. 1986. Economic benefits of weather protection for large round bales. Can. An economic evaluation ofthe storage losses ofvarious haying systems isreported. This information was necessary to augment a study of the effect of storage characteristicson round bale quality in which round bales from two different round baler types (fixed and variable bale chamber) were stored in five different manners. In addition, the costs of harvesting and storing hay by several methods were evaluated. These costs were translated into costs per "useable" tonneof hay. Values of spoiledhay were compared with the values of weather protection for round bales. The values ofhay spoilage indifferent types of storage were combined with detailed costs of growing, harvesting and storing hay and compared. Economic comparison with traditional rectangular bale harvesting methods is also included. It was found that round bale harvesting was the least expensive method at all volumes. Round bale harvesting with inside storage or plastic wrap protection provided a higher value than outside storage of round bales because of the increased spoilage when not protected. The cost of inside storage was equal to 14% spoilage of round bales
