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E-Z trail bale baskets

Started by Corley5, February 26, 2004, 07:55:30 AM

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Corley5

 Anybody have one, ever use one, or know someone that does or has used them.  Even though there's still 3' of snow on the ground and several weeks of winter left spring is in the air and I'll be making hay before I know it.  I'm exploring options to reduce my labor costs and labor is getting harder to come by.  I've been lucky for the last few years that I've had some good high school kids who've kept coming back each summer.  One is off to college and needs a real summer job and the others have real jobs.  The latest crop of neighborhood kids have a couple years of growing to do before they'll be much help.  So I'm looking at some other ways.  The New Holland auto bale wagons are pretty slick but the way I'm set up I couldn't use them for stacking and would use one basically like a bale basket.  Round bales would be easier but I sell to horse people who prefer the little squares as they don't have a way to handle big bales.  I would need two of the baskets so I could keep baling while one was on it's way to the barn.
http://www.e-ztrail.com/bale-basket.html
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

DanG

I used to know a guy that used something like that. It broke a bale, every now and then, but was otherwise satisfactory.

Most folks around here are using accumulators that gather the bales in bunches, then releases them. They have a big claw affair on the loader to pick up the bunch and set it on the truck. That goes pretty quick, too.

Other folks use Mexicans. ;D
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

redpowerd

ill one better ya dan, i jus seen in a mag this thing that rides behind your old "squaler" and stacks and ties and drops them off in large square bale form, jus go around with a pallet fork, pickem up and stack in barn. sell your kicker, racks, elevator, and punks. looked interesting, ill find a website.
NO FARMERS -- NO FOOD
northern adirondak yankee farmer

redpowerd

like twine? www.balebandit.com
i think a broken bale would destroy the whole process.kinda like it does in a kicker rack.
NO FARMERS -- NO FOOD
northern adirondak yankee farmer

redpowerd

with the eztrail, you would have to stack as soon as it dumps, another load will allways be on the way, i could see how an "ez-"trail of bales (away from the elevator) could accumulate fast. id hate to look forward to taking care of yesterdays 1000plus bales before noon. plus your only drawin 100 out of the feild at a time. with distant feilds, i see a major slowdown with two wagons.
NO FARMERS -- NO FOOD
northern adirondak yankee farmer

slowzuki

The operation up the road uses the baskets.  There is not a kicker on the baler, just the ramp.

They have all their fields about 20 km from the farm so they run these on pickup trucks back and forth.  They dump the load at the conveyor and one guy loads the conveyor to send it up to the mow.  2 guys up there do the stacking.

The other thing used here is a "george" is rides along side the wagon and picks the bales up off the ground and delivers them up high.  I have a link for a homebuilt one here somewhere. http://www.homemademachines.com/farmplans/bailloader.pdf

Ken

Corley5

Here's a Bandit http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3800172562&category=46533  I'd have to bale a lot of hay and buy bigger tractors if I had one of those.  500 bales in a day is a big day for us.  What I'd do is have two guys at the barn putting the hay in the mow as it was dumped so it wouldn't pile up.  A third man would run baskets back and fourth and help with stacking during slack time.  In fields close to the barn it'd be just as fast to drive over with the tractor and baler, dump and go back to baling.   About the time I had a thousand bales on the ground it'd rain for sure ::)  For fields on other farms I'd use the flat racks.  I've got people that like to buy their hay off of a wagon as it's cheaper that way and I wouldn't have to haul as much home.  I won't sell off the ground out of the field because about that time I've got 500 bales baled for someone and they don't show up and it rains.  The possible system I see with these baskets would cut down on hours of labor but not in hands needed.  I usually have three guys.  We load wagons behind the baler and when all 6 wagons are loaded we unload.  Usually by then it's cooling down or we'll do it the next morning before it gets hot.  I average between 5 and 6 thousand bales a year and only do a 1st cutting.  That's enough ;) ;D  Mexicans are in short supply up here ;)
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Corley5

I've seen a factory built loader of that around here.  I think it may have been a New Idea ???  
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

redpowerd

50k!!! :o :o
i was guessing mabie 25k new and loaded, with a new red pait job. ;D
them NH haycruzers or whatever's cheaper than them.
you can allways roll out a roundbale, then square it up :D
ive seen it done.
how many NH square bales fit into one Gehl 5x5 roundbale?
NO FARMERS -- NO FOOD
northern adirondak yankee farmer

