# Average hay bale weights...



## trnubian

What are your average small square bale weights? I am used to a bale weighing somewhere around 40 lb. I just bought a load of second cutting alfalfa. Really really nice stuff but the bales were insanely heavy. About 80 lb. My Dad even had a hard time handling them and he is a really strong guy. They were baled at about 14% moisture and I have them stacked slightly apart so they can dry out further. I opened a bale and it's not wet but that is some heavy hay right? I guess more for my money. Is that a normal weight for a bale???


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## rg1950

Wow, that is some heavy square bales!! The ones we have bought are around 40-50 lbs, depending on where we get them. If you paid the same or close to the same price as your regular 40-50lbs bales, then you got twice as much for the same price. That is good :biggrin
Stock up before they realize it and raise the prices!!

Tara Green
Green Acres Goats Farm
www.greenacresgoatsfarm.com
Dayton, TX


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## Tracy in Idaho

Our small bales are approximately 100#.

Our big bales are 1800- 2000# 

Tracy


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## Kaye White

:biggrin I LOVE those 80-100# bales! Especially the ones with wire ties. I use that wire for EVERYTHING! Heck, half our fences are held to the post with that wire. Not that flimsy stuff you get at the feed/hardware stores.

Course, I do have a front end loader with pallet forks and if we can't get close enough to the barn, we can load it on pallets and set it in. :blush
Kaye


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## Jo~*

Around here bales from the feed store are almost always 100+ lbs grass or alfalfa. The bales from private farms are smaller two stringers.
When I worked at a feed and grain just north of S.F. Calif some of our bales ran in the 140 range and believe me after a day of unloading them its no wonder my back is so screwed up today.


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## Rose

We've had the same experience with variable bale weight. The bales put up by our neighbor are light and loose. I'd prefer the heavier bales.

Hubby brought some alfalfa from Arizona when he came back for searching for Coronado's trail. Those bales were over 110 pounds each.


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## Rambar Ranch

Bale weights are set by the baler operator. Some farmers will make their bales lighter in order to make more bales/acre. You always want to look for good heavy tight bales. You can make them shorter as well so make sure you don't get stuck with to short of ones. Your wire tied bales are always tighter than a string tie bale. When I make bales for ourselves I have to be careful not to make them to heavy for the kids to pick up, lol.

Ray


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## feistygoatwoman

Our bales average around 60-80 lbs. We pack our hay pretty tight. It makes it easier for us to stack in our barns. Most of our bales are so tight you can barely get your fingers under the string.


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## susie

I prefer the tighter heavier bales to-- up to a point! The 3 string timothy bales around here are about 115 pounds-- that's about as heavy as I want-- I can't stack them very high-- I can usually finnagle the 95 pounders where i want them to go. 
susie


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## trnubian

These are only 2 string with plastic twine. They aren't any bigger than the oter bales I used to get were. Just packed tighter I guess. I like the fact that they are heavy too. I get more for my money 

There is the draw back of moving those suckers around though. We don't have a big open door to get the wagon into the barn and we have to end up walking the bales about 30 feet to where we wanted them. It made it so hard we ended up loading a bale in to the wheel barrow to the place we wanted then we would stack. I only stacked 3 high but I will have to restack it later. I have 70 more coming so I need a little more room.


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## hamilton40

The bails out here are all three wire bails (three twine you never get wire out here anymore) They used to be 105 to 120lb range 10 or 15 years ago but now you are lucky to get 75 to 90lb bails. For the people looking for bailing wire too keep your places tied together (I cant live without it) you can buy it at any home improvement store (Home depot, Lowes any of them) it is used for tying rebar together for concrete work. A roll is 5 or 6 bucks.
Clay


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