Big round bales

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Orangehorse

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Struggling with big bale hay. It is good hay, but the ones standing on concrete have gone a bit mouldy on the bottom. Also it seems to take forever to get enough out of the bale to stuff into a haynet or tub and I'm doing multiple trips in and out of the stable.

Dreading moving from the last of small straw bales to big straw bales. I reckon it takes half an hour longer to feed now using the big bales from when I was using small conventional.

How do other people cope?
 
I really prefer small bales for ease but OH prefers big rounds for handling so thats what I get ;)
It doesn't take more than a minute or so for me to fill my nets though. I unwrap hay from all round the bale so it flakes off quite easily and I just stuff it in 🙂 why do you think it's taking so long?
 
My advice is to keep them up off the floor on pallets, and unwrap from around the sides and then shake out into a heap, as opposed to plucking a handful at a time.
 
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milliepops said:
I really prefer small bales for ease but OH prefers big rounds for handling so thats what I get ;)
It doesn't take more than a minute or so for me to fill my nets though. I unwrap hay from all round the bale so it flakes off quite easily and I just stuff it in 🙂 why do you think it's taking so long?
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OH used to do some small bales mostly for me (although strangely they did get used up with him chucking a couple in the back of the pickup on numerous occasions).

The hay is so tightly packed that I have to tug it out in handfuls, although it is nice and dry and good quality.
 
Hestons- giant rectangular bales- are a good compromise. Easy to handle with a tractor, and very easy to feed. One giant slice will fill two decent hay nets. Then you can tie the bale back up. Much less waste, and much quicker.

Probably not much help if you already have a stock of round bales though :/
 
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