Looking for square bales in N.Texas: Orchard, Brome, something for goats!

[Michel Cromwell]

My hay guy only did big round bales for his second cutting this year, 2016, and gave them to the guy who baled it in lieu of paying him. So now I'm on the hunt near Greenville TX and it's proving difficult to find a nice second cutting hay in small sq bales, that isn't 2+ hours away. Anyone nearby???

 

[Baymule]

Have you checked on Craigs list?

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Welcome to the forum!

Have you contacted your local extension agent? They might be able to refer you to someone.

 

[greybeard]

How many? What size? What kind of grass?
Canton:
https://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/grd/5785100356.html
Bonham
https://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/grd/5797332509.html
Bailey: (Bailey is about 40 miles NE of McKinney, about 30 miles north of Greenville,)
https://texoma.craigslist.org/grd/5762280869.html


Small sq bales are fast becoming scarce in Texas and South Oklahoma, and it's going to get worse, as more and more hay producers switch to round balers. Sq bales are labor intensive and unless one has acess to cheap labor, no producer really wants to mess with them + the producer has to have somewhere to properly store sq bales unless they have a market where they can sell the whole lot of them in the field.

On the retail end, they are not cost effective either. I bought my last sq bale in 2011 and plan never to buy another. Cost per ton of hay calculates out that you're going to pay way more for sq bales than for round bales--per 2000 lbs of hay. I can buy one ton of round baled hay (2 bales) for $80 anywhere today. Small Sq bales from a retailer in my area, run about $7 per 50lb bale of good, fertilized, weed free coastal. Two 1000lb round bales is the approx equivalent of forty 50 lb sq bales. 40 X $7=$280. Do the math. Even if I bought them in the field for $3-$4/bale, I'm still taking a beating with cost of $120-$160 per ton (not counting my own labor costs).

 

[babsbag]

While I like your prices on hay I can't imagine round bales to feed to forty goats. I would have to build a feeder that they could all stand under out of the rain and get the bales in and out and rain free too. I buy the 1200 lb. square bales but they still flake off and I can feed them like I would the small bales. Round ones would be a logistical nightmare. What do people do that only have a few animals and no way to haul or handle big bales?

 

[greybeard]

They haul them them same way they haul 1200lb sq bales--in the back of a pickup or on a utility trailer, and then they roll off what they need each day. Not hard to make a static hay unroller (kept inside a barn or small shed) where you just pull the end and off it unrolls in your hands as needed. I've hauled lots of 1000lb round bales in the back of a Chevy 1500 and Ford F-150. (1/2 or 5/8 ton truck.)
In field, a tumblebug is a wonderful thing to have just to move a single round bale from barn to feed area. My neighbor, with 3-4 horses, has a hay ring with a roof on it.
There's all sorts of ways to move bales.

Unroller:

Since I don't know anything about goats..how much hay (in pounds) do 40 goats utilize every 24 hours?

 

[OneFineAcre]

While I like your prices on hay I can't imagine round bales to feed to forty goats. I would have to build a feeder that they could all stand under out of the rain and get the bales in and out and rain free too. I buy the 1200 lb. square bales but they still flake off and I can feed them like I would the small bales. Round ones would be a logistical nightmare. What do people do that only have a few animals and no way to haul or handle big bales?

I roll the round bale out of my truck and roll it on a pallet under a shelter
I flake it off of the round bale and put into feeders

 

[greybeard]

I've seen several people say they move them around on an old vehicle hood, pulled by their daily driver.
I saw one person post somewhere, that they made an unroller out of an old boat trailer wheel and tire, mounted on the receiver hitch of his pickup. Unrolled what they needed and moved the remainder of the bale back to the barn, but he had a farm tractor and hay fork to pick it up and move it.

Some hay guys do make a good living by making small sq bales tho--they know hobby farmers and folks with a couple of horses will pay $7 or more per bale all thru the winter--but that means the seller has to have a place to store that hay. One feed store near me just has a big 40' tractor trailer van full dropped beside his place, and sells several vans full each winter, 1 or 2 bales at a time.
In 2011, he was asking and getting $15 a bale and it was really crappy hay from out of state--more dust and dirt than forage--bad drought year here.

 

[Baymule]

I found square bales for $4 in Point, not too far from you.

http://easttexas.craigslist.org/grd/5822342321.html