Hay, Y'all...(get it..hay)...so punny...anyway, just wanted to comment that there are a lot of good threads about hay, here.

Around my neck of the woods, things have just about all gone to round bales.  This year, I put up about 900 round bales, and about 5,000 square bales.  The main reason for sqaure bales for me is that I have a lot of canyon country.  We winter our cows in the canyon, where they can find good shelter from the elements.  Have any of you heard of the Palo Duro Canyon?  Here is a link to some pictures...the pictures are of the Palo Duro State Park, but you can kind of get the idea of what I mean by "canyon"...

http://www.palodurocanyon.com/tour.php

Our part of the canyon/property is just as deep, about 1100' on average, but not quite as rough (in general) as the pictures you see.  Our property is on/near Tobe Smith Flat, and in most places, the grass (buffalo & blue gramma) is just as good as it is in our summer (top land, flat) pastures.  So, long story..short...I can not take a big round bale into the canyon..there are places that I can not get up. We have a D6 Cat, but oh...it is steep..

One thing I might add about square bales (and it may have been mentioned somewhere) is that one should always stack them cut-side down (not just on their edge).

We have 3 hay barns (mainly for square bales).  The bottom bales, near the edge of the barn, get 'eaten' a little bit by the ground...But I also have some hay that has been in there for 5 years, and I swear you can not tell it (hardly) from year-old hay.

We stack about 70% of our rounds outside, on course gravel, just as earlier described.  I have some 2-3 yr. old hay that is discolored [only] about 2" into the bale...after that, it looks great.  We use net wrap around here.  I use New Holland's net, just 'cause my bailer likes it so well.  JD's "edge-to-edge" net looks appealing, though, the way it goes over the bales' edge(s) & onto the sides a bit.  I think the best round bailer ever made was the New Holland 688.  I was planning on trading it for a N.H. BR 780, but a custom bailer buddy of mine said 'hold onto, and take just as good a care of that 688 as you can...because the BR 780 isn't as good.."  Who knows?  My square ^(16x18") bailer is New Holland, also..A neighbor just traded up from his JD 535 to JD's new one..what is it?  568?  The freakin' tires are HUGE!!!!  "Mega-Wide" pickup...color display...geeez... Hope it lasts a LONG time!

Squares have their place, guess they always will...I sell some hay, too, and when I can, I sure like to sell squares better than rounds!  More money per unit, for sure..I always do half-in & half-out on square bales, though..If I am going to bale it, they ARE going to buy it...If they don't, I have half their money...Our DewEze beds are almost like having a day off..as we only went to rounds about 10 years ago..before that, I was feeding upwards of 150-175 square bales per feeding day (bales weighing about 110#/each)...uggg..With the round bales, "I don't feel a thing!"  and boy, I love how they roll out ^{(like a carpet)..}.  If I could not roll them out, I would not have them..during a snowy spell, they sure make a good place for the cattle to eat, then lay..

Cake feeders are also like having a day off.  We went that route about the time we went [primarily] to round bales.  Before the cake feeder, we had TONS of sacks to get rid of...GEEZ~ Burlap bags weren't bad, though, as the local feed store always paid good money for them!  One last thought...I know I am lazy for not putting this in the correct thread:  "Bar Bait" is a WONDERFUL mouse/rat poison.  One breaks the package's contents into 4 ^(pre-scored) bars.  Before this stuff, we were putting out some sort of "Just One Bite", and the mice did nothing but take it back to their living quarters, and stock-pile it..This Bar Bait is the bomb!  Dead mice everywhere were laying around after a day or two of putting it out.

(Sore fingers)(ouch) gotta go!