The Dakotan:
And now time for this week's edition of Ranching Issues. Here's Neil Roberts.
Neil Roberts:
Welcome to another edition of Ranching Issues. Our guest this week is Mountrail County Ag Agent Jim Hennessey. And Jim, the weight of a hay bale is an important piece of information for the rancher. And it's what a lot of people are just uncertain.
Jim Hennessey:
Being more specific, probably talking around bale. Probably one of the greatest inventions that was ever made. When you look across the country, most guys will have a John Deere international, Heston, whatever. And if you ever sit down, ask, what is that building? Most of them might look at you dumbfounded to balance the action need to know it. So one of the things is what does that bale weigh? Weights can range anywhere from 1200 all the way up to 1800 pounds. And any time we've got differences in our field, we'll see anywhere from 5% variance off the average. So you can see 150 pound difference in the weight of that bill from the heaviest, the lightest.
Neil Roberts:
All right. Good stuff, Jim. And hey, we'll have more on the hay bales when we come back.
The Dakotan:
You're listening to Ranching Issues with Neil Roberts on the Dakotan Network.
Neil Roberts:
Talking the weight of that hay bale today with Jim Hennessey on Ranching Issues. And Jim, I guess a couple of things here. It depends upon what type of hay we're talking and maybe some suggestions on how to get this weight tested.
Jim Hennessey:
A lot of guys will ask where do I go to weigh in? A lot of guys will throw them on a flatbed or in the back of a pickup or a trailer and they run across through an elevator. In our county, we've actually got a build scale and we can go out and weigh bills and we've actually gone out and bad guys that, you know, your bills weigh this much and they'll tell me that their bill is 1200 pounds and when in reality they'll find out that it weighs a lot more than they think. There's a lot of difference among forages. I mean everybody knows and Alfalfa Bale is going to be your heaviest probably looking at straw bale being your latest but you're getting to read canary can be like straw. So a lot of variance we need to know what it weighs so the cows get adequate amount of feed.
Neil Roberts:
That'll put a wrap on this one until next time. I'm Neil Roberts.
The Dakotan:
You're listening to the Dakotan Network. Real, Honest, Local News.
