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north-central Indiana west of Fulton | We have not had a big round baler all that long.....maybe 10 years, but really doesn't seem that long ago. We had told the local NH salesman ,ahead of time ,we would be interested in a nice used baler if he got one at the dealership within the next year. Ended up buying a 2 or 3 year old B740 eventually. It's a 4' wide and can make a nearly 5' baler. I would say 4' wide is rather popular around here . We thought 4' is better to load on wagons for us since we have older 7' wide wagons and have added a couple 8'x 20'. Taking net wrap off while still on the forks is better because we are only 5'8" tall and can only reach so high up and a 6' bale would be much harder to unwrap. Hadn't even thought about that previously. They seem to fit more efficiently in some of our storage spots which was just a lucky unplanned bonus. Bigger , heavier bales would have been a little much, possibly for a couple of our loaders too. So it turned out to be a good choice for us.
It seems however , on Ag Talk ....5x5 or even 5x6 are more common and popular. What's other's reasons for the size of balers they have and bales they make ? Bigger the better? Just a question to ponder on a rainy night. We are getting close to the 4 or more inch rain total here....and rain is still on the forecast!
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NE Iowa | I like 4' wide bales also. My last two balers could make 4' by up to 6' diameter but I like to only make them 5.5'. Seems like everyone else in the area runs a 5' wide baler. I have a lot of sheds that are 12' sidewalls so can get 4' bales 3 high on end.
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West Central Ohio | We have a 5X6 Baler because we make less stops in the field to wrap. We pick up fewer bales and have to haul fewer Home. We also have to feed fewer bales. Our loader is rated at over 2k lbs so a 1400 pound bale is no big deal for it. We’ve fed 4x5 bales and hated how many “extra” bales we have to put out, we kind of feel cheated with all additional work the small bales bring with them. We purchase our equipment with big long bales in mind. |
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North Central Texas | Over 3" here.
Small outfits want 4' here and big guys want 5x6. That's all due to the equipment to handle it. Bigger bales mean less total bales fed. It takes the same amount of time to load and unload a 4x as a 5x. The less you need, the better. It's not odd for guys east of me to feed 50 bales at a time each week on a single pasture. Most here are not going to feed daily as their pastures are spread out so once a week works good. Xx6 are a must since all hay is stored outside and it creates the least spoilage too along with less net wrap used per ton. |
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Oklahoma | Run a 5 ft baler and make my bales just a shade under 6ft tall. About 5x5 3/4. I feed around 5-600 bales a winter ballpark. The reason I like the bigger bales is because it takes 8-4ft bales to equal 6-5ft bales. So I'd have to have and extra 200 bales if I was running a 4 ft baler. Hauling and moving an extra 200 bales a yr would be a pain. I'd rather have bigger bales to save on time.
I realize truckers prefer the 4 footers to haul but if I was selling a lot of hay I'd still want to sell the big bales. More tonnage on the truck to make it worth you time and more money per load. The truckers have to put wide load signs on and usually red flags but there still legal.
I know quit a few that have both 4ft and 5ft balers. They keep the 5ft bales for there cows and sell the 4ft bales. I don't have the money for 2 balers but makes since I guess. |
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Alabama | this is the way i see it. 5x6 bales are the cheapest way to feed . 4x5 bales are the best too sale. 4x6 bales are used only if you cant haul 5x6 side by side down the highway. |
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West central Ohio | I havent done the math, but wouldnt you get more weight on a truck with 4x5? With those you can load 2 wide, 2 high. 5x6 cant go 2 wide on top. 30 foot straps wont reach over, so they fall off... dont ask me how i know this. |
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whitesville new york | 4 wide here. Lots of balage made in this area witch the narrow bale works great for. Them bales can get heavy, have had 4x4 bales weigh 2000 lbs |
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Central Kansas | All 5x6 round bales are hauled 2 wide on top and bottom here. I would have to measure but thought my straps are 30 foot long. 34 on a trailer gets you a full load. |
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South Texas | 5x6 sure does stack double wide double high. Puts you just about a legal load on a 48’. And here in Texas farmers can haul that wide with no permits, and the commercial guys will have annual overwidth permits. |
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Ft. Ripley MN | Have had a 4x5, 5x6, and currently a 4x6. Last one ended up being a 4x6 because the only two new balers left were a 5x5 or a 4x6. Wanted a 5x6 but needed a baler that day so we took the 4x6. I think in the end it's nice size as it's not over working the tractor or skidsteer moving them. 12 1300 grass hay and clover good alfalfa will be 1800+. Only thing really is get a few that tip over and more bales in a field then a 5x6 baler otherwise I like the size they are handy. Easy talking net wrap off. Keep it a couple inches off the ground and it's low enough to unwrap(I'm 5'6"), otherwise put it on its face. Be interesting to see if the next baler is another 4x6 or go back to a 5x6. One thing i will never give up in the net wrap in a baler.
