|
SW Ohio | Robert, I have tried just about every system mentioned above, and can only add alittle bit without making this a two page novel.
One man can be done but two is much better even if it is your girlfriend driving the baler.
Every automated system requires unique circumstance. Most all require solid brick uniform bales.Hand sorting bad ones out will not happen. Stackliners need tall solid barns( I have brace posts on my back walls and bale tough side walls), they are slow on the road, once in barn it is harder to take back out, harder to sort by qaulity.
Accumulators are a little slower and require lots of wagons and more $$, can get by with one loader. Stay away from the Hoelscher clamp, it does not have enough teeth, 20 I think, my Lewco has 32 and my soon to be built Hudco will have 48. There are several accumulators-Hoel, Kuhn, Steffen, Farmhand, Etc--investigate closely before you commit, Kuhns require the plunger pushing the bales a long way and in my hay would result in 14X18X36" 120 # bales(too much resistance in the chamber!!!) The kind that drag bales on the ground don't look good to me. Hoel and others make ten bale blocks which don't stack as well as twelves with a built in cross tie like a Steffen 9??, I make my own twelves with the bobcat and clamp before I load. Some stack flat and some are on edge. If you go accum and clamp you can load into and out of barn with machine labor, load up that gooseneck and never touch a bale or load wagon and drop in customers yard, somethin to think about if you are getting a bad back!
Bandits not good in my opnion.
Kicker wagons are the fastest way to get hay under cover with minimum labor.
Automation means $$$ any way you look at it.
Make new barn with a drive through bay or two, nice to pull in wagons rather than back them in when rain drops are fallin on your head.(and no such thing as too tall).
Consider adding straw baling to spread your system cost over more bales(almost as much profit in straw as hay here)
Stackliners are pretty reliable, shouldn't need two.
if you use wagons, think long, think 35 MPH, think about adding more, and telscopic tongues are a must!
Some day we will convert the world to big squares and no more idiot bricks!! | |
|
I need to automate my bale handling
