Round Bale Storage

[Anonymous-0]

Well, my neighbor decided she doesn't want me to store rounds in her barn anymore. Woulda been nice had she given me a little more warning, since I'll be cutting in a couple weeks, but can't do anything about that. Don't have the time or $ right now to build another shed.

Anybody have any experience with these bale bags or tubes you see around? I have an old NH chain baler, makes pretty good 5' bales, about 600#. Not the tightest, but good enough for our own use. I make about 75-100 of them. Any special equipment to load them up? I have a skidsteer with a bale spike.

Thanks for any input.

 

[phillip d]

I tried it once and ended up with a mess,but our neighbours tube line their round dry hay,only a couple of wraps,with black plastic and have as good as inside kept bales.They must bale it EXTREMELY dry,but it's nice feed.

 

[JD Seller]

I have in-line wrapped my dry hay now for several years. It works great for me. Some rules to live by doing it. 1) You can't wrap them until they have finished heating and cooled back down. I usually wait about two weeks. 2) You need to use WHITE plastic. Black plastic gets the bales too hot in the sun and they mold inside. Black will work if individually wrapped, ends open.
The bale tubers that use the stretch plastic don't work very well with dry hay. The dry hay stems will poke holes in the bag. They where made to do baleage. The stems are softer.
You can also stack them in a 3-2-1 stack and cover them with a bale tarp. farmtek.com has them. They can be used for several years.
email me if you want to talk about them or wrapping bales.

 

[jvmopar]

What are you feeding? If it's cows. The neighbor here swears by stacking one on the flat side and another upright on top. He used to stack them in a huge pile and tarp it, but that caused too much waste. He's been farming all his life and is 75.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Horses, unfortunately. Gotta keep the bales as dry as possible.

 

[BobH in NH]

I also have to store my round bales outside as I do not have a suitable shed or barn. I use pallets to keep them off the ground and stack them on their sides in a pyramid shape, 3 on the bottom tier, two on the middle tier and a single on top. Then I cover the stack with tarps tied down tight to stakes. The best local tarps have been those from Lowes, a dull dark green on one side and dark blue on the reverse. I have had virtually no dust or water damage. However, FarmTek sells reasonably priced special hay tarps designed for covering round bales which prevent the "Greenhouse Effect". I plan to get one for next winter to replace some of my worn out tarps.

My baler is a Hesston 5530 Rounder which makes 39" x 4" bales. I have an old Bobcat with a spear to stack them. We feed horses, goats and a large flock of sheep and go through 4-5 bales a week.

 

[INCase]

I understand the $ thing. However, its kinda pay me now or pay me later. Penn State Ag Engineering did a cost study about 16 years ago. Even paying to build a full hay building paid for itself in reducing lost $ due to hay damage/loss. The more substantial (and higher $) the less damage and therefore the better pay-back on the investment. It did show that even tarps are well worth the time and $ over leaving them out. Keep them off the ground for sure.

Good luck


Do you have another neighbor that can store them?