E-Z trail bale baskets

[Frickman]

Corley,
It is sort of a pain to switch between the two, because when you use the bale basket the baler chute needs to be removed. If you were to use the same baler for both types of wagons you'd have to keep removing and replacing the chute. Also the tension on the bale tighteners needs backed off, the ones you screw down to regulate the weight of the bales. With all the extra weight of bales going up into the wagon you don't have to have the baler cranked down as tight. We have two identical JD 336 balers, so if we want to we can setup one of the balers for the basket and one for a flat wagon. Right now both balers are setup for flat wagons, and I like it that way.

There's some other things you need to know about the bale baskets. You may have to bale a shorter bale, as long bales tend to horseshoe or at least get bent up. And you have to be careful turning at corners. You can't bale around a corner at the end of the field as the bales will kick sideways out of line between the baler and the wagon chute. You can bale at a faster ground speed, and on steeper hills, than a flat wagon with a man on it.

Overall I think that the basket is a good idea and works well, but as I said above, we haven't used it since we got the round baler. I've managed to get alot of our customers switched over to round bales for at least some of their feeding, which makes things a whole lot easier on us. At one time we used to allow some local customers to take wagons home, but we had the same problems in getting them back the next day. Now I only let one or two locals take them, the ones I know will bring them right back. We don't store square bales for sale anymore, I'll sell them all they want in the summer, but none over the winter. Help is too hard to find to have them stacking hay in the barn. If the folks say they don't have a barn to store it in, I tell them that I have a sawmill too and would be happy to sell them the lumber for a new barn. I believe in being full service I tell them. We do store alot of round bales inside for sale over the winter. They're alot easier to put in the barn than square bales.

[Corley5]

I too have buyers that don't have any hay storage.  I always get the question; Can I pay you for it and leave it here and come and get it when I need it?  No, I sell hay I don't run a hay storage facility is my reply.  What a fiasco that'd be.  Trying to keep Joe's hay separate from Kathy's and Bill's separate from everbody else's and making sure that in the end everybody got what they paid for :.  Plus I'd have to keep it plowed all winter so they could come and get 4 bales every other day ;)  The last couple years the hay that I put inside was gone by mid December.  I like it when that happens 8).  I did tell a gal this year that I'd keep 600 bales for her until Dec 1 so she could get her barn built.  Dec 1 came and went and I noticed that hay was missing.  It was stored at my Grandma's on the next road over and isn't real secure.  So I sold the rest.  I figure I lost about 200 bales to thieves.  She called right after New Years ready to pick up her hay.  I scraped up 25 bales and that's all she got.  I was willing to work with her because she wanted 1,500 bales this year but I don't have any trouble getting rid of it anyway and someone else will come along that wants that 1,500 ;D