Best way to handle bales for your own use?

Currently we make about 5000 small squares of hay and 4000 of straw a year for our dairy operation.  It's all stacked on flat racks behind the baler, unloaded onto an elevator, stacked in the mow, thrown out of the mow as needed and stacked in the barn for final use.  Some of the bales are probably handled close to 10 times so it's not very efficient.  Usually my brother, my mom, sometimes my sister, and most times myself unless I can't get away from work.  Mom probably should not be handling bales as much as she does, and we'd probably do a better job in the barn on haying days if we weren't beat from handling bales.

 

Hiring labour is a pain so we are looking at alternatives, likely either an accumulator/grapple setup, or 3x3 large squares.  We want own the equipment ourselves, even if it doesn't entirely make financial sense, and are pretty decent mechanics.  The livestock is out from under the mows, so the floors could be removed/modified to allow tractor access for storage.  We had a neighbour make some big squares for us the last two years and the hay isn't too bad to use, the straw will take some kind of bale chopper to work well in the barns.

 

Does it make any sense to stick with small squares if we are not selling them?  It seems most guys with automated handling systems are selling small squares because of the price premium. 

 

Can an older big square baler be kept running by competent mechanics without big $$$ in parts?  I realize we'd make less than 1000 bales per year with it.

 

Can big square bales match the small ones for quality?  We have an aeration floor in the mow that has probably saved a lot of tough hay for us.  I've figured out the cost of electricity to run the fans and we could put on a fair bit of perservative for the same $$, but I don't know if the cows would like it as well.

 

Currently we can average 400+ bales an hour in a decent crop, would an accumulator and grapple setup slow that down?  We've picked up and stored 120 big squares in an evening and even that gets pretty tedious with only one loader.  I'm guessing a grapple and bundles would be quite a bit slower.

 

Can a 100 hp 4wd 11500lb tractor handle a big square baler?  We are fairly flat and don't have to travel on the road.

 

Sorry for the long post and all the questions, but this is the time of year to sort it out!!  I've read a lot of posts on here and agtalk and I'm smarter, but just as undecided!  Part of me is tempted to chop the straw with the harvester, store it in bulk, and just buy the hay.  Let someone else deal with hassle of making dry hay in our humid climate!!

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

Best way to handle bales for your own use?