Corley5

My New Holland grass/alfalfa mix average about 65lbs.  What a Gehl 5X5 weigh?  
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

redpowerd

NO FARMERS -- NO FOOD
northern adirondak yankee farmer

Corley5

A New Holland 4X4 wiehgs in around 500.  I saw something in a Farm Show about unwrapping round bales and rebaling them into squares.  They'd built a machine to do it.  
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Corley5

I just finshed some research over at YTmags Implement Alley board and they do sound promissing.  The E-mail I got back from the company didn't.  $3,135.00 for basket, $100.00 for hitch for NH baler and $400.00 to ship it all to N. Mi. :o  I'll look for a used one/ones.  If anybody knows where there is a used one for sale let me know.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Fla._Deadheader

  Don'T know why DanG didn't figger this in, so, I will.  Fer a small fee, I will box up 5 Mexicans and ship 'em right to yer doorstep. Only problem will be that yer bride has to know how to fix "Gaio Pinta" and Tortillas.   For ANOTHER small fee, I will box up them ingrediments, including receet, and ship that up.  Spanish translater is extra. ::) ;D :D :D :D
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Corley5

Fla DH,
  That'll all be cheaper than a bale basket and completely tax deductible right  ;D ;D
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Fla._Deadheader

U Betcha ;D ;D  What's yer address??? :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

  Fergot to add, Don'T destroy that shippin box. That's where them little fellers will sleep :) :) :)
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Corley5

That's quite the package deal.  Labor with room and board included.  I'll need your address to return them when I'm done ;)
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Fla._Deadheader

Sorry, there is a NO return policy in effect. :) :)
  They make GOOD saw tailers , too :D :D
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Corley5

I knew there had to be a catch ::) ;D ;D
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Fla._Deadheader

 But, but--I'll make you SUCH a deal ;) ;D
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

slowzuki

I'm wondering what size wagons you have, were I've worked we would put about 350 bales per wagon with headboard/footboard and about 425 bales per wagon for cage wagons.  Of course loading wagons is the fun part!  Drawing straws for who gets heat stroke in the mow is fun!  :D

My GF and I will be haying our 12 acres of fields for the first time this year.  There will only be about 1200-2000 bales to worry about though.  Right off the bat 400 will go into my sisters horse barn. I'm hoping we'll have most of them sold before we need to store them.

The other thing I've seen is a cage that drags behind the baler that holds a trip around the field or so then drops the load it in the same area each pass.  The bales get pretty beat up though.

Quote500 bales in a day is a big day for us.   We load wagons behind the baler and when all 6 wagons are loaded we unload.

Frickman

Corley,
We got one of those bale baskets here at the farm. Had it now for going on ten years. It does what they say it will do, but doesn't really save any labor. The guy you save on the wagon is needed in the barn to pick the bales off the floor. If your baler is working good and not missing any knots it works great. If you have broken bales they go into the barn with the rest of the hay, and you have to back the baler in at the end of the day to rebale everything. We sell alot of hay out of the field while we're baling, so I prefer to load by hand on flat wagons. Ever since I got the round baler two years ago I haven't used the bale basket a bit, and am down to three or four flat wagons.

I saw that contraption in Farm Show to rebale round bales. On paper it sounds like a good idea, but in practice I think you'd shatter and lose alot of the leaves. It'd work good for mulch hay though.
If you're not broke down once in a while, you're not working hard enough

I'm not a hillbilly. I'm an "Appalachian American"

Retired  Conventional hand-felling logging operation with cable skidder and forwarder, Frick 01 handset sawmill

Pretend farmer when I have the time

L. Wakefield

   What works for me now is primitive. I buy it by the wagonload from a guy who uses a kicker baler and we get from 100-125 bales in a load. The only piece I don't have of the 'basic' conveninces is a conveyor to truck em up to the loft. But my barn is only 14' at the pick- 7+7- so when I push the wagon in, I unload OK right off the back. The guy has enough wagons and is good-natured that I can take em home, offload em myself between work shifts, and return the empties the next day. But when he offloads at his place with a conveyor, his wife keeps 2 other guys going in the loft with the ones she dumps on the conveyor and they can unload in about 30 minutes.

