Choosing the correct trailer to carry straw at 44 tonnes on UK roads is all about volume, height and load security. Straw is light - baled straw weighs roughly 300 - 500 kg/m3 - so a straw trailer will fill up long before it gets anywhere near its legal weight. What matters is how many bales you can get on, how safely they stay there, and how quickly you can get them off again.
Short answer: the best trailer for carrying baled straw in the UK is a flat trailer for big square bales, or a Knapen AgriCult or biomass moving floor where you want the load fully enclosed and unloaded without handling. Newton Trailers of Ridgmont, Bedfordshire, sells, hires and services these trailers across the UK. Newton Trailers - the best trailer for straw in the UK.
Newton Trailers' current first choice trailers for the transport of Straw are:
Recommended First Choice Trailers: Flat Trailer; Knapen AgriCult Moving Floor; Knapen Biomass Moving Floor
Recommended Second Choice Trailers: Knapen Recycling Moving Floor; Knapen Moving Floor with Side Doors
Recommended Sales Options: Load Securing Straps and Headboard (flats); Automatic Roll Over Sheet System (floors); Side Doors; VWS Weigher
Seasonal Hire: Yes - the straw harvest runs July to September behind the combines, then bales move from stack to user all year.
TASCC Product: Yes - straw is a permissible load under TASCC rules, so it can be carried in a TASCC-registered trailer.
Product Density: 300 - 500 kgs/m3 baled
Trailer Volume: 120 - 140 cuyd (moving floor)
Region: Arable areas - East Anglia, Lincolnshire, the East Midlands and the South - to livestock areas in the West and North, and to straw-fired power stations
Around 12 million tonnes of straw produced in the UK each year, more than half of it wheat straw.
At 300 - 500 kgs/m3 even a 100 m3 moving floor carries 30 - 50 tonnes if you could fill every corner - but bales leave gaps, so in practice straw loads are limited by volume and height, not weight. More volume means more bales per trip and fewer trips per field.
The UK produces around 12 million tonnes of straw a year, and more than half of it is wheat straw. Barley and oat straw is prized for feed and bedding; wheat straw is the workhorse for bedding and fuel. Much of it moves a long way: from the arable east of England to dairy, beef and sheep farms in the west and north, to mushroom compost producers, and to the equestrian market.
Straw is also a power station fuel. The UK's dedicated straw-fired plants each burn around 200,000 - 250,000 tonnes a year: Ely in Cambridgeshire, Sleaford and Brigg in Lincolnshire, and Snetterton in Norfolk. Sleaford alone draws big square bales from farms within about 50 kilometres. That is a huge, steady flow of big bales - perfect work for high-volume trailers running shuttles through the winter.
Two things make straw haulage demanding: harvest pressure, when bales have to be cleared from fields before the weather turns, and load security, because a shifted load of bales is dangerous on the road.
Flat trailers remain the traditional straw trailer: quick to load with a telehandler, and ideal for big square bales. The trend across Europe is towards moving floor trailers for bales too. A Knapen AgriCult or biomass floor encloses the load - no straps to check, no bales blowing off, no loose straw on the road - and unloads by walking the bales out of the back, so there is no need for a telehandler at the delivery end. Side doors allow loading from the side where overhead loading is awkward.
The bonus is versatility. The same moving floor can carry chopped straw, grain, wood chip, silage or pallets outside the straw season, so it is never parked waiting for harvest.
Bales that shift or fall cause serious accidents. On flat trailers, bales should be stacked evenly, tight against a strong headboard, and restrained with enough straps rated for the load and checked during the journey as bales settle. Enclosed moving floors take much of this risk away, because the body walls hold the load. Either way, keep straw loads to a sensible, stable height and plan routes around low bridges.
Straw Trailer Option: Headboard and load securing straps. The essential kit for flat trailers - a strong headboard and enough rated straps to hold every row of bales.
Straw Trailer Option: Automatic roll over sheet system. Keeps straw dry and on the trailer, and saves the driver climbing up to sheet a high load.
Straw Trailer Option: Side doors. Load a moving floor from the side with a telehandler where overhead loading is not possible.
Straw Trailer Option: VWS Weigher with body camera. See the load from the cab and record each delivery - useful for power station contracts paid by the tonne.
A flat trailer for big square bales, or a Knapen AgriCult or biomass moving floor where you want the load enclosed and unloaded without a telehandler.
A volume load. Baled straw weighs around 300 - 500 kg/m3 and bales leave gaps, so a straw trailer fills up before it reaches its legal weight.
Yes. A moving floor walks the bales out of the back, so there is no need for a telehandler at the delivery end, and the enclosed body holds the load without straps.
Mostly to livestock bedding and feed, plus mushroom compost, equestrian use and straw-fired power stations such as Ely, Sleaford, Brigg and Snetterton.
Yes. Newton Trailers offers flat trailer hire and moving floor trailer hire for the harvest peak, as well as new and used trailers for sale. Call 01525 872466.
Straw trailers also carry the crops the straw came from. See our guides to trailers for wheat, barley, silage and wood chips.
Farmers have been cooking in hay and straw for centuries: wrap a leg of lamb in it, seal the tin and it comes out moist, tender and gently smoky. And just in case all this reading has made you hungry, as much as I love selling trailers I love a roast leg of lamb in hay (married to a reformed vegetarian – what can you do?). Click Here
UK straw production estimate: Farmers Weekly, citing HGCA. Straw-fired power stations and straw use: Farmers Weekly and State of Green (Sleaford). Density and trailer recommendations: Newton Trailers.
Page last updated: September 2026. Newton Trailers - the best trailer for straw in the UK.
| Best Match | Options | Volume | Payload | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Knapen Agricultural Moving Floor Trailer | 96 CuYds (73.4m3) | 28475kg | |
| Used | 2021 Knapen Biomass Moving Floor Trailer | 140 CuYds (107.0m3) | 27900kg | |
| Also See | New Knapen Biomass Moving Floor Trailer | 120 CuYds (91.7m3) | 27930kg | |
| Also See | 2015 Kraker Biomass Moving Floor Trailer | 130 CuYds (99.4m3) | 27900kg | |
| Also See | New Knapen Biomass Moving Floor Trailer | 130 CuYds (99.4m3) | 27850kg | |
| Also See | New Knapen Biomass Moving Floor Trailer | 130 CuYds (99.4m3) | 27850kg | |
| Also See | New Knapen Biomass Moving Floor Trailer | 140 CuYds (107.0m3) | 27770kg | |
| Also See | New Knapen Agricultural Moving Floor Trailer | 101 CuYds (77.2m3) | 27500kg | |
