A wheat field at sunset with round hay bales and trees
Handy tools

Hay & silage bale calculator

How many bales will the paddock make? Enter the area, your yield estimate and your bale weight to see the tonnes, bales, truck loads - and whether it covers what you need.

The paddock

Hectares you will cut. 1 acre = 0.405 ha.

Your own estimate, as baled - e.g. what this paddock cut before.

Weigh a few of your bales - sizes and density vary a lot.

Carting and your needs

How many fit on the truck or trailer. 0 to skip.

Optional - e.g. from the feed budget calculator. 0 to skip.

Optional: what a bale costs you or sells for. 0 to skip.

Your bales

222whole bales
100 tas baled
8.9bales/ha · 3.6/acre

Enter the bales you need to compare

Each circle ≈ 4 bales
Carting
7 truck loads
Value of the bales
Enter your value
Value per hectare
Enter your value
Same price per tonne
Enter your value
Link to these numbers

How we work it out

  • Tonnes: area × your yield (as baled, not dry matter).
  • Bales: tonnes × 1,000 ÷ bale weight, rounded down to whole bales. Bales/ha = yield × 1,000 ÷ bale weight.
  • Carting and value: bales ÷ bales per load, rounded up; value = bales × your price; per tonne = price × 1,000 ÷ bale weight.

Only as good as your yield estimate and bale weight - season, cut, moisture and baler settings all change them, so weigh a few bales. For silage, use the wet weight of your wrapped bales. We don’t show hay prices; use your own. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere. To work out how many bales your stock need, use the feed budget calculator; to compare feeds on price, the feed cost comparer.

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