which to buy 4x5 or 5x5

   / which to buy 4x5 or 5x5 #11  
I can put as much hay pounds in a 4 x 5 as a 5 x 5, if I drive slower and the windrow is raked right. Ken Sweet
 
   / which to buy 4x5 or 5x5 #12  
So would a 4x6 be near eaqual to a 5x5 as far as wieght and mass go?

I don't know about the 4x6's,you get them leaning I have seen them falling over in field. Really don't see many running around here but one,they usually have some good deals on the 4x6 balers thou. As said usually can get the same money for 4x5 bales,and with any size bale you can lighten or make a bale heavier. If I was going to buy a bale no matter what size,if they pick it up and it starts sagging not tight you know they are trying to get one over on you on weight..
 
   / which to buy 4x5 or 5x5 #13  
make sure you have a tractor that has enough PTO HP to run a given baler.

make sure you have a place to put the bails, and keep them out of the rain / snow.

might encourage a baler that has some sort of bail plastic wrapper built in. while plastic wrapping the bails was a pain and extra expense, it seemed to allow the bails that set out side, to last better. and reduced a good amount of mold / fungus growth / rot of the bail.

having forks on the front and forks on the rear of tractor, can help reduce time in field moving bails from field to trailer. or moving bails down the road a few miles to some place else.

heavier bails = bigger tractor wanted, to help reduce tipping over. more so if you are stacking bails on top of each other.

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with above said, pending on acreage you want to bail, it might be easier, just asking local farmers if they want to rent the land out.

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smaller bails = less weight, and if given person is moving bails into a dirt lot were live stock are to be feed. the lighter weight bails, might mean for them being able to get tractor in there. vs sinking tractor down deep into the mud.

larger bails on other hand. might allow someone to feed less per week. and work around some rainy muddy messes.

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having a truck and trailer, with correct weight ratings. can be rather costly not to mention higher driver license class. beyond personal use driver license class. less weight = less cost for truck and trailer, and perhaps less costly driver license. not to mention less costly insurance.
 
   / which to buy 4x5 or 5x5
  • Thread Starter
#14  
Ok thanks for the advice boggen. I have dealt with round bales before that I had costom baler bale for me and just sold them out of the field. so I have hay forks and a big tractor to handle them. In fact he got out of costom round because he wanted to move on to costom square which is part of the reason I want to get in to the business now. Due to what everyone has said so far it looks like Ill go with a 4x5.
 
   / which to buy 4x5 or 5x5 #15  
have you looked at any balers yet? any ideas what you may buy
 
   / which to buy 4x5 or 5x5 #17  
What tractor you going to be baling with? With the 5x4 you make more bales per field and usually only 3 dollars per bale cheaper than the 5x6's. You do have to make more starts and stops but use the same amount of net. As a 5x5 baler. You can get it done faster with bigger baler but the net.is quick,a quarter of the time to string.Cutting is where I eat up most my time and plan on adding anothe...
 
   / which to buy 4x5 or 5x5 #18  
:2cents:I'll give you a firewood analogy: you can burn 16" wood in a 24" firebox but not the other way around. When I sold firewood I made everything 16" because of that. Are there any advantages from one size baler to another? A 5X5 bale may be too big for some people to handle with their equipment. That's my :2cents:

I prefer the larger bales because I can only fit five on my trailer no matter what the size, and with a bigger bale, I have to feed less often. Also, the bigger bales are usually cheaper on a pound-for-pound basis. But if I was selling instead of buying, I would consider baling smaller, because there are going to be people who can't handle the larger bales, but everybody who feeds round bales can handle the smaller ones.
 
   / which to buy 4x5 or 5x5 #19  
Ok thanks for the advice boggen. I have dealt with round bales before that I had costom baler bale for me and just sold them out of the field. so I have hay forks and a big tractor to handle them. In fact he got out of costom round because he wanted to move on to costom square which is part of the reason I want to get in to the business now. Due to what everyone has said so far it looks like Ill go with a 4x5.

What do you consider a "big tractor to handle them" With a 5x5 you should have at least 75 PTO HP, 100 would be better depending on how tight you wrap them. You can get by with 60-80 with a 4x5. If your Kubota is all your have for a tractor you better be looking 4x4 or 4x5 with a varuable chamber, 44 PTO HP isn't much. Moving them around is much different then baling. The bigger and tighter the bale the more the hay needs cured before you start also.

I also vote for a 4x5 or 4x6 though. much either to handle and they transport 2 wide easily. The state of TX might not care, but it's hard to get 2 5x5's on a 82" wide car trailer that a lot of guys pick up hay on.

Really though your local market should dictate bale size. Like mentioned already, here 4x5 & 5x5 sell for the same price, and it's harder to get rid of the bigger bales.
 
   / which to buy 4x5 or 5x5
  • Thread Starter
#20  
No, I have several other tractors besides my kubota. I did not know you could put more than one tractor on Your profile when I signed up :) . The tractor I will use to bale will proably be a 60hp tractor (like an off-brand manhindra) but its heavy built and is like the good old tractors that were made of real meatal. I have considerd selling it and getting an old massey or international or somthing, because parts are hard to come by. I still think so far that I'm going with a 4x5 baler when you consider the pros and cons it seems to come out on top.
 
 
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