   I've seen pix of the stackers you were talking about. They are just TOO slick- and way too much $ for me. I'm too busy going broke feeding my cattle..  lw
L. Wakefield, owner and operator of the beastly truck Heretik, that refuses to stay between the lines when parking

ScottAR

Scott
"There is much that I need to do, even more that I want to do, and even less that I can do."
[Magicman]

Corley5

Most of my wagons have 8'X16' racks and hold 125+- bales.  I built a rack on the running gear from our old chopper wagon last year that's 9'X20'.  The gear is a tandem walking beam 12 ton model.  That'll hold 225 without trying too hard 8) 8) 8).  I sell a lot of hay off the wagons too and a select few customers I let take the wagons home providing they aren't too far away.  I've usually got hay on a couple wagons that's spoken for waiting for people to come and get it.  The problem lies in getting the people to come and get it on my schedule.  If I can keep from unloading it it works best and it costs customers more to get hay out of the barn.  They can't seem to understand that when there's hay to bale I need wagons to bale on.  They can't just pick up a wagon and bring it back a couple days later at there convenience ::).  The ones that do take them understand that and like LW take them home and bring them back before I sart the next day.  One guy took a wagon last year with a load and I told him that he shouldn't pull it over 15mph.  At 15 or less it tracks, good over that and look out :o.  He only lives about 5 miles away and I figured he'd be O.K.  He came back whining about the 25 bales that broke when the wagon started to whip and they fell off.  I told him that he was going too fast with it.  He of course denied it and said he was only going 5mph when it happened.  B.S. I know my old wagon better than that ;)  I've got 6 flat wagons now and with the  running gear I picked up last fall I'll have seven.  That'll leave me some room to leave hay on wagons and let wagons go longer.  I'm going to watch for used bale baskets at auctions.  If the price is right ;).  Is it any big deal to switch back and forth between the basket and regular wagons?
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Frickman

Corley,
It is sort of a pain to switch between the two, because when you use the bale basket the baler chute needs to be removed. If you were to use the same baler for both types of wagons you'd have to keep removing and replacing the chute. Also the tension on the bale tighteners needs backed off, the ones you screw down to regulate the weight of the bales. With all the extra weight of bales going up into the wagon you don't have to have the baler cranked down as tight. We have two identical JD 336 balers, so if we want to we can setup one of the balers for the basket and one for a flat wagon. Right now both balers are setup for flat wagons, and I like it that way.

There's some other things you need to know about the bale baskets. You may have to bale a shorter bale, as long bales tend to horseshoe or at least get bent up. And you have to be careful turning at corners. You can't bale around a corner at the end of the field as the bales will kick sideways out of line between the baler and the wagon chute. You can bale at a faster ground speed, and on steeper hills, than a flat wagon with a man on it.

Overall I think that the basket is a good idea and works well, but as I said above, we haven't used it since we got the round baler. I've managed to get alot of our customers switched over to round bales for at least some of their feeding, which makes things a whole lot easier on us. At one time we used to allow some local customers to take wagons home, but we had the same problems in getting them back the next day. Now I only let one or two locals take them, the ones I know will bring them right back. We don't store square bales for sale anymore, I'll sell them all they want in the summer, but none over the winter. Help is too hard to find to have them stacking hay in the barn. If the folks say they don't have a barn to store it in, I tell them that I have a sawmill too and would be happy to sell them the lumber for a new barn. I believe in being full service I tell them. We do store alot of round bales inside for sale over the winter. They're alot easier to put in the barn than square bales.
If you're not broke down once in a while, you're not working hard enough

I'm not a hillbilly. I'm an "Appalachian American"

Retired  Conventional hand-felling logging operation with cable skidder and forwarder, Frick 01 handset sawmill

Pretend farmer when I have the time

Corley5

I too have buyers that don't have any hay storage.  I always get the question; Can I pay you for it and leave it here and come and get it when I need it?  No, I sell hay I don't run a hay storage facility is my reply.  What a fiasco that'd be.  Trying to keep Joe's hay separate from Kathy's and Bill's separate from everbody else's and making sure that in the end everybody got what they paid for ::).  Plus I'd have to keep it plowed all winter so they could come and get 4 bales every other day ;)  The last couple years the hay that I put inside was gone by mid December.  I like it when that happens 8).  I did tell a gal this year that I'd keep 600 bales for her until Dec 1 so she could get her barn built.  Dec 1 came and went and I noticed that hay was missing.  It was stored at my Grandma's on the next road over and isn't real secure.  So I sold the rest.  I figure I lost about 200 bales to thieves.  She called right after New Years ready to pick up her hay.  I scraped up 25 bales and that's all she got.  I was willing to work with her because she wanted 1,500 bales this year but I don't have any trouble getting rid of it anyway and someone else will come along that wants that 1,500 ;D  
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

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