Bale Bandit

[Robert_in_NY]

Has anyone ever seen or used one of these bundlers? It looks like it would be a good setup and would make handling hay a lot easier. If anyone has used one, how reliable are they? Any pros and cons?

http://www.balebandit.com/

[cowboydoc]

They are very nice and work exactly as they say Robert. Only downside is the price. Did you price one of them? Hang onto your shorts if you haven't.

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Has anyone ever seen or used one of these bundlers? )</font>

I've never even seen one, but it sure does appear to be something my brother tried to describe watching in the Ellensburg, WA area this past summer.

[RonR]

End result looks a lot like what a Hesston 4800 (IIRC) square baler made: 4 x 4 x 8 FEET bales!

The down side to this unit, as with the Hesston, was you needed BIG windrows to keep it full. With this other unit, looks to me like you would pulling that unit all over the field to make bales.

I suppose if you already had the small baler, this might make sense.

On the west coast years ago, I've seen then take 100+ pound square hay bales, run them through a "squeezer" and make them 1/3 the length previously. Then they MANUALLY loaded these in containers to go to Japan. Seemed like a LOT of WORK to me.

Take care,
Ron

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( On the west coast years ago, I've seen then take 100+ pound square hay bales, run them through a "squeezer" and make them 1/3 the length previously. Then they MANUALLY loaded these in containers to go to Japan. Seemed like a LOT of WORK to me. )</font>

I don't know about the "manually" loading (doubt it now-a-days) but I know a place that still presses them down to a very small size for shipping to Japan (don't know whether they ship them to other places also or not).

[jwcinpk]

Is this what people refer to as a "collector"? If I'd seen one of these before I bought my roller I'd certainly have considered it. What kind of $?

[cowboydoc]

It could be what they call a collector. There is another similiar product that is called an accumulator. It is a little cheaper. The bandit is $50,000 just for the basic and for one with all the toys it's up to $65,000-75,000. The accumulators are about $30,000.

What we use is called a stack wagon. We bale on the ground and then we drive around in a stack wagon that picks all the bales up. We then take them where we are going to store them and it unloads them in a nice stack.

[jwcinpk]

At that price how could a farmer afford them? I sure couldn't. Must not be what people here call a collector. Saw an ad in the paper back last fall for a new holland sqaure baler with collector $4500. Heck maybe it was just a hay wagon. What kind of $ on a stack wagon? I would like to find a way to deal with about 5000 sqaures a year without the hassle of trying to hire someone to help pick it up. Put up 2300 one year by myself (and I work a full time job) and I will never do that again, but sqaure hay sells so much better than rolls if there was a way to mechanize it cheap enough I'd sure be sqaure baling again. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[rockinmywaypa]

Look at the netherexe bale handler, it's a cage basically that accumulates the bales into a 'flat' which you then put into a stack with a tractor loader and then lift with a trailer to take to the barn. Don't know the price but I do know this guy has some incredibly smart dogs[but then we're talking border collies after all].

[Robert_in_NY]

Yeah, it is expensive but for someone who doesn't want a Stack cruiser they would be a good alternative. What I liked is the fact they make such nice bundles for loading into trucks. It is geared more towards the hay sellers then farmers I think as the stack cruiser is better suited for farmers who will use the hay on the farm instead of loading it onto trucks. For the price though, I would consider buying a decent used stack cruiser and another loader tractor that can handle the hay similar to the equipment Stein Farms use near me.

I just wish the Bale bandit was cheaper and had a better support system. As it is if something breaks there are no dealers to service it. You have to do all the work yourself so what good is the warranty unless you live next door to the builder. Hopefully they will get a dealer network set up and start selling more of them so they can reduce the price.