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South Texas | So 5600 lbs in a 5x6, now we’re getting somewhere. |
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whitesville new york | Water is heavy, there is probably less dm in a wet bale but they weigh more. |
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West central Ohio | Maybe mine are 27 footers then. Work perfect for 3x4 squares. Never seen 5x6 hauled 2 wide on top here, but nit many of those balers around here. I dont haul them far enough to justify screwing around with that many straps anyways |
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Eastern Half of Kansas | I think you have to have 35' for 5x6's to haul doubles. |
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west central Minnesota | We have a NH 460(4x6), we do a lot of balage which we make them only 4-4.5' and we also bale quite a bit of hay and straw 50+ miles from home, 4' wide bales haul real nice on the semi. |
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Southwest Missouri | 4x6 baler here. We wrap all our alfalfa for the dairy and early grass for beef and dry cows make them 54” tall the right size for us. The rest of 1st cutting of grass we make 4x6s to unroll to beef cows. 2nd cuttings of grass we make 4x5s to put in hay rings for dairy and beef heifers,dry cows and calves. Feed serval with my truck and I can haul more hay with the 4 foot bale vs a 5 foot bale. Haul three 4 foot bales at a time. |
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SE SD | 5x6 baler here, I would say they are the most popular.
Net wrap is available almost every where.
Hard pressed to find 48" net in our local. :)
No matter the size, if put up right.........it'll make a turd :)
Edit to fix my brain fart :)
Edited by povertypoint 2/20/2018 22:01
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North Central Texas | Farm isnt exempt from the cylindrical bale permit. We have to have the $11 permit per truck for stacking 2 wide with 5×6 but not 4x6. It gives us up to 12ft for the double dump trailers. $200+ fine without it. Only time we don't need it is during emergency declarations like droughts, fires or huricanes. |
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Big Sky Country | povertypoint - 2/20/2018 21:46
5x6 baler here, I would say they are the most popular.
Net wrap is available in 72" almost every where.
Hard pressed to find 60" net in our local. :)
????? |
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SE SD | littlejo - 2/20/2018 20:56
povertypoint - 2/20/2018 21:46
5x6 baler here, I would say they are the most popular.
Net wrap is available in 72" almost every where.
Hard pressed to find 60" net in our local. :)
?????
Sorry .....,,.brain fart : ) |
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sc ia | 5x6 balers are the most common here. I can't think of anyone with a different size. |
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Big Sky Country | povertypoint - 2/20/2018 22:01
littlejo - 2/20/2018 20:56
povertypoint - 2/20/2018 21:46
5x6 baler here, I would say they are the most popular.
Net wrap is available in 72" almost every where.
Hard pressed to find 60" net in our local. :)
?????
Sorry .....,,.brain fart : )
Thanks! thought I was losing it.............. |
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Southern kansas | Pie are squared! |
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Southern kansas | Then there is the people that say I got a deal on some $20 bales.
You ask them how much did they weight?
They never know. |
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South Texas | Quiet, they must not know about that here yet. |
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South Texas | I’ll believe it, but hard to imagine about 500 gals of water in a 5x6 bale. |
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Central TX | Do it all the time |
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North Central Texas | One of my guys dragging 5 bales got pulled over today - by a txdot employee. Seems he should have straped every bale on a dump wagon and the guy is getting tired of complaints about farmers and ranchers. All of this on a farm to market road. I see a txdot opening by the end of the week. |
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| 4x5 here. A couple of reasons. One is Im feeding goats and like the smaller bales for them. Second is to sell. Being a goat herder I seem to attract others and they dont want the bigger bales either. Sell some to some cattle guys and they prefer the smaller as they arent BTO so their loader wont handle bigger. Lastly is my loader handles them better.
One poster mentioned about the $20 a bale but dont know what it weighs. My baler was down last year and had a guy wanting to buy hay at $20/bale but since I was down my brother borrowed a baler but it made 4x4 so I told the guy we would weigh it and sell by the ton. I thought he was going to fall over. He didnt pay anymore as we had a few made before I broke down so we weighed them and priced the tonnage accordingly but you would have thought I doubled the price on him.... |
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Central TX | I don't have any pics but we haul 5x's double on top all the time on semi's around here ,42 bales on a 53' drop deck,we've got 30'footers and 35's for the big bales,no problem |
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Driftless SW Wisconsin | I have a 5x6 baler. Set the monitor at 70" for dry bales so they don't go oversize if I can't stop the tractor quickly enough in heavy windrows. Most dry hay bales weigh around 1600 lb with pressure set high on the baler. The bales usually sit in the field for a couple days, depending on the weather forecast. Then move them to the hay shed or field storage 2 bales at a time with front and rear bale spears. The larger the bale, the fewer tractor trips back and forth from the field to the hay shed. The larger the bale the longer the time between starting a tractor to fill hay feeders all winter. I do have a Notch 8 bale gooseneck hay trailer I occasionally use to move hay between farms or if I should buy some hay. It holds 8 5x6 bales nicely. For short distances on town roads the overall width is not an issue. I have tried using the trailer to move bales from the field to storage area or hay shed. Found it was actually faster, in my situation, just to spear them one time and use the tractor to carry 2 bales at a time from field to shed or row storage. edit to add: here is a picture of stacking bales in the shed from last July. A good reminder in February! Also feeding these bales recently.
