This bale weighs the same as that bale
These two bales are the same amount of hay, 20kg of nutritious supplemental lucerne feed.
But where many people would struggle to haul the conventional bale on the right, the compressed bale on the left is easy to handle.
You can also store four times as much hay in the same space, and easily fit the wrapped bales into the back of your vehicle with no mess.
It’s an idea Andrew Kirkpatrick thought was so brilliant, his familyrun company was one of the first in NZ to bring in a 50-tonne compression machine from the USA. ‘Betty’ can process 350 conventional bales an hour into something easy for anyone to move and feed out. “The compressed size and user-friendly packaging makes the new bales ideal for lifestyle blocks. It provides a significant space saving and still containing all the goodness of high quality lucerne. None of the nutritional value is lost in the process and there is less wastage hay left on the ground.” Kirkpatrick Feed Supplies is a fourthgeneration family-run operation specialising in quality lucerne baleage. Andrew says it was a leap of faith to process hay this way, but the results so far have been great.
“We could see the potential compressed baling had to transform how lifestyle blockers and specialist farmers managed their feed and help make their lives easier.”
• 20kg of lucerne hay • A quarter of the size of a conventional bale • Four times as much hay in the same space