I've done this more times than I can count so if u have any questions feel free to message me. A few years ago I got way behind. Round baled up as much as possible for speed. Put them away and in the fall squared about 2000k bales by unrolling. Thus is the hardest work Ur sq. Baker will do. Make sure u feed very slowly. If u have a way to fluff the hay do so. It makes its easier. I got to the point I was hand feeding the baler because I got tried of breaking shear pins. Ur bales won't be pretty but if Ur just feeding them urself who cares.

 

Depending on how your round bales are stored they could be very dry by now and you'll get a lot of shatter while rebaling, could loose more while rebaling than what you'd loose by feeding rounds with a good feeder.

I say it depends on storage as I've baled 22% plus moisture hay with preservative and by time I hauled them out during the winter they were under 14% moisture. I store my round bales in hoop buildings stacked on their ends on pallets.

 

I have watched on You Tube as large operations used different devices to unroll the hay straight into a baler, my need is very small and was wondering if anyone had just rolled the rolls out on the ground. Is there anything I should be aware of? Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you

If you decide to re-bale from a stationary position, I like to cut the bale down to the center core of the bale....this allows the bale to "lay open" and then it is easy to pitch fork hay into the baler pick-up. I cut it open by using a "skil saw" which makes the cutting process fairly easy and fast. I have an old plywood saw blade(small fine cut teeth) that I turn backwards(teeth pointed away from rotation) so that the blade does not "grab" the hay. Just keep cutting across the bale in the same position until you reach the center core. You can feed hay pretty quickly like this to the baler and hay losses will be easily recovered and fed when baled from a stationary position.

Regards, Mike

 

There is a local hay producer that did what you are asking. He did this for several years. His is pretty much a one man operation, some hired help when needed.
Once it got to the point where he could not hire high school kids to help haul squares, he rolled most everything and squared it later.
Before he bought a used unrolling device he would just unroll by hand, rake and bale.
He did this every week the weather allowed during the winter months.

He has an accumulator now and does not re-bale.

I unrolled a couple once and re-rolled them.
I was testing a different baler though and not simply bored.

 

I re-bale each winter to have enough sq bales for some of my customers. I have pitch forked it into the baler but now have an un-roller from Altec. It doesn't work too bad and I can do about 75 an hour with a little help from my wife. Three people could do a lot more by having everything ready so I wouldn't have to shut everything down while I put on a new round bale.

It is about the only way I can put up enough hay to keep everyone supplied. I only re-bale grass hay and there is not much loss as anything that falls out is cleaned up and fed to our horses. It's set up in my barn so weather is not a concern.

I would think unrolling a bale and pulling the baler to re-bale it would be a lot more work due to picking all the bales up and transporting them back to the barn.

A couple years ago I used a JD 336 and spent a lot of time replacing shear bolts. Hay would build up under the auger then feed a big wad all at once. I now use a NH 315 and have very little trouble. Your Mileage May Vary

 

Thank you for all the replies, its been most helpful. I am picking up my "new to me" Hesston 4590 this weekend and will most likely try it out on these round bales. I will certainly go slow and try to avoid excessive stress on the baler. As the 4590 is an inline baler I'm uncertain how easy it would be to hay fork it in, I may try both options and see what works best. Sedurbin, lucky for me I've got three sons to help haul hay. Thanks to everyone for their comments, its appreciated.

 

I just did this a couple weeks agot with my newly rebuilt Case IH 8545, same as your 4590.... Just re-built the baler and wanted to make sure it worked. I had to fluff the hay first and drive really slow, i only unrolled 50 ft at a time. Hay I re-baled was really mature first crop, really long stems. That 3 or 4 inch thick sheet lifts perfectly up and into the pickup all at one time If it gets a hold it will keep pulling even if youre not moving the baler forward. That little pickup can suck a lot of hay into it in a hurry. Sheared one bolt got it unplugged and fluffed after that....

 

Thank you Luke, I definitely don't want to be changing shear bolts the first time I run it. Great insight on the baler, this is my first inline and am just learning. I may just take a fork and break them apart by hand or skillsaw like Mike mentioned. Thanks again,