Weight of hay rolls

[Kingfisher]

I know this don't answer your question Kenny and I haven't read the posts but it's best to buy cow hay by the pound.

 

[Silver]

The hills here don't allow us to roll that big of a roll. Sure wish I could

It's a double edged sword. The temptation is always there during feeding time to carry two bales in the loader, and 1600 lb bales don't do you any favours in that regard.
Why are the hills a problem? Horsepower issue or is there something else?

I'm from Texas and just can't see a 1600lb bale. What do you do.....roll em down the hill?.

Ya, well, the rumor up here is that nothing is big in Texas. :lol2:

 

[callmefence]

The hills here don't allow us to roll that big of a roll. Sure wish I could

It's a double edged sword. The temptation is always there during feeding time to carry two bales in the loader, and 1600 lb bales don't do you any favours in that regard.
Why are the hills a problem? Horsepower issue or is there something else?

I'm from Texas and just can't see a 1600lb bale. What do you do.....roll em down the hill?.

Why don't you come on by , I'll show you some over a ton. : :nod:

 

[herofan]

I generally run a few of mine across the scales every year to get an average weight. But around here nobody buys or sells hay on weight it's always by the bale, so as a seller I can make more by selling more lighter bales...

Same here. I'd never heard of hay referred to in terms of weight until I got on this site.

 

[Texasmark]

I bought some 4 x 4 rolls and didn't realize just how small they are. Mine is 5 x 5 and wish I had bigger and they were like toys on the back of my tractor compared to mine. Those little Heston balers that make a 39" bale are good balers, but you will have a field full of them. I think on the weight some balers make tighter, but type of hay and condition make a lot of difference in weight.

Using volume of the bale I did a comparison listing of different sizes. When I arrived here 40 years ago the standard was a JD 530 5x6, tight, average moisture, SS or Johnson grass/Coastal mix or Coastal Bermuda at 1600# so I used that as a benchmark:

Size...........................Cu. Ft. Units (arbitrary term)....Weight (average for like kind crop/bailing method)
5 (length) x 6 (diameter)....141............................1600#
5x4...................................63...............................714 JD 375 (my in retirement baler) manual says it bales a 1000#...really!

4 (length) x 6 (diameter).....113...........................1280
4x5.5.................................95..............................1083
4x5....................................78...............................886
4x4....................................50...............................566

So there's an idea what it costs you to have the supplier chop the bale dimensions......considering everything else remains constant which it never does. Other thing is like now, we ran out of hay and corn stalks were being sold, and as of late some of the fields have dried out and dead JG/Coastal is showing up. I've been there on occasion, out of hay in the dead of winter, none to be found, what you found was junk at sky high prices.......gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[gcreekrch]

JD 569, rough, flat ground so all baling speed is under 5 mph. We weighed about 50 bales this fall. Depending on field they went from 1680 to 1850. 71 inches.

Our old 535 had tensioner cylinder packing wear out. Was making 10 bales on the same round the 569 was making 6.5. Parked it and rebuilt cylinders at the end of haying. Looking forward to comparing again next year.


Most hay that gets bought into this country can come from 6 to 12 truck hours away. Light bales can get very expensive ton price. Ideally, 1600 bales make close to a max load to haul. Have had a guy that dodged the scales and brought several loads of bales that averaged 1960.

 

[uplandnut]

Just curious how balage would compare in these situations. I've bought 4x6 dry bales that weighed 1400lbs before and now there is a person in my area selling 4x6 balage bales and claiming they are 2500lbs. By sheer weight numbers if my cows eat a 4x5, 800lb dry bale a day one of these balage bales should last me 3 days. Is that about the way it should compare or does the fact that they are wet bales throw all the talk about lbs per day consumption right out the window?

 

[kenny thomas]

If a 2400lb roll of balage at 40% moisture is only 960lb of dry matter. 1400 lb of 12% would be 1232 lb of dry matter. I would think the 1400lb would be better.

 

[gcreekrch]

If a 2400lb roll of balage at 40% moisture is only 960lb of dry matter. 1400 lb of 12% would be 1232 lb of dry matter. I would think the 1400lb would be better.

Unless priced according to dry matter and you didn't have to haul that water very far.

 

[uplandnut]

Thanks Kenny, where did you find the conversion for moisture weight?

 

[TexasBred]

If a 2400lb roll of balage at 40% moisture is only 960lb of dry matter. 1400 lb of 12% would be 1232 lb of dry matter. I would think the 1400lb would be better.

1440 lbs. dry matter Kenny

 

[kenny thomas]

If a 2400lb roll of balage at 40% moisture is only 960lb of dry matter. 1400 lb of 12% would be 1232 lb of dry matter. I would think the 1400lb would be better.

1440 lbs. dry matter Kenny

You are very correct. I was figuring on 60% moisture.

 

[kenny thomas]

Thanks Kenny, where did you find the conversion for moisture weight?

Just figure 12% of 1400 is 168 and subtract
I figured 40% of 2400 then forgot to subtract. Or even easier figure the % that's not moisture. So at 12% moisture 88% is dry matter. So 88% of 1400 is 1232.

 

[uplandnut]

Ok makes sense.