I need to automate my bale handling

[chh]

To say the least it is. As the owners say they are "just horses". The big thorobred farms and quarter horse racing farms all bring in alfalfa from Kansas. I don't think they would buy local if they could.

 

[mark.r]

Well, my clients are competition dressage types...They will pay for square bales...When their horses run $50K+...and their tack runs 5K+...bales prices are the last concern for them...

And they buy in the hundreds of bales...

Obviously, a much different situation than you are dealing with...

Keep on tractoring...

No, actually Virginia has very much the same clientele that you are describing. The issue with a season like last year was that there just wasn't enough quality square bales relative to this area. Yes of course you can ship it in and some farms did that but others had access to rounds that were of good enough quality, supplemented with grain that they had no issues feeding rounds. The quality squares they had were saved for travel to feed while at competitions. So it's not really matter of having the ability to pay for something just because you can. Believe it or not there are some in the industry that don't just piss their money away because they can whether it be dressage, CC, or jumping.

 

[nvlong4n1]

Have you seen this one?

W.R.Long the 4N1 Bucket People

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Have you seen this one?

W.R.Long the 4N1 Bucket People

I have now but it isn't what I am looking for. It will eliminate handling bales by hand but it will still require a lot of wagons or a couple flatbed trailers and multiple loader tractors and operators. Since I am by myself 80% of the time and reliable help is hard to find it just doesn't work out very well.

Thanks for the link though

 

[R W]

I have now but it isn't what I am looking for. It will eliminate handling bales by hand but it will still require a lot of wagons or a couple flatbed trailers and multiple loader tractors and operators. Since I am by myself 80% of the time and reliable help is hard to find it just doesn't work out very well.

Thanks for the link though

How many bales are you making per cut.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

How many bales are you making per cut.

My daily output when I am baling is between 1k and 2500 bales per day. It all depends on the conditions though.

 

[slowzuki]

Well I thought I'd update. I'm going to look at a small bale wagon a local guy is selling for 1300$. I'm not sure its the right track as I will really need to have a second tractor to put it to use. I figure it would fetch at least that if sold if it doesn't work out.

He is selling it because his hills are too steep and the bales fall forward. Its only a 2 row model, I think the add said 60-70 bales.

Hmm, I think its gonna be too much driving. At 20 minutes a load driving, 10 minutes to fill it, maybe 120 bales an hour... Not gonna keep up. Maybe I'll have to try putting up a tarp building near my fields.

I'm still convinced the accumulator method is best with a big grapple and flat racks.

 

[slowzuki]

Visited the bale wagon. A quick shot of paint does not make a bale wagon only 20 years old as the ad says. I figure from the model number its a late 1960's, closer to 40 years old. Looking it over I decided I don't need a mechanical nightmare, even if it is a neat one.

Standing in front of the beast in the owners field, I could picture bales as far as the eye can see. And the bale wagon with a broken (insert any number of parts here) being cursed and cursed.

I walked away and didn't feel bad at all!

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I know that feeling. I am dealing with getting my corn finished but once that is finished I am going to have to figure out what I am going to do with my hay operation. I don't want to make more work for myself but I don't want to spend a $1000 to save $1.

 

[slowzuki]

I'm sort of stuck on the following:

1 man operations:
-thrower racks, good if sold to client in wagon
-left on ground in field, good if sold to client from field
-ez-trail wagons, semi-ok if dumping at client (slow with 1 man) or good if sold to client in wagon.
-accumulator and wagons, slow with one man
-Bale wagon, slow with one man
-Large square balers with the slicer that makes multiple small squares inside the big bale. Top notch option, crazy money!

2 man operations:
-thrower wagons, somebody delivering wagons and running them back, good if you have the wagons.
-ez-trails with one person running loads to clients, good even with only 2 or 3 wagon.
-accumulator and wagons, great with 2 people and several racks.
-Bale wagon, works fine with 2 people and a place to stack or clients you can stack at.

If I work all day baling, I'm not gonna stack hay all night to free up my wagons, and none of the high volume options work when you need to stack by hand.

What this means is I really can't be a one man operation. It ain't gonna happen. It also means I need to build a barn with storage at grade if I want to store a lot of hay in a hurry. It also means eventually I'll have to decide between accumulator and balewagon.

I'm really not feeling the bale wagon, and without spending big bucks on a self propelled, I am not gonna get great capacity per hour. Looking at the little 1030 the other day I realized I could make one self propelled with the remains of an old 5 ton truck pretty easily, but what a load of work. I don't have a pile of racks yet for using an accumulator and grab either.

There needs to be more options in here, besides a bale bandit lol.