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bale proccessers

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horseshoe

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Who makes the best for the money? If you do bales with net wrap do they catch most of the wrap on the drum or spit a lot out with the hay? I have a lot of net wrapped hay and am wondering if a proccesser is the answer.
 
Bale processor or not, it looks to me like asking for trouble if the net wrap isn't either all picked up or completely shredded. Getting it wrapped around bale processor parts doesn't sound like fun either. If a cow got that stuff stuck in her throat and it wouldn't go up or down just doesn't sound like a good thing at all.

FWIW, my disclaimer is I have never been around net wrap at all, so maybe I'm all wrong. I use sisal twine and don't worry about it after a season. I do try to pick up all the twine from first season bales I feed. I just unroll the bales on the ground.

I have considered a bale processor also but then I get to thinking about the $$$ they cost and the fact that when the weather gets bad it would be like dragging a big anchor around in the snow.

I'm sure bale processors have their place, but I feed my cows with a $6K 130 HP tractor and dozer with a $600 bale unroller on it. IMO, it's a pretty capable feeding rig for the $$$ invested.
 
We have used a processor for many years now. And we've been around
several. Mr. FH's opinion is the Haybuster. It's made pretty rugged and
handy to operate. A good friend of ours got a Vermeer and it's not as
easy to operate as the Haybuster. I heard him say you have to 'rock the bales to get them started' in the Vermeer. We wanted to buy a Vermeer
because we really like the dealer here, but we tried one and it didn't suit
him as well as the Haybuster. We are on our second Haybuster, this one
has a scale under it so we have some idea of the pounds we are feeding.

We have had net wrap bales run through the processor for the past
2 years. He prefers what happens to the net wrap to what happens
to the plastic twine. We used to find plastic twine scattered some, not
so the net wrap.

I'll ask him more when he comes in.

(One thing to remember, processing the hay won't make the nutrition value any higher, but it will help the cows to eat more of poor quality
hay.)
 
Ok, he came in and I asked him. He prefers the net wrap over plastic
for running through the processor. He says it wraps around the drum
on the feeder and when it gets full, he cuts it off and burns it. It burns
up really fast. You might see a few tuffs of it on the ground once in awhile,
but with the twine, it can be all over the place. The tuffs aren't big enough
for a cow to choke on, least ways we have never had any trouble.

Good luck!
 
I have a brandt bale processor and really like it. It is the best made in my opinion but i think the Haybuster works the best. The net just wraps around the drum and then every so often i take an electric charcoal starter and melt the net off. It is easier than cutting it off. The brandt can run any kind of bale or even loose hay if you need to.
 
Thanks FH and Andy. Sorry I have been away a while. That was the info I was looking for as our dealers here offer the Vermeer and Haybuster. The scale sounds interesting, If it didnt cost to much it would be useful to know weights. I dont know where a brandt dealer is but would be interested in pricing one. They are blue if I remember right?
 
http://www.bridgeviewmanufacturing.com/bale.html

Probably the most durable on the market. If you buy a used one make sure it has the more aggressive bale turner that has been on the market for maybe the last 3 years. Plastic twine and netwrap are alot easier to get melted off than a bunch of sissel twine...try an electric branding iron on it.
 
A favourite around here is the Highline processer; durable, well designed and will spread bedding very well.We've put thousands of bales through ours and it has lots of life left. We've handled everything from hay to tough greenfeed to froze up partially rotten flax straw bales with very few problems. Newer models have a built in twine cutter on the drum.........all reports are that people love that option. Not sure but I believe they have a marketing agreement with Vermeer for the states!

www.highlinemfg.com
 
Go with a Haybuster. We had a Baleking, used it for quite a few years, thought it couldn't be beat. Then one day in the spring of 2005 the rotor broke. We needed something to feed cows with still, so we rented a used Haybuster. Hubby was so impressed with that machine, he bought a new one last fall. Said he'd never buy another brand again. Feeding is so much quicker. He can do in a half hour now what it used to take two hours before.
 
Regarding the scale, when we had ours put on, it cost an additional $2500. I figured saving 50 ton of hay at $50/ton would pay for the scale,
and we'd still have a higher trade-in with the scale when we were done
with it.

It works well. And you can't believe how much hay you save with it.
There's a lot more variation between the weight of bales than you would
think.

This is the second Haybuster we have had. We have had no problems
with either one.
 
We ve got a Bale King with the grain tank on the back, and I like it. Wouldnt know what to do without it. If you need any info on them call the pros at 1-204-759-2424 they will look after ya.
 
I just unroll the bales with my loader and haul bales on a hay rack,cows seem to survive just fine that way.I could maybe see it with alot of cows but if you have 50 cows what sense does it make to have another $10,000 or more in iron sitting around.when I had 50 cows I would fill a dozen bale rings once a week or so.
 
Our Haybuster is parked in the corner and will stay there. It's a good enough machine, but it takes longer to feed with, burns more fuel and is hard on the tractor pto. I'm not convinced either that the cows do better with chopped hay. They may clean up the bad hay better, but its my humble opinion that that big cloud of dust that follows you around during feeding is whats left of those nutritious alfalfa leaves. :? At any rate, unrolling with the loader or unroller is far more peaceful and much quicker.
I allways took the tiger torch to the sisal string on the bar. If there was a lot of it I would burn for a while then kick in the pto and spin some off, and burn some more.
 
We've got the same rig as M_R,an love it. We can blow a bunch of bales, set up the special pannels, and get someone to move the pannels ahead as they need to be fed. Works like a dream, and we've made a profit off of it by renting it out ;)
 
Shelly said:
Go with a Haybuster. We had a Baleking, used it for quite a few years, thought it couldn't be beat. Then one day in the spring of 2005 the rotor broke. We needed something to feed cows with still, so we rented a used Haybuster. Hubby was so impressed with that machine, he bought a new one last fall. Said he'd never buy another brand again. Feeding is so much quicker. He can do in a half hour now what it used to take two hours before.
Click to expand...
The aggressive design on the newer Bale King models square iron pieces that turn the bale make a big difference, also had an older one that didn't have as many cross pieces for the bale to lay on when it was turning, best to have all the cross pieces in. I think most important thing when buying a processor is to get one that has the thickest flails you can find. If you're comparing, many brands have fairly thin flails and will break much sooner than a Bale King's, which only seem to get a little shorter even after running many thousands of bales through.
 

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