[AT] Loose hay/roundbalers

[robinson at svs.net]

On 25 Jan 2005 at 22:14, Ralph Goff wrote:

> Wayne, most of the round balers I see are the belt type. Hesston, Deere,
> CIH, and Vermeer are popular. There are some old Vermeer belt types that
> seem to keep on going for years. I've see a few of the New Holland with the
> chains. I hear they make a good bale but as you say, they would probably knock a
> few leaves off the plants.
> 
> Ralph in Sask.



	Most here seem to much prefer the belt type. I would buy a chain type though 
if I could find one at the right price. I believe they might be OK if you run 
fast enough to just roll it up. I had a couple of local city police officers do 
some baling for me a few years ago and they had a chain type. Nice guys but not 
bale makers...   :-)   They drove really really slow with it and I walked 
across the field behind it one pass. They were moving much slower than I would 
walk and it had a heavy curtain of "fines" falling out the bottom. All that 
made it into the bales was a lot of very tired frayed stems. On the upside the 
sheep ate it OK and the hay lot was well reseeded.   :-)   I cut that same lot 
with my 6' bush-hog this last year and made far nicer hay from it. I lost a lot 
less leaves than I would have expected. I mowed it with as fast of a ground 
travel as I could so that it just cut it and dropped it out the back instead of 
chewing it up. It was not cut the prior year so it had a very heavy wet thatch 
near the ground and simply didn't want to be cut with my old sickle mower. This 
spring I have all new sections and ledger plates for my mower and it will be 
OK. I want to get a big round baler so I can store some outside. I have stored 
round bales outside for 2 years and they were still 90% good when I fed them. I 
didn't have wraps or covers on them but I did have them each sat on a pad of 6 
old tires to keep them off of the ground.


-- 
"farmer", Esquire
At Hewick Midwest
      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...

Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish Highlands,
Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana.


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net