Bale Spear - Front or Rear??

[jimmyj]

Agree with the others, get both front and back. You will be pleased if you do.

 

[tessiers]

Also depends on size of bales. The largest round bales tippically 6x6 will weigh in at about 1700lbs average depending on what's baled and how tight the bale is. If you just need to move them off of a field then a 3pt would be faster and you would be able to see where you're driving. If you need to load them on to a trailer then you'll need the front mounted spear. At this point I use a front mounted spear and with the weight of my tractor I don't need any rear ballast. It is a pain to drive where I need to drop the bale for the animals and if I had a lot of obsticales I probably would be backing all the way. Eventually I will be making a rear spear just for the ease of moving them in the field.

Good luck.

They could weigh more, we use 4x5 wrapped rounds that are over a ton, 5x5 wraps are 2500 or so. They also make a bale handler that goes on the rear to double stack and load trailers, looks kinda like a forklift mast. I do however agree both is the way to go, especially if you need to carry them any distance. We actually use a pallet fork for the dry bales half the time, tip them onto the flat end so you don't catch the twine and you are good to go.

 

[Grateful11]

Our bales are never larger than 4'x4' and we're able to handle them fine with the FEL and just filled rear tires, R4's and the L3940. Someone said they probably weighed 600-800lbs. My wife and the help put in 250-350 bales a year.

 

[Grateful11]

They could weigh more, we use 4x5 wrapped rounds that are over a ton, 5x5 wraps are 2500 or so. They also make a bale handler that goes on the rear to double stack and load trailers, looks kinda like a forklift mast. I do however agree both is the way to go, especially if you need to carry them any distance. We actually use a pallet fork for the dry bales half the time, tip them onto the flat end so you don't catch the twine and you are good to go.

Have ever had them actually weighed? Unless it's haylage 2500# sounds a bit high for 5'x5' bale.

 

[tessiers]

Have ever had them actually weighed? Unless it's haylage 2500# sounds a bit high for 5'x5' bale.

Yes, I am talking wrapped bales 65% moisture give or take. They do not say wrapped or dry bales. We feed both but for cattle nothing beats wrapped bales. I resisted wrapped bales for several years, however the quality of my animals has improved while costs have shrunk since feeding baleage. Yes we have weighed them 8 - 5x5 bales was just over 10 tons

 

[Grateful11]

Yes, I am talking wrapped bales 65% moisture give or take. They do not say wrapped or dry bales. We feed both but for cattle nothing beats wrapped bales. I resisted wrapped bales for several years, however the quality of my animals has improved while costs have shrunk since feeding baleage. Yes we have weighed them 8 - 5x5 bales was just over 10 tons

I figured it about had to be high moisture content bales. Do have your own wrapper or do you contract it out? Friend of ours has gone to the long white plastic tube for silage and has a guy come in with a machine to do for him. He said the machine was pretty high, I realize it's a totally different type wrap from what you're using. I saw a video of a Krone round baler that bale the bale moved it to the rear where it wrapped the bale while still going through the field and then dropped it off and kept right on going, awesome looking baler.

 

[tessiers]

We work with some neigbors who bale and wrap for us. They have a table type wrapper, scoops up the bale, wraps it, and sets it back down. Down side is you need a bale handler so you don't puncture the wrap, up side is they are easy to store and move around once you are set up. The other thing is once you have a bale handler you will never use your spear again. You will find people who love and hate any wrap method you look at but almost everyone I have talked to loves baleage in whatever form they prefer to feed. I have even talked to people who feed it to horses, it is more digestible so they have to be fed controlled amounts to prevent over eating, however it can work. My wife is a hay fanatic so our horse get stricktly dry hay, actually most recreational horse people are hard sells, the people trying to eak out a living are the ones who like baleage.

Thats just my $.02

 

[jinman]

Let me help you spend some money and give a plug to Everything Attachments. Here is a combo 3PH/FEL bale spear. You can put it either on the front or rear. Buy this and use the money you've saved to buy a set of pallet forks too. Just for insurance, take your wife to dinner and buy her some flowers before it's all delivered.:thumbsup:

 

[PapaPerk]

Rear if you only have one spear. 3940 is too small to handle big round bales on the FEL only. And counterbalancing to just to handle bales is bad business IMHO.

 

[Jerry/MT]

Looks like I will be handling round bales much sooner than anticipated. So what do I need to consider when deciding whether to get one for the 3 point hitch, or for the FEL, aside from the obvious difference in lifting heights.

