round bales vs. square bales

[Anonymous Poster]

My square baler is shot. Time for a new one.

A friend suggested that I get a round baler. They are apparently a lot cheaper.

Anybody have advice?

 

[cowboydoc]

Lots of advice but let me know what your applications are and I can be more specific. I do both and there are pros and cons to each.

 

[mlmartin]

The round bales are hard on my wife, she finds it difficult to haul them up to the hayloft/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Matthew

 

[Doublezero]

Wouldn't round bales be hard to stack in the hayloft? My wife says round bales are cow food. That's why we have to import the more expensive square bales from Pennsylvania for her horses.

That said, I really don't know anything about balers/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

Larry

 

[cowboydoc]

Larry,
Round bales are just as much horse as cattle feed. I feed my horses all winter from round bales in round bale feeders. No hassle feeding hay everyday and a heck of alot easier making and storing round bales than square bales. I put up some round bales to feed the horses that I keep in stalls or when the weather gets really bad and they are kept inside. If you go to buy hay round bales are about half the cost of buying square bales. But if you don't have round bale feeders then they waste half of it too. Round bales can also be stored outside. The ones I do have a protective coating and are wrapped in mesh so they don't get moldy and rot. You can store them outside and they don't have to be put in a hayloft. Saves alot of back breaking work! If I had to put up square bales for all my horses I'd never get it done and would have to build another barn just to store it in.

 

[cowboydoc]

As far as cheaper goes Paul a new round baler is going to be more money than a new square baler.

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>I put up some round bales to feed the horses that I keep in stalls or when the weather gets really bad</font color=blue>

I'll bet you meant "square" bales for this./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Bird

 

[theboman]

If you love your animals that eats the hay use square bales. Round baled hay loses a lot of the nutrients from being exposed to the elements. I guess if the round bales are stored 100% dry it's okay.

Besides an animal can't get a square meal from a round bale.
Bluegrass, Pick It Up!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by theboman on 08/16/01 07:06 AM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Round baled hay loses a lot of the nutrients from being exposed to the elements.</font color=blue>

I don't think it's the shape of the bale that matters; just that round bales are frequently stored outside in the weather, while square bales are usually stored inside. And for anyone who doesn't know, some of the round balers can be bought to use the twine that is perhaps the most common, or they can be bought to use the "wrap" (plastic wrap that Cowboydoc mentioned). I have one neighbor who's primary business is hay; buys a new John Deere baler every two years, and uses the plastic wrap exclusively; says that wrap makes each bale cost approximately $1 more to put up than using twine. Another neighbor, whom I spent a lot of time helping bale hay, has a Gehl baler he bought to use the twine, and has always wished he'd bought it set up for the wrap instead, but thinks it's too expensive to convert it.

Bird

 

[cowboydoc]

Bird,
Yep you are right I meant square bales, thank you for the correction.

Boman you are wrong that the hay loses it's value when it's prepared the way that the new balers do. "If you love your animals feed square bales". Come on that's not exactly true. I could say the same thing. If you love your animals feed them how they were meant to be fed eating continuously all day in a pasture with cover where they can go to the round bale feeder and eat all day. You don't lose any appreciable nutrients at all with round bales. You may lose the outer 2 or 3" of a round bale is all. Once you get past that the hay is just as green and sweet as a square bale. With a square bale you lose the outside of it as well. I would "guess" that the outside of a square bale that is empty nutrients is the same amount as a round bale outside that loses it's nutrients comparatively. Apples to apples your horse is going to be just as healthy and get just as many nutrients no matter what you feed them.