Square Bale Stack System Still Going Strong

Square Bale Stack System Still Going Strong BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 23-1-13 During the 20 years that I've been reporting on new inventions and products I've met a lot of innovative farmers and manufacturers. All are highly motivated by their ideas but sometimes, after running into the buzz saw that is the commercial market, they burn out. Others are so determined their ideas are great that they never give up, pushing on even in the face of a market that doesn't always give ready acceptance to their ideas. Larry Zimmerman is such a man. We first wrote about Larry's bale handling equipment 19 years ago in our Vol. 3, No. 5 issue of 1979. We revisited Larry again 9 years later in 1988 as he made improvements to his original system, and introduced an automatic stacker. Recently Larry called and asked if we'd like to take another look at his unit. He has a total of 320 of his manual stacking units out in the field at $850 apiece and has sold 9 of his automatic stackers - which sell for a hefty $8,500 apiece. Larry still sounds like a missionary when he talks about his system is. "It's a fantastic way to make hay and handle bales. It lets the bales dry because air can pass through, and you can totally automate bale handling because you can pick up the stacks using a tractor loader with no need to get off the tractor," he says. Larry feels many farmers want to get away from round bales because of problems with spoilage and low quality. "There's no question you get the best quality hay with small square bales. But they're more work to handle, unless you've got a system like mine," he says. The Zimmie Stacker is available in a manual unit that skids along the ground behind the baler. A person rides on the unit to stack the bales and release them onto the ground. It's also available in a hydraulically-operated unit on wheels that automatically lays down a Zimmie stack. "The answer to most quality problems with hay lies with inadequate ventilation. Zimmie stacks let air flow freely through the cut bales and also allows them to be easily transported. My customers tell me they can't believe this system has not become the industry standard because quality of hay produced is so high with no molds, even on wet hay. And because we cool hay off so quickly in our stacks, we eliminate damage from heat that often affects quality of hay," says Zimmerman. The Zimmie Stacker makes teepee-shaped stacks of six bales each, with the bottom bales laying on edge so that all air can circulate freely in and around all bales. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Larry Zimmerman, Zimmie-Stacker, 1156 180th Ave., New Richmond, Wis. 54017 (ph 800 759-7033 or 715 246-4890; Web Site: http://members.aol.com/zstack/main.html

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