Hi Warren,
perhaps I don't really undestand what you really need. I don't know how the situation in Madrid is (I'm writing from Barcelona). Here in Katalonia the bales are almost round, but many farmers still have the old machines for the usual strawbales, perhaps (we did it so) you can look for farmers and ask if they have still this kind of machine and ask them to sell you the bales. I think that it would be better (even here in Spain) to build in spring-summer, not because of the weather, it's because the farmers don't really store in good conditions their bales (that means humidity, mice, etc.). You should ask little farmers with animals (cows), they normally have this type of bales.
We found a little farmer with his own machine and land and asked him to make the bales with the pressure we needed.
We still know few persons here in Spain interested in this kind of construction, you can find information in the articles in the magazine "Rehabitar". Iñaki Urquia is one of the architects who builds with strawbales. Rikki and me began just this summer, we're apprentices looking forward to learn a lot.
I don't know if this was the information you needed.
Saludos y hasta pronto,
Maren Termens
>From: "Warren Hall"