Hay Bale Stacker

[zzvyb6]

About 10 years ago, I bought an old rusty machinery thing just for the chain sprocketsit had on it. Later, I figured out it was a pickup truck hayloader. Basically, it was a ground driven hay elevator that ran along side the truck and delivered square bales up to a person in the truck bed. Maybe somebody should resurrect this notion and build a prototype. I could probably get a picture of it if anybody's interested.

 

[charlz]

About 10 years ago, I bought an old rusty machinery thing just for the chain sprocketsit had on it. Later, I figured out it was a pickup truck hayloader. Basically, it was a ground driven hay elevator that ran along side the truck and delivered square bales up to a person in the truck bed. Maybe somebody should resurrect this notion and build a prototype. I could probably get a picture of it if anybody's interested.

Balevator or bale-a-vator is what we called them, attached to the side of the hay wagons. Massive improvement from bucking the hay off the ground but still a ton of work.

 

[Renze]

one of the 2 most popular silage methods are conventional pit silage for those bigger farms who feed TMR. The rest use wrapped square bales, sized 80x90cm.

With the big squares, taking flakes off is easy as with small conventional bales. If we feed in the field, we cut a hole in the plastic about 2/3 of the surface, kind of like a T shirt with a head hole, that hangs around the shoulders of the bale. It works great, because the horses have to pluck out the feed out of the bale, they spill less than if you feed them loose silage under the fence in a windrow.

Plan is to build a feeder this season, with a spill bucket underneath.
I'm still looking for designs so... if anybody has a good suggestion of what might work...

Again, since i built that front loader, none of us wants small bales anymore because of the labor involved, and the dust in dry hay. We try to get the haylage dried to a level that it is allmost hay, but its just moist enough to bind dust particles.

 

[chowl]

Buying the metal and welding it together is not a problem. I have few good
sources for the steel and all the equipment to do the welding. The only real
problem would be setting everything inline to work right. Get the right grease
bearings for the unit and the teeth might be a problem. Maybe I could just order the teeth from Steffen. I think the hydraulics might not be that big a deal either.

I would take my JD 4720 hydro over to the JD dealer and have him rig the
hydraulics on the tractor ( around a $1,000 bucks ) I have already check with
them.

The guy I'm buying my hay from now has a Steffen 5508 stacker ,and a 950 Accumulator. I might beable to use his as a model to build the stacker.

If I buy equipment rightout from Steffen and JD dealer. It would cost me over
$5,000 for this stacker. I think I could save a lot of money if I build the stacker myself.

Then it might be better just to buy the thing and save myself the time and
work into building the unit, and everything should work right from the getgo.

 

[Mike120]

Other than NH stacker wagons I have limited experience with stackers. However, if you are going to unload with one, it seems to me that you are better off using the same thing to unload as what was used to load.

hydraulics are generally always an issue. To operate my weed wiper I have to run hoses all the way back to my rear remotes.

 

[flusher]

Balevator or bale-a-vator is what we called them, attached to the side of the hay wagons. Massive improvement from bucking the hay off the ground but still a ton of work.

I think this is what you have in mind. Neato. Photo taken in the 1930s in Central CA.

 

[flusher]

Has anyone ever build a bale stacker for your front loader on your tactor? One that is like the one Steffen sells for arround $4,000.00.

I've given that issue some thought since I'm planning to put 7 of my 10 acres of pasture land into hay next year.

Gonna make the standard size rectangular bales and need some way to get them off the field and stacked under cover. I have a 2005 Kubota B7510HST with an LA 302 FEL (21 hp engine) and a 1964 MF-135 diesel (45 hp engine, 3pt but no FEL).

Since there will only be around 100-150 bales per cutting I don't need to handle more than one bale at a time. What I'm thinking is buying or making a single-bale hay squeeze that attaches to the LA302 FEL. Unfortunately, the FEL bucket is not easily detachable so I might have to invest in one of those quick detach adapters.

With the squeeze I can stack bales on my 5x10ft flatbed trailer that is hitched either to the F150 or the MF-135 and move the load to my storage area. I'll unload the trailer and stack the bales with the sqeeze.

I'll be looking for that type of squeeze store-bought. Anyone out there know who might make this kind of equipment?

Anybody ever build a homemade squeeze like this?

 

[Grrrr]

I've given that issue some thought since I'm planning to put 7 of my 10 acres of pasture land into hay next year.

Gonna make the standard size rectangular bales and need some way to get them off the field and stacked under cover. I have a 2005 Kubota B7510HST with an LA 302 FEL (21 hp engine) and a 1964 MF-135 diesel (45 hp engine, 3pt but no FEL).

Since there will only be around 100-150 bales per cutting I don't need to handle more than one bale at a time. What I'm thinking is buying or making a single-bale hay squeeze that attaches to the LA302 FEL. Unfortunately, the FEL bucket is not easily detachable so I might have to invest in one of those quick detach adapters.

With the squeeze I can stack bales on my 5x10ft flatbed trailer that is hitched either to the F150 or the MF-135 and move the load to my storage area. I'll unload the trailer and stack the bales with the sqeeze.

I'll be looking for that type of squeeze store-bought. Anyone out there know who might make this kind of equipment?

Anybody ever build a homemade squeeze like this?

IMO, it would be a waste of time to build a loader mounted squeeze for small bales.

They really aren't that bad to handle and if you can get someone to help for an evening, it wouldn't take long at all.

We have an accumulator and grab but only use it in the bigger fields.

This year we picked up about 500 bales by hand between 3 of us one evening, one driving and two stacking. It really didn't take long.

I should think you could do 100 - 200 in less than two hours by yourself depending on how spread out they are.

I reckon it would be a lot slower using the loader and a miniature grab.

 

[chowl]

Maybe we could get a volume discount from a dealer or Steffen themself if a few of us what some of their equipment. There would a lot of happy hay people.

 

[flusher]

IMO, it would be a waste of time to build a loader mounted squeeze for small bales.

They really aren't that bad to handle and if you can get someone to help for an evening, it wouldn't take long at all.

We have an accumulator and grab but only use it in the bigger fields.

This year we picked up about 500 bales by hand between 3 of us one evening, one driving and two stacking. It really didn't take long.

I should think you could do 100 - 200 in less than two hours by yourself depending on how spread out they are.

I reckon it would be a lot slower using the loader and a miniature grab.

Thanks for the input. Points well taken.

However, my haying is strictly a one-man operation.

Don't want to schlep bales by hand myself. There has to be a better way that doesn't cost a fortune in equipment.

Don't want to get into CA workers compensation issues by hiring help.

Don't want to have to increase the liability insurance I carry now by hiring help or having neighbors participate.

Time is not really an issue (I'm retired) unless weather conditions cause a hurry-up situation during the hay harvest. Hope to be able to avoid this problem.

And, finally, I enjoy the challenge to figure out how to get my hay stacked using my existing equipment and a (hopefully) relatively inexpensive additional implement for stacking, like a miniature hay squeeze.

Something like a Hay Buddy might work

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