Moving Round Bales

[gwpoky]

Here is a video of us moving 1000# round bale about 100 of them on this field.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1FsyyBd1BM

This works O.K. but I do not like all the backing, I would like to rig up something that works a little like a buck rake and the be able to lift and stack bales, I bought a forklift boom on auction so we will see.

I hope this find you all well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1FsyyBd1BM

[Demented Donkey Dame]

Good luck with putting your forklift boom together, that would really be a help! Thanks for posting the video, I would love to have something like this to work Teamdonk with, even with all the backing. Our hay fields are close enough to the barn that I could see us bring in the bales!

[Robert MoonShadow]

Wow! Did you make this thing? That is so cool of an item!

[Rivendell Farm]

George,
I think I saw that once at Horse Progress Days. It looks like you’ve gotten pretty good at backing. My problem with most horse-drawn round bale movers is, they only move one bale at a time. If your field is more than a half mile from the barn, it’s slow work. I bought one that can move six round bales at a time. It’s called a Bale Master, and is basically a very low trailer made of pipes. Using an electric winch, cable and grappling hooks, you roll the bales up onto the wagon. Simply pull alongside the bale, run out the cable, set the hook and roll the bale up. The only time you may have to back it up is if the bale is very close to the edge of the field. You have to see it work to appreciate how clever the design is. I’m not sure it’s still being manufactured. A few years ago I paid $2,000 for it, much less than the cost of a self loading hydraulic trailer. Bob

[Lane Linnenkohl]

I have no issue with backing, and from the looks of it in the video, neither do you. Excellent job and thanks for posting.

[gwpoky]

Bob, I saw a picture of the Bale Master in one of Lynn Millers books, but I have never seen it work. If you could post some pics/video that would be great. I agree moving several at a time would be handy. This field is about 30 acres and up on top of the ridge so I was just moving them of the field, we will bring them down with a flat bed trailer. It sure would be nice to do it all in one fallow swoop with the horses though.

[Rivendell Farm]

I hope I did the pictures right. Anyway, if I did, here are some pictures of the Bale Master. I wrote an article about it that’s in the Small Farmers Journal, about 2006. To unload it, you simply pull out the grappling hooks and let the bales roll off. Videos are way beyond my technical skills. Bob

[Mike Rock]

That Balemaster is slick. I think it is possible to modify a similar round bale hauler that loads with a bale spear by adding the pipe across the sides and the teeth. By the way, it doesn’t look like you want to rest your butt on this thing very long!
Anyhow, by adding the sides and vertical units a conversion is possible for me. Neighbor has a round bale hauler with a cut under front with narrow wheels and he does not like it at all. He is nervous on hillsides with it. He is NOT a farmer, just a gardener with sheep so wanted to haul round bales…. My gain. Also, we do a lot of small squares and if a guy added some cross pieces under the sides we could place them on this rig right compactly and LOW TO THE GROUND. That help when you have old legs and hopping up on a wagon hurts, or you have short help (wife!).

Thanks for the inspiration to more perspiration.

Mike

[near horse]

Hey Bob,

I like your rig – how is it for tongue weight (putting upwards lift on the forecart tongue)?

[Rivendell Farm]

Geoff,
The tongue is virtually weightless with a full load of hay and two people on the cart, but it doesn’t seem to cause any problem except for bouncing at the trot down the road. I do have brakes on the cart that help a lot on steep hills. For braking it’s better to have more of the weight on the cart than less. My bales are 4X4. Larger bales can fit and might present more of a tongue problem. But there are carts with movable axles to balance the load, at a price. Bob

[near horse]

Thanks Bob. One more question – how do you get the bales off the cart? And how do you personally, store/stack them? Guess that’s 2 questions:)

[Rivendell Farm]

The bales are kind of balanced on the pipes of the bale master, and held there by the grappling hooks and short chains. You simply lift the hooks out of the bales and they roll off; sometimes it takes a slight push. The ones we feed to sheep in the field are rolled off so they line up along the fence. For the bales we store in a pole barn, I have a modified manure bucket that fits on the ancient loader of my Farmall M tractor with a bale spear on it. With that I can stack them three high. It’s not as nice as a modern, articulated loader bucket would be, but it was cheaper. Bob

[karl t pfister]

Bob, That That looks great for the field ,what do you do about storing in the barn? We roll ours in by hand and flip them onto the flat side, next course same as the 1/st except much harder , footing poor with holes . I have thought of skidster except the barns are designed for loose hay with 8″x8″ beams at 70″s off the floor. We do square bales too and stack them on top of rounds , kind of works .
I have thought of the old loose hay track systems , the ones a horse would power with a harpoon fork , but don’t know if they could stand up to 500 pound round Bales , also wonder about the floor ,dropping the bales from the ridge ? any body have any experience ? Thanks

[Rivendell Farm]

I know of an Amish farmer who uses a hay car and, I believe, slings to put both square and round bales in his barn loft. You don’t have to drop them more than a few inches, just high enough to clear the floor. You might want to be sure your barn is strong enough. A sling of loose hay may not weigh all that much less than a round bale. Old barns don’t make it easy to get round bales in or manure out, but they have a lot more character than pole buildings. Bob

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