Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Why are there round bales still in the field?

I'm curious, I don't know much about farming but I've noticed baled hay isn't left in the field. Just down the road, there are fields on both side with round bales sitting there. They have been there for well over a month and now there is snow on the ground. Why?

Thanks

in Tn, they get about 3 cuttings per season. They get the rolls up within 1-2 days after theyre rolled. They are then moved either to a barn or to the edge of the same field in a nice long row.

Tarping them is optional.


If they are still sitting out in the field all random-like in the same positions that the baler crapped them out....well then it's possible that the farmer is derelict in his affairs and spends his time on the campfire talking about rain and mud and colored ww2 newsreels whilst his hay goes to shît.

so if they get rained on does it ruin them for feed?

i ain't no farmer for damn sure.

Round bales are around to help shed water or they can be stored outside with minimal waste. . If they sat in the field a long time to that cuz somebody is been very busy and it's not good hey I haven't moved it yet or that could be kind of lazy.

Lots of possible reasons...they could be bedding hay, dry cow or heifer hay. Mulch hay, mushroom hay....

Maybe the farmer doesn't have room to store them. We used to leave round bales line up in the fields all the time just cause

Round bails are more weather resistant than square bails. If they are rolled tight enough the rain will shed off just the the top of a well rounded hay stack. If they are not tight, and the top sags, will, that's a different matter.

Of course many of today's farmers and ranchers are an aging population. This might not be the result of a plan, but the result of hardship.

Lots of hay is stored out side in the elements. Rain will not necessarily ruin them for feed. Some farmers feed them direct from the field to the cattle, thus saving one handling of the bales.

Or load them directly is selling in small lots.

I've used them to shoot deer from, when one farmer still rolled up four footers and left some in the field. Most places I hunt, bales are collected in an area to winter feed beefers, so the bales are out in the weather all year Some farmers use a wrapper baler, most don't..

The outside 8-10" of the roll soak up the water and rot,

Cattle, usually peel that off and piss and shît all over it anyway.

They also peel off the better inner layers and piss and shît all over that too.


A hay ring helps, but that invention has not made it to areas around here.

BUT***
We're smart enough to know that Pabst Blue Ribbon is pure crap.

Worst thing about leaving them scattered in the field is it kills out whatever crop is under them. Also finding a dry enough time in the winter to haul them out without tracking up the field can be a problem

Maybe they haven’t felt like it yet.

We still have about 400 big rounds of hay barley left to haul. They've been sitting out in the field since July.


Normally we would have them off the field shortly after baling but this year we have been fighting mud and soft fields. Too slick to haul them now so the plan is to wait until next week when it freezes up again.

Seems like every time it was dry enough to do anything we were busy doing something else....

On our alfalfa fields we get the bales off ASAP because if you leave bales out for too long it will create dead spots under the bales, that and the alfalfa will start growing up around the bales and I hate to drive on nicely growing hay. And if it's dry we are usually in a rush to start irrigating the fields.


As for quality and rain I actually think the rounds do better unstacked. As was mentioned the rain will only soak in a little and then it rolls off. If you put them in a traditional triangle stack that creates little crevices and catches rain. Some guys do the flat side down on the bottom row and then set a bale round side down on the top row. Which works fine if you have the time and room to stack them like that.

That's what we used to do with the last cutting, which was usually pretty sparse. We had horses renting pasture and the owners paid for the hay in the field, as well as for the pasture forage value. They would break open bales as needed over the winter. Our winters are much drier than most places. The bales were the small two-wire variety, baled very tight.

Feeding cows is different than feeding horses.Cows can eat less palatable hay,horses will colic or get heaves from moldy hay.Most round bales are wrapped now and see every little waste. As noted the water will run off them. There is a lot of sorghum type hay still laying out in windrows in eastern Colorado. It is cut later and takes longer to dry, but then it must be dry with a little moisture to bale. It isn't uncommon to see that hay out all winter. A lot of farms and ranches raising beef will grind that hay and feed it that way, instead of just setting round bales out or unrun rolling them.

Depends what area of the country it is.

We started feeding weaned calves, our coming 3 year old cows and open cows last week.


The bales have had about 12" of rain on them in the last few months but there is basically zero damage.

I am MUCH more concerned about the moisture of the hay in the windrow when baling than the moisture that comes down after it's wrapped up.


And of course it depends on your baler. Our NH 7090's make a nice tight bale.

8-10" someone needs to upgrade balers

Coyotes and fox like to use em for a vantage point.....

Everything has to be somewhere. The field behind the house gets cut once in July and the bales get stacked for the hay hauler. The guy that has the hay has other things to do and the hay hauler usually shows up after the ground freezes up. Just looked, still there.

Mike Bryant, Bryant Custom Guns, sent me a photo of his round bale deer blind. Looks like the others in the row by them.