On 12/8/12 1:39 AM, harry wrote:

Obviously legitimate. The point is where would crooks get access to
machinery to handle a bale like this?
u
You make it sound like bale handling requires some exotic
equipment. Farmers steal for one thing. The brother of one of my
high school classmates turned out to be a crook. He spent a couple
years in prison if I remember right.
A skid loader with boom forks would load a bale into a pickup.
I've seen home made versions of the towable bale hauler I linked to a
couple days ago. Rental places have equipment that would load bales.
Construction crews have equipment that would load bales. This
equipment isn't anything special in rural areas.
It used to be that tractor keys would fit a particular tractor
series. The 94 series of the old Case brand tractors would all use the
same key for example. A thief could use the farmer's own equipment to
load their loot. Ebay has keys for sale. One could walk into a
tractor dealership and buy one.
The guys who haul hay could steal a couple extra bales and mix them
in with their legitimate load.
Alfalfa is going for over $200 per ton. Corn stover is going for
over $70/ton. Prices are FOB, freight on buyer.
Link he http://tinyurl.com/asod747