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It is that time of year. Pine straw is falling beautifully in Lower Alabama. I hope we can start baling tomorrow. I have found several small locations to bale on. Hope I can post some pictures this week.

How good of a market is pine straw bales? Here in east Texas there is tons on tons of pine straw.

Not to ask a dumb question, but I am assuming pine straw is just the needles off of pine trees. How do you bale it, and what is it used for? I have large pine trees on the back side of my house, and each fall the tree deposit 4 inches of pine needles onto the roof and gutters. I was just up on my roof a couple of days ago blowing the needles to the ground, and then I mow them up and get rid of them.

BoylermanCT said:

Not to ask a dumb question, but I am assuming pine straw is just the needles off of pine trees. How do you bale it, and what is it used for? I have large pine trees on the back side of my house, and each fall the tree deposit 4 inches of pine needles onto the roof and gutters. I was just up on my roof a couple of days ago blowing the needles to the ground, and then I mow them up and get rid of them.

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Yes Pine straw is the pine needles the fall off.

I have a baler that I made that compacts the bales. I will try to post some pictures later this week.

It uses an air cylinder to press the bales and I hand tie them and then release the pressure on the bale.

I also use a rake 52" wide on the front of my 4 wheeler to push the straw up into piles and then position the baler beside the pile to feed it into the baler.

Pine straw is used as mulch in beds in many parts of the country. In our area a bale sells for approximately $4.50 per bale retail.

Hope that answers your questions.

Over the lat few years I have built several different versions of balers and rakes trying to perfect my equipment.

The picture posted for my moniker shows my rake on the front of an old Craftsman mower. I have that same rake now on the front of my 4 wheeler and the winch raises and lowers it.....

Thanks JekJr. I am familiar with baling hay but not pine needles! Is your baler similar to a hay baler? I'd be interested in seeing pics of both the finished bales and your equipment.

BoylermanCT said:

Thanks JekJr. I am familiar with baling hay but not pine needles! Is your baler similar to a hay baler? I'd be interested in seeing pics of both the finished bales and your equipment.

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Here is everything hooked up and ready to go to work this AM. We got up about 30 Bales. Did not really work long. The straw we got today was prime. Very clean. Very fresh.

So do you hand load the needles into the baler? I don't see a scoop or rake that picks the needles off the ground and into the baler. Did you make the baler? It looks like a Harbor Freight trailer - lots of uses for those!

BoylermanCT said:

So do you hand load the needles into the baler? I don't see a scoop or rake that picks the needles off the ground and into the baler. Did you make the baler? It looks like a Harbor Freight trailer - lots of uses for those!

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I take the rake on the front of the 4 wheeler and make piles of straw. Then I hook it back to the baler and move the baler from pile to pile.

Yes I hand feed it at the piles. It has an air cylinder on the baler that compacts the bales.

Had a decent day baling yesterday. We baled 50 bales off of the grass on a golf course. Excellent quality and color.