crobtex

Just call me "KILLA".

BearKiller

Big John Deere rolls can be bought anywhere around here for twenty bucks per.

The problem with trucking big rolls, over the road, is their size is not complimentary to the legal width of trailers.

You can haul them two across, close to home, and run everybody else in the ditch, and get away with it.

Out on the interstate, you wouldn't/shouldn't get ten miles, loaded that way.

Geico266

I'll bet you have been waiting for years to unleash that baby on us.

PEEEEUUUUUUU!

D2 Cat

There's enough of a grass shortage the state of Mo. just announced they were putting a temporary hold on the permits for wide loads for haulers.

Hay quality is determined by many factors and if you are buying from someone you don't know, have no references, or know their habits you can end up with just about anything inside a bale. Hey, even if you know them weird things can happen!

One thing that I find interesting is farmers often bale hay in small square bales for "horse people". They do it because they know "horse people" will pay more for the same hay then cattle operations will. Now sometimes there is an issue with how the hay was cut. Was it crimped? If it was some horse buyers won't take it because a beetle can be in it. But you can take a big round bale of hay, move it mechanically with either a tractor or a PU with a bale spike and set it just about anywhere to feed. Then, set it up on end, cut the twine, and it will unwrap like a cinnamon roll. With a pitch fork you can gather quite easily the amount of hay that would be in a "flake" from a square bale and feed it with the same amount of labor!

Around here a sq. bale would weigh 65-70# avg., a big round bale 1100-1200# (these are just averages), so there are roughly 17 small sq. bales in one big round bale. If this was good clean brome hay it would sell for $2.50-$3.25 for sq. and $30 for big round. $2.50 X 17 = $42.50, see the difference?

BearKiller

D2-Cat--What is "brome" hay.

I have heard reference to it, most all my life, but I never knew just what it was.

Around here, we have fescue, timothy, orchard grass, lesapedesa, cobe, clover, johnson grass, alfalfa, and weeds.

Thanks.

mcoleman

brome grass is an excellent horse hay as is bermuda. I feed rounds to my horses but I buy it from friends. I've hauled hay all my life and have never been asked about a permit. Probably because I use 4X5 rounds and they don't hang over the trailer. My horses clean every piece up and even clean the ground inside the hayring. But I wouldn't feed horses round bales without a hayring. They will **** in the hay and tramp it down if it's not protected by a ring. I just bought 30 rounds of Brome for 25.00. And 20 grass rounds for 20.00 a bale. With the current drought I will end up feeding my whole winter hay crop out this summer and spending double for hay this year. I've been thinking about selling the brood mares and cutting back.

D2 Cat

Here's a little info on brome.

Brome hay is a grass hay that is high in fiber, low in protein, and low in calcium all of which helps keep the gastrointestinal tract of all small herbivores functioning properly. A high-fiber diet will also lower the incidence of soft stools, intestinal gas and bloating.

Brome hay looks a lot like western timothy hay, but has a wider blade. It has a different flavor that will add variety to an animal's diet. Many have compared it to a rich cured smell. Brome grass is a perennial that is grown in Eastern Europe , Russia and Canada as well as the north-central part of the United States .

I got this from a pet store which was selling small pellets for rabbits that's why they make reference to small herbivores.

I can buy last years cutting in big round bales weighing about 1150# for $12.50. There is some waste, not a lot, and the price compensates for that and it's only about a 5 mile haul.

I use bale rings for all big bales. I have a lean-to that I can back into with my truck and set a bale, then have a fabricated panel connected to another panel to form a 90 deg. bend. I pin those two panels to the barn and the horses can eat dry hay anytime. Virtually no waste, and the panels are short enough they don't rub their mane off. I can close the gate to keep them out if they tend to over eat. I have an automatic waterer I installed so they can drink from either side of the fence.

For cattle I use the rings you see at farm centers, sometimes built by the school's shop class. They're stronger, sometimes a little mistake here or there, but they only charge for material. They use thin metal at the bottom to keep critters from wasteing hay.

01smoker

We have a couple thousand big John Deere wrapped round bales up here in Newburg, MO. This years hay.

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Gunrunner

Not really related, but kinda funny---------Last winter my uncle and I were loading our second 9and a half ton load of them darn 120-150lb three string bales and uncle Dan says, "ya know who invented that three string baler?' I said "no, but I'd like to have a few choice words with him" Dan says, " a guy comes home from work and finds his wife cuddled up to a cowboy, so he left and invented the three string baler and has been getting even with cowboys ever since."------those things are just a little to heavy to move around by hand and to light to use equipment, and where we were at the time we had no access to an elevator.-----long story short, I like either the little two stringers that you can throw around easily or the large square or round ones that REQUIRE equipment.

BearKiller

Me and another guy had to hand load a 48' straight-deck cattle-trailer with three WIRES, instead of string, north of 70 in Colorado, a while back.

We didn't count, as the whole barn-full was bought and paid for; we just carried it in and ricked it from floor to roof, all the way back.

It took us most of a day and we just found the nearest motel and called it enough for the day.

I bet those bales weighed over 200 apiece.

We had un-loaded cattle in Montrose, and picked up the hay on the east side of the divide.

crobtex

BearKiller.....is your truck really pink? I don't recall seeing one that color.

BearKiller

Where on earth would you get such a horrid idea??

I ain't no lipstick saleslady.

NeedMoPower

Depending on who bales the hay you can average about 20 square bales to a round bale. Just depends on how the baler is set.

PanteraGSTK

I found out that a good straw cowboy hat will survive a bailer...If you can find it...

Pink Truck???

Lunyfringe

that's DROUGHT prices??? you don't know how good you have it.. prices here in Colorado (Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver, etc) are pushing $6.50 per small bale, big bales are getting to be around $200/ton!! this is all horse quality, tho- I don't have cattle..

I have a friend in Northern Arizona, and they pay $11/bale for 60# bales!!!

maybe I need to calculate up a trip to Missouri....

we have a farmer that's still letting us have some 800# square bales for $55.. but don't know how long that's going to last- considered well below wholesale here right now..

what's weird is that we've gotten pretty good rain this summer, but I think many farmers found that their fields were DEAD (due to 2-3 years severe drought here) and needed to be re-seeded (not good field management)