Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Hay Rolls

I have been buying square baled hay for the 2 horses my wife has, cause they are light enough she can pull one of the stack and cut the strings. But, I could save a bunch of money buying round bales. So my questions are, I see the rolls advertised 2 ways, 4x4 and 4x5. Do I assume this is size? 4 foot wide for both but the difference is diameter?

Then its handling them. I have a L2550 Kubota 4x4 with loader, I can get a bolt on spear. What do these hay rolls weigh?

That should be a 4 foot wide bale either 4 or 5 feet tall. Most farmers here use 5x6 bales. But they are feeding cows mostly. I'm not sure what a 4x4 or 4x5 would weigh. Depends on type of hay, how tight the bale is and whether it was baled dry or a little wet. Could be 400 to 800 pounds. The 5x6 bales here are around 1400 pounds or more. We used to feed 5x6 bales when we had 3 horses. You'll need a bale ring or hay net or the nags will waste a lot of hay. If you could put it under a roof it will help with the waste caused by weather. We didn't do that but had a bale ring and later a hay net. That forced them to pull the hay through the net. Saves a bunch of hay.

only for example........last weeks 1st cut......

round bales are 1100# ish.........

Tikka, what model(s) tractors?

We are just starting our 1st cutting.


Made a few bales(5x6) last week and my dad went to load them with a new to us JD 7510 and the tractor got light in the ass end. It has a decent set of weights on it so I was surprised.

Got to thinking about it and loaded the last few bales with the pickup. The bale bed was grunting and the front end lifted more than normal. Hmmmm.


Drove over to the elevator and weighed a couple. +2000lbs each......

Turn down the pressure on the balers!

No loaded rears?

Wheel weights but no chloride.

We Bale 4x5's, our dry bales usually weigh between 800-1000lbs.

Sam...............

Bigg azz JD's............ this is a purty new one......big bucks.....eh ?

they belong to my 'hay guys'..............we share crop my fields...........

I keep it irrigated.....taxes paid........they take hay down.....pay me for my 1/2 of the crop........

He's lookin' at his phone and junior is sittin' on a buddy seat!

Round bales here are usually 800-900 lbs.

Bale spear on the 3 point is the way to go. You can always roll them.

Beware horses have a tendency to piss chit and lay on the bales as they collapse.

Slow feed nets are the shizxle for horses on round bales.

Funny, isn't it....things are exactly the same in East Texas.

Expect to lose ~15% of a round bale to waste when feeding horses, calculate your costs with that in mind. We keep several round bales for our horses in case we both need to be gone for several days in the winter, but mostly feed small squares. That way, we control the costs and can keep a closer eye on any feed related health issues.

Getting a large wheeled garden cart to move the small squares also helps.

Ed

Our alfalfa bales are 5x5 approximately and weigh 1200#. The alfalfa / grass bales are the same size and weigh 1100#.

My neighbor feeds his horses either out of a round bale feeder or he sets it outside the corral and uses a pitchfork to toss it in the feed bunk. He just unwinds the bale when it is standing on edge. He has feed bunks so waste is probably minimal.

Hay is up in price this summer.

The tractor you mention is pretty small. Probably best to go with a bale spear on the 3 Pt. and add front weights.

Using a 3 pt spear limits the use it would seem. Hard to load or unload off a trailer with a 3 pt. I'm not sure what the weight rating is on my tractor/loader. I also plan on building a feeder that will keep the hay off the ground and with railings so they can only get their heads in.

A word of caution on feeding round bales to horses. I sold a horse to a neighbor several years ago, and a few months later the horse died. They thought at first that I'd sold them a sick horse, then their other horses began to get sick and died. Turns out they were feeding hay with the plastic netting for a wrap, and not taking it off before feeding. The horses were eating the wrap, and it was killing them. I feed round bales to my horses, but either take the wrap/plastic strings off, or else use sisal string.

Beware of the type bale spears that connect to the front of your bucket. The physics of that allow you to handle much less weight than getting a bale spear attachment to replaces the quick release bucket.

Ask me how I know...

I was moving (or trying to) 5x6 bales they weighed around 1400 lbs. got it up in the air, but the bucket tilt just wasn't holding it. Went to tilt the bucket again, and blew the hydraulic line. This was on my 45hp tractor.

The same attachment works well in my 100hp tractor, but I need weights on the rear with 5x6 bales.

Those forks just stick too far out there. Too much leverage.

When I had my JD6430, I had a full set of wheel weights and a concrete filled 3pt ballast box-no problems.

Round bale trailers.......like these...they load the bales...from the back end..

then they slide forward...6 total...then take to stack yard...manually dump all 6 at once...

When I had a few cows, we round baled, but the barn was close to the hay fields, thus no having to load and unload the rolls. I bought a spear for the 3 pt hitch and made me a spear for the front. Take off the bucket and attach the spear. Stick one on the back, one on the front, and head to the barn. I could stack the rolls 3 high in the barn. Worked fine for a small operation.

For horses seriously look at slow feed nets.

For squares:



and round:



Very little waste. i get them from http://www.haychix.com/default.asp

Thanks to DanH for the reco.