Edited by Jim 2/21/2018 09:16
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SC Wisconsin | Have been using a 4x5 baler until this year, called the dealership yesterday to start the process of getting a 4*6 for this year. I want something with knives in it for baleage, but I also want to be able to do bulkier stuff like stalks and straw with it too. True its not as great as a 5*6, but im not doing thousands of bales per year either. Most of the guys around that do a lot of dry stuff run 5*6 balers, and a lot of the custom guys run 4*6 because of the versatility like I am looking for. |
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NC Indiana | Dave,
Just may observation of the area of N Indiana I cover, if they have a 5 ft wide balers, they are feeding all their own hay. If a guy is selling hay, they have 4 ft wide balers. Guessing that is partly because some much hay around here is sold by the bale instead of by the ton, and 5 ft wide takes more loader than 4 ft. |
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North Central Texas | There is always an "expert" here that doesn't like my per bale price. He offers a per ton price because he isn't going to get screwed by light bales. Then he gets to pay me more than I was asking. Too many think a bale is a bale is a bale. |
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north-central Indiana west of Fulton | Yes Chris, I knew the width is a factor if selling hay. We do sell some at times , but we also feed considerably less hay than many with 5' wide balers on here. I like 4' bales for our feeding , but we aren't wanting as much hay fed at a time as others. We also tear up a bale in the vertical mixer and dump back out until we get the amount of pounds we want for a feeding. Our smaller mixer really can't handle a bigger bale without it spilling over the top.
Missed you at NH yesterday, I was over at Woodlawn getting a hernia repaired! |
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NC Indiana | Crowd seemed light. Burkett had the food. Get better soon! |
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East Central Saskatchewan | For me 5x6, less time spent baling and hauling, and more efficient, plus work better in my hay feeders. I had some 4x5 bales from a local guy I bought, took extra work and had to feed everyday instead of every second day, I could unload them two at a time which helps, with the new tractor I could do 3 at a time. For everyone talking about some big bales, we had 6x6 hardcore rounds in the area quite a few years ago now, the dry hay ones weighed about 2100 lbs I believe and he made a couple silage bales with it too, I think they weighed over 3k pounds per bale. The machinery that handled those bales didn't last long, hard on the hay shredder and baler, very much harder on the loader tractor, especially since the guy who made them figured carrying two at a time on the front loader was a good idea. The next season all those 3 things headed down the road mangled, baler had a lot of bearings replaced during that season as well. It didn't help as well that the guy didn't keep up on maintenance either. |
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NC Kansas | ^^ What he said, how many times to stop and tie/wrap a bale, how many trips across the field to stack or load, then unload. Most trailers and road laws allow you to haul the 5' wide bales 2 wide and 2 high on a step deck anyways so really it's all about efficiency. |
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Driftless SW Wisconsin | Several folks that make hay mostly for sale around here will make 4x4 or 4x5 bales. Lighter and easier to handle with a small tractor, transport and more probably more profitable as customers tend to think in terms of $$/bale rather than $$/ton. |
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| Less waste with bigger bales stored outside. |
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Southern kansas | My share cropper puts up 1800# Bermuda, Teff and oats bales.
I used to sell part of mine to several friends but quit doing that because I am a fair person that doesn't haggle. I now just sell it all to my farmer because he fertilized and put it up thus knows what he's got going into his tub grinder and what it's worth to him. |
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western iowa,by Denison | I keep telling Adam we need to build a 102 inch wide baler that is 6ft---8'6"x72" that way we can just stackem on the semi or trailer and less time bedding or tub grinding-with the machines we have today it would be easy-instead of the barn taking 10 bales of 5x6 we could go 5 bales-maybe marry two 4ft balers together -with 8ft pick up-look at the round cotton bales maybe something like that-I think for corn stalk industry you would have buyers galore-make it one wide belt with no gaps so you don;t lose any alfalfa leaves baling hay and belts would not twist->. |
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East Central Saskatchewan | You should get 6x6 then, you would have the right equipment to handle them with, if you don't its a disaster. |
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NC Kansas | All hay around here goes by the ton... I hear ya, but it’s still more work to make smaller bales. Now if your breaking off high priced “green” hay to the horse folks with 40hp hobby tractors then that makes sense |
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SE Minnesota | Question- on paper a 4x6 should contain more hay than a 5x5 ( more volume by my math) is that true by weight? Anyone compared this? |
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Ft. Ripley MN | Yes according to Deere in there brochure the 4x6 is 100 lbs heavier if I remember right. |
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Big round bale size, and why
