Big Square Straw Bales Double “Wattle” Production

Big Square Straw Bales Double “Wattle” Production CROPS Straw A few years ago Tim Gogerty started turning small square bales of straw into “wattles” used to control soil erosion by capturing sediment and spreading out the water Vol 37 No 5 They’re widely used on highway construction projects Gogerty recently nearly doubled his wattle production by building a much bigger grinder His friend Randy Funke designed the machine specifically to handle big square bales Straw bales are carried on a conveyor and fed into a big steel beater The flailed straw drops into a bin from which it is pressed into various diameter augers compressed into circular chambers and then pushed into biodegradable netting Tim’s sons Jordan and Jason use hydraulic motors to control the machine and straw-feeding process The wattles which measure 9 in dia by 25 ft long are wrapped in clear plastic placed on pallets and shipped in enclosed semi trailer vans All the work is done inside a 55-ft wide by 80-ft hoop building “We haven’t changed the basic design very much ” says Tim “Power is provided by an engine that we removed from a tractor It sets outside the building to keep noise and exhaust out and drives a hydraulic pump and motors that operate the machine “We use the same controls as before to start the machine and to advance the bale into the grinder and to form the wattles It takes 3 people to make everything work One person operates the machine and the others roll the finished wattles into coils then double strap them and stack them on a wood pallet Then they shrink wrap them Tim says he sells most of the wattles to contractors who work for the state but also sells some to local farmers “Most of the straw we use is imported from Canada We process about 500 tons of straw per year and in a busy week we can go through a semi load of big square bales in 10 days ” notes Tim Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Tim Gogerty 33094 K Ave Hubbard Iowa 50122 ph 641 487-7825

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