A baler makes bales using hay or straw or stalks; set the machine to medium level size and pressure and you should get a stack of  uniform, medium size and shape bales, right?   WRONG!

All bales are not alike even if they came from the same baling machine. A lot of things determine if a bale will be dense and square coming out of the baler, *moisture content in the straw, Volume the baler is being fed, course or fine stems, feeder finger adjustment and the operator’s attitude. If there is rain in the forecast the above is generally ignored, the objective is get the straw in the barn NOW.

We recently placed straw bales into the walls of a house in Top of the Ozarks Straw Bale Construction Initiative Program. We quickly learned the value of perfectly square bales, which there were few of. The bales we used are firm and dense (top priority) but are not perfectly square. Not even close.  The differences weren’t real noticeable until we were up several courses. The bales were a little bit thicker on the cut side than on the folded side. We stacked all of them cut side in.  As a result they leaned to the outside. The reason for this is connected to the machine adjustment on the baler; not enough straw was being pushed by the feeding fingers to the back side of the bale. We should have noticed that the bales were slightly banana shaped which also leaves a gap on one side between the ends of the bales in the wall. The banana shape also means the bale is tighter on one side than other.

To avoid the problem we had, straw bales with this shape should be stacked alternately; one bale cut side in and the next cut side out. If the bales are too banana shaped reject them.

Remember, when you pick up a bale and it sags end to end reject it. A dense, firm bale will not sag. When buying bales check the overall appearance for brightness of color, density and square-ness. Buy about 10% more than you need so you can be picky which ones you use. The rejects make good mulch for your garden. I have a similar comment about  straw bale equality over at Straw Bale Construction in Missouri

Until next time keep your bales dry,

Richard