hay bale weight????

[Libertine]

Anybody know the weight of these large hay bale rolls? (I know they will vary depending of the tightness of the roll, moisture content, etc. but I am trying to figure the weight range).

Thanks

JEH

 

[Bird]

<font color="blue">( they will vary depending of the tightness of the roll, moisture content, etc. )</font>

And size. Some balers bale 5' wide and some 4' wide and they can be made from 3' diameter to 6' diameter (even smaller is possible, don't know of any that make them bigger but they may exist). I'll say 800 to 1200 pounds is probably the "norm", but it can certainly vary on either side of that even. Cowboydoc would certainly know more than I, but I'd suspect about 1500 is the high end.

 

[cowboydoc]

Bird,

Most bales around here are 2k plus. Then they go down to 800 lbs. from there. The big balers will make a bale 2200 lbs. and 5x6. The smaller balers are usually 4x4, 4x5, 4x6, 5x4, and 5x5. They will make a bale from 700 to 1600 lbs.

 

[Bird]

Richard, I knew you'd know more about the weights than I do. The baler I used would make 5 x 6 bales and we did just a very few that size, but we never weighed any. My neighbor decided they were just too heavy to work with or move around, so I wouldn't be surprised if they did go over 2k. We had one customer who wanted all his put up as 5 x 6 so we did, but we didn't have to move them after they came out of the baler. Nearly everything we did was 5 x 5.

 

[cowboydoc]

Your 5x5's are probably at that 1500 lb. Bird, 4x6 bale is around 1600 lbs., 5x4's are 1000-1200 lbs., and 4x4's are 750.

 

[Libertine]

Bird & Cowboydoc:

Thanks. Didn't really think about size-thought they might be a "stock" size. Obviously not. Driving by 1000s of the things recently, wondered if I could lift them with my TC40. Guess I could if they were the "right" size-certainly 1500 pounds each would be ok-one in front, one in rear..

Are the numbers, i.e. 4x5, 5x6 etc the width x diameter, or, diameter x width?

Thanks.

JEH

 

[cowboydoc]

Can be either. With Deere the first # is the width and the second # is the heighth.

 

[Libertine]

cowboydoc:

Thanks for specific weights of different sizes & width etc. Recently drove through Iowa (S.E. quadrant anyway) by several routes. Incredibly rich agricultural area. End to end fields with little/no irrigation. Per a 1922 geography book, Iowa was the most "developed" state i.e. most highly used. If the rest of Iowa is like what we drove through, bet it still is. Anyway, thanks.

JEH

 

[Bird]

Another area that's known for its hay production is Kittitas County (Ellensburg), Washington. Last Tuesday they had a little fire that burned an estimated 10,000 tons of hay (timothy and alfalfa) at Anderson's processing plant; news article said that was about 5% of their normal production. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif