behind. You better have two men behind that thing. It will eat hay almost as fast as a roller.
Weaver
Well-known member
We have a New Holland square baler with an ejector that throws the onto a flatbed wagon with hydrolic dump and homemade sides on it. We have two of those wagons so when the person running the baler fills up one wagon, another person replaces it with an empty one and hauls the full one to the barn. At the barn all you have to do is open the back, raise the wagon and the bales are dumped out. Has been working for us as long as I can remember.
dyates
Well-known member
Weaver":1zbi5s89 said:
I thought about trying that, but don't have enough barn space to just dump everything out. I think it would also be a nightmare to untangle bales to feed them, especially if you have hay carried over into another year.
Weaver
Well-known member
We have a conveyor that travels the length of the loft in the barn. The conveyor has a tripper on it to knock the bales off where ever you want them to land below. We have a conveyor running from the ground to the barn conveyor and all we do is dump the bales on the ground, put them on the conveyor and let them go. We don't need anyone in the barn. Fills the barn up with only touching the bales once and that is just to carry them a couple feet and put them on the conveyor. We have started baling at one or so in the afternoon and by 6 or 7 have put 1500 bales or so in the barn. Feeding the hay really isnt that difficult. You have to watch so that you don't dig a cave underneath the hay so every once in a while we have to climb the pile and knock some down, but Ill gladly do that for the labor it saves. Also, each year we alternate what end we start feeding so that any hay that we didn't feed last year gets fed this year.
bird dog
Well-known member
Weaver,
Can we get some picures of this?
Thanks
Can we get some picures of this?
Thanks
Weaver
Well-known member
Nope, we don't stack any of our square bales of hay. We have enough room in our barns, that are both right at the 100 year old mark, to store 4-5 thousand bales unstacked. Only time we ever touch them is to put them on the conveyor and then to feed them.
I don't know if I got any pictures of the set up but i will see what i can do.
I don't know if I got any pictures of the set up but i will see what i can do.
