Interestingly, my new Kubota round baler, on the set bale diameter, I can go up to 70". I asked the Kubota rep about that and he cautioned me about exceeding 60" rounds. He said that it could cause belt failure. Least it makes an honest 60, I measured them.
Most people around here have gone to the 54" rolls due to the fact that they can ultimately get 26 rolls on a 30' or 32' gooseneck and a lot of these people are nothing more than middle men in the hay business, I had a guy that would come to the barn I would load him and he would haul the hay to someone he had already sold it to down South of me and he made $25.00 per roll just to haul it or $650.00 a trailer load, never put his hands on it other than to strap it down, I always thought that would be the hay business for me to be in.
It is. The best alfalfa comes on subsequent cuts after first.
I'll have to burst your bubble BUT to SAFELY TRANSPORT ""40 rd bales 5ft in diameter on a 48' semi-trailer"" one needs pipes with cables so top bales can set securely held in place by the cables with top layer rd bales setting on rounded top of bottom bales not in the crevices between the bales. 10 -5' bales per side(50 FEET) X 2=20 bales on bottom layer & 20 bales on 2nd layer = 40(forty) bales not almost 50.
Not my bubble at all. My customer straps every double stack or should I say one of his employees does I don't touch them, just load the trailers. I stated 50 because it's been a year since I loaded then and being 73, I tend to forget exact details, but I will find out shortly as they will haul this weekend. 2 48 foot flatbed's are presently set ready to load.