rebaling

don't have any experience with it but have a good deweeze super slicer hooked up with a dethatcher and conveyor belts all with electric motors for sale $10,000 buys it all - switched to steffen systems machine. 423.346.7909

I will never understand a horse owner and their hay preferences. Insist on green leafy hay during the season, but are happy to purchase rebaled hay later, regardless of quality. The process of rebaling can not help but shatter additional leaves. A round bale just naturally shatters more leaves than a small square baler, with optimal conditions for each.
Besides, that is a lot of extra work for what we get.

If the horse owners knew anything about hay they would not look at 75% the hay sold as Horse Quality.

But shoot there are some cattlemen who are as ignorant of what constitutes quality hay as the horse fraternity.

Elsewhere there is a, I presume dairyman, who believes color, smell, & feel are a better indication of Dairy Quality. Like buying a Pickup with a pretty paint job, nice leather seats, and a Briggs & Stratton lawn mower engine.

Not many would argue with you about the varied tastes of horse owners and what they think is the best feed for their pets. Around here (SC Wis) they like it clean and green (even though the horse is color blind), but they don't give a hoot about the alfalfa leaves. Since they don't want ( or need) a good high quality, high protein hay, we might just as well let the hay get more mature and take the higher yield. The problem with that is the coarse stems that comes with maturity at least in the 1st crop, and that's just one more reason to gripe.

Seems every year more and more customers are trying to get all the 2nd and third cutting they can get from us. Then they call and tell me their horse has foundered or has cushing's. If half these people took a little later cut grass hay, they would have half the problems they have. These horse owners do not normally "use" their horses like they used in the "olden" days like they used. Keep feeding your kid cake and ice cream and see how he does on it!!

Never the less,there is a market for rebaled hay.
Here in the south, grass hay leaf loss is not a problem.

When dealing with most customers you have to remember that the customer is always right, even if they're wrong. Whatever kind of hay they want, that's what you gotta have, regardless if that's what the horse(es) in question need it or not. Most hay around here is sold on looks anyway. If it's green or leafy, then it's got to be good.

Nobody that I know is doing any rebaling. I have seen a few steffen re-cutters in operation, and the end product (to me) looks terrible. Bales are heavy, straps seem to come off easily, and to most folks it looks like something is wrong - no nice smooth sides - it just looks like all stems. That said, I think that rebaling round bales seems like a good idea - since a round baler does no cutting, a proper fluffing device and a stationary small baler should make a 'normal' looking package. Again, that goes towards the buying hay by looks.

Rodney

Rebaling for our operation helps to give flexibility in baling, managment, and time. The end result can be heavier, but in some cases that can be a selling point. Greatess thing for us is the ability to quickly store and then if the market calls for small square we can make them. That can be in Januray if need be. One other thing for us is that one man can complete the job if it is needed.

But no doubt that more money goes into rebaling. Labor, handling, and machinery. It is similar to putting corn into a bin. 100bushel may go in but that doesn't mean 100 come out. For what its worth that is my opinion.
Mark

the rd bale unrollers and rebalers work great on wheat straw and grass hays, but not on alfalfa type hays.
the steffen machines work great on all hay types - except wet product or extremely dry product. and poor hay going in looks poor coming out, great hay going in looks great coming out.
If you want to bale 2,000 bales, buy a good sq baler and have at it, but with labor the way it is, rebaling hay is a reality - one farm in washington state does about 65,000 bales per week for the export market. A friend of mine does about 20,000/week in straw It just can't be done in the field anymore.

hay wilson in TX said:

I will never understand a horse owner and their hay preferences. Insist on green leafy hay during the season, but are happy to purchase rebaled hay later, regardless of quality. The process of rebaling can not help but shatter additional leaves. A round bale just naturally shatters more leaves than a small square baler, with optimal conditions for each.
Besides, that is a lot of extra work for what we get.

If the horse owners knew anything about hay they would not look at 75% the hay sold as Horse Quality.

But shoot there are some cattlemen who are as ignorant of what constitutes quality hay as the horse fraternity.

Elsewhere there is a, I presume dairyman, who believes color, smell, & feel are a better indication of Dairy Quality. Like buying a Pickup with a pretty paint job, nice leather seats, and a Briggs & Stratton lawn mower engine.

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Hay Wilson, I agree with your statement but I'm curious as to what you consider horse quality and why only 25% sold qualifies. Thanks

rglove said:

Anyone had any experience with Altec bale unwinder for rebaling?

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Had good experience with www.hustlerequipment.com which have dealers in US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Ireland, Chile, South Africa. Good warranty thats between 2-4 years.