bales of straw??

[mully]

does anyone know or can anyone tell me why and when did bales of straw go from rectangle bales to round bales? very curious I will sleep tonight if someone can tell me thanks ! 

[Quizmonster]

Click here for a web-page which might help.

[mully]

thank you very much quizmonster

zzzzzzzzzzz!!

[Clanad]

Here in the western U.S., the first machine producing round bales of hay (and probably straw) was manufactured by Allis-Chalmers in the early 1950's.  It produced small bales that were still handled by men.  It wasn't very efficient since each time a bale was produced, the machine had to come to a stop while the baler continued to process the individual bale and tie it with twine.  Additionally, in severe winters, bales of hay were often air dropped to cattle that couldn't be gotten in due to the snow depth.  Older, rectangular bales burst on striking the ground and could foraged by the cattle.  It was found that the round bales would not break open due to their compactness.  On a neighbors ranch, he did find that an efficient way to feed livestock in the winter was to unload the round bales on a hill side, cut the twine and unroll them down the hill.  Large, round bales have almost completely eliminated the small rectangle bales now, as Q's article relates...

[woofgang]

on hols in Norfolk (UK) this year we also saw giant square bales

[mimififi]

I thought round ones were barley and square ones were wheat.  I may have got that from a Micheacl Morpurgo book tho, so it may have actually been more pivotal to the plot of the story rather than accurate to the British farming methods.  I also may have just dreamed that up by way of explaining it away to my children who always ask me that question when the farmer comes and bales up in the field next to our garden.  I'll check out Quizzie's website.