The advantage of round bales is that the rounded top sheds water and bales can be stored in ambient storage without the expense of covered storage. A second important advantage of round bales is that round balers are conventional technology throughout the United States. They are widely used to harvest forage. Compared to a large rectangular baler, a round baler has lower capital cost.

A significant advantage is realized by the farmers if their round balers can be used for both their existing livestock enterprise and a bioenergy enterprise. Warm-season grasses are harvested during the winter for the bioenergy market. Thus, the biomass harvest does not conflict with the hay harvest. The advantage gained by the biorefinery is that no need for their feedstock producers to invest in new equipment. Requiring capitalization of new equipment will make the contacting with feedstock producers more difficult.

The disadvantage of round bales is that they are hard to stack and thus the handling and transport costs are higher. System performance was analyzed and field capacities were determined based on field measurements [16]. Individual handling of bales (either round or rectangular) is not cost effective. The high cost is caused by long loading and unloading times. Multi-bale handling units have been designed, and these units are discussed in Section 9 of this chapter.