My home made Lotus 123 template is not much different from what the Farm Works^R Computer Program people like. Not as many whistles and bells but it works for me.

I should increase my flat expense for the barn as it could never be replaced for what I paid to build it.

Yes much of the additional cost/ton to put round bales in my hay yard is productivity. My NH 1003 bale wagon hauls 83 bales at a time, while I am limited to 2 RBs at a time. The bale wagon makes 2 trips an hour, while the RBs are moved at 5 trips in 2 hours. The bale wagon can put the equivalent to 8 RBs an hour in the barn. Add to this the RBs are custom baled.

My sq bales, 14 X 18 X 35 inches and 35 bales/Ton, the grass hay is bringing $210/T and the alfalfa is bringing $280/T. I only RB grass hay and then only when I run our of barn space. They are selling for roughly $115/T. RBs sell for what the hay is usually worth when the buyer finally gets around to feeding it. They come out of my rock pile with no mold and only an inch of weathering on the top, even two years later. Set them down on our black clay and they will rot to the middle by spring.

The advantage to RB is most RB's have a greater tons per hour capacity than a small square baler. My baler in theory can bale 6.8T/Hr while a RB can do roughly 11.5T/Hr. My baling cost/Hr is roughly 2/3's what it cost to run the RBer. The RB efficiency would be even better if my Custom man would use net wrap. If I had a use for more RBs I would increase my hauling to 3 bales at a time.

I consider $0.35/bale to be my average cost to put a small sq in the barn.