Here is my second attempt for the hay bale.
I have give it so much detail, I find necessary when placing that bale near the track. As you can see we still count 66 verts and 56 polys.
The bale contains two objects - one for the brick and one for the edges ( this 3DGrass method - hairy stuff)
For bales more far away from the track the polys can easily be reduced.
I had to align all Normals to one direction because otherwise it doesn't look smooth enough with all the planes in different...
hay bale 2.0
this is the hay bale model I use for Goodwood hill climb