Hay Bales

[Steve-e]

Anyone know when the round Hay bales started appearing in the UK?

 

When growing up in the 1970's and 1980's Hay bales always seemed to be the square versions then I didn't really take much notice and now we seem to have the round versions everywhere with a small amount of square ones still to be seen.

 

Cheers

Steve

[Pugsley]

They started becoming more prevalent in the late 1980's and early 90's and have gradually become more common as time has gone on.

[Boatman]

Round here, the round ones are no longer seen, Square is the rage again as they can be stored more easily and sold more readily as they are smaller/cheaper.  No round one s anywhere this year.

 

Boatman

[enginelane]

Ive noticed a return to square baled hay lately too.

Living on one side of the valley and therefore seeing the other side (!) round bales* do seem less common -  I wondered if one reason was that round ones can be made to roll** a bit too easy down hills and can cause all sorts of damage?!!

 

*for hay not silage

 

** I know this happens; due to being not quite in proper control of a tractor at the vital moment a long time ago  

 

 

In 1978 I started keeping goats and used to help in the fields for straw and hay. Hay was in small traditional bales then but increasingly round bale silage in the black plastic liners was coming into more and more use. Straw was being bales in round bales then as I was told in over wintering of stock it was easier for a tractor and 1 operator to to unroll a round bale and produce a straw bale foe the animals

 

[Arthur]

 

A few of years back one of the founder members of ELO was killed when a large, round, bale rolled down a hillside, across a road and crushed his van;

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-11195393

 

If there is a return to small bales then it will be down to the practicalities of using them. For large scale farming, with large herds, big bales make sense. Of course, they need machinery to handle them.

 

Small bales have always had a place, we keep horses and have always managed to obtain the traditional sized bales of hay and straw. We did try a couple of large round bales of haylage a couple of years ago. They were a PITA, once delivered, we couldn't move them, and once the plastic wrapping was removed, and because it has a high moisture content, our horses couldn't eat it quickly enough before mould took a hold. Bales of hay, being bone dry, keep for months.

[Worsdell forever]

Most HAY will still be small square bales, most Silage will be round, a lot of STRAW is now in large square. 

 

My Grandad and Uncle started using round bales for silage (when they started using silage) in the very early eighties. I remember spending many hours putting bags on them, the bags always seemed to be too small... The bales were on the spikes on the tractor the two people in theory, slide the bags over them, they usually needed a lot of shuffling up and down to get them on.

 

Round bales are not new, there were balers for small ones in the '50s, I think My Uncle has one for possible restoration.

 

Allis Chalmers 'Roto-Baler'

[The Stationmaster]

All the straw baling round here seems to be round bales although enroute to and in East Devon over the weekend I saw a number of fields with straw in 'square' bales and the only baled hay I saw was also in 'square' bales.  The bit I'm waiting to see round here is what they do with the stalks when the opium poppies are harvested - I missed it last year as by the time I passed the field after harvesting it had been harrowed down, this year's field still hadn't been harvested by Sunday and they do seem to leave it quite late.