I’ve fed off of large squares of alfalfa, just set the bales under a overhang and peel off the flakes. The accumulator is the way to go with putting hay up. My former hay guy had one and that is how he got it out of the field and put it in the barn. We are doing our own hay and don’t have an accumulator. Sure wished we did! Difficult to beg for help throwing hay.
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In the past, I have feed round bales under a run in that was large enough to keep horses and hay clean and dry and feed small squares in the barn.
This year I have my horses at home in a new barn. I have less acreage than in the past and the run in isn’t quite big enough to keep horses AND hay dry. I picked up a 4x4x8 square bale and placed it at the end of the barn nearest the feed room. I bought a couple of the extended day feeder hay nets and was able to get 1 large flake in each net. I’ve been very happy with how this has worked out.
We have a large ATV and trailer set up for feeding. Drive through the barn, feed grain from the back of the ATV and hay from the trailer.
We feed the 3x3x8 bales. In the pastures, we use round bale feeders with slow nets. In the barn, we just set it against a wall and cut the strings. 1/2 a flake is one serving. We do buy small squares for travel. Previously we had the hockey team come out and unload bales.
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In MN, we fed nearly 100% large bales–the 3 x 3 x 7 ones, with four strings. They weighed about 700#s. The hay guy would bring the skid steer to unload and stack when he delivered and our JD 2320 was just able to handle a single one with a set of hay forks on the front and the weight box on the back if we needed to move them around once they were here.
About half the hay for the year was stored in the barn, so those bales just got opened and then fed from, easy peasy. One flake was about equal to four flakes of a “standard” small bale. I fed in large nets, folding the flakes in half. No problems. If you need to feed small amounts at a time (like for a pony, maybe?) pulling the flakes apart might be kind of a pain…but I’ve also heard of people using a chain saw to cut bales smaller…that’s an option?
The rest of the hay was stored in a garage type building we used for hay storage right across the driveway. We would sometimes bring the bales over into the barn before opening them, but in the end wound up just opening them there are carting over the hay each evening for the four horses.
I’d LOVE to still use the large bales here, but can’t make it work with loft storage. The bundler things are amazing and there’s a guy around here who does hay like that. Even with loft storage, they’re handled in bundles until they’re broken up to go on the elevator–he delivers in multiples of 21. If my MN hay guy had that kind of equipment, I’d seriously try to find a way to just buy his hay and have it shipped.
Coming from out west, it’s just CRAZY to me how many times hands are put on small bales here in the east. No wonder it’s so expensive! There’s SO much labor that happens between in the field and in my loft that doesn’t take place in a lot of the rest of the county!
No, the bundler is picking up small bales and making a 21 bale bundle, seven long and three high.
Here is one you pull with a tractor right behind your baler:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BcUzFiPUnM
They also have self propelled ones:
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Thank you so very much everyone! Lots to think about. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to reply, and will be back if I come up with questions.
