Big Bale Compactor Boosts Hay-Selling Profits

Big Bale Compactor Boosts Hay-Selling Profits BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 21-4-12 "Profits from the hay we sell in Florida were being eroded by trucking expenses," says John Buyers who, along with friend John Hoover, built a heavy-duty compactor for big rectangular bales. It allows them to get up to 7 tons more Timothy hay on each truck load. The compactor squeezes 8-ft. long bales down to just under 4 ft. They compact as many as 2,000 bales a year. The men built the frame of the machine out of 6 by 6-in., 3/4-in. thick angle iron. The 20-ft. long, 32-in. sq. compression chamber was fashioned out of heavy steel plate. A 32-in. sq. plunger, which rides on plastic wear plates, is powered by a pair of 10-in. dia. hydraulic cylinders purchased from a used heavy equipment dealer. The 6 1/2-ft. long cylinders provide up to 9,000 psi's. A 50 hp D-311 Caterpillar diesel engine powers the machine's 70 gpm two-stage hydraulic pump. Compressed bales are bound with four steel straps suspended on a drum above the machine. Once a bale is compressed, a 4-in. hydraulic cylinder with 4-ft. stroke pushes it out of the chamber. Then it's stacked or loaded in trucks with a tractor and front-end loader. "One man operates the tractor loader and press and one straps the bales," Buyers notes. "It takes about five minutes to compress one bale." Typically, half the bales in each truck load of hay sold to Florida horse trainers are compacted, he says. Loads are filled to the legal limit, he adds. Built four years ago, the machine cost about $30,000 (Canadian). Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, John Buyers, Rt. 2, Alliston, Ontario, Canada L9R 1V2 (ph 705 435-7096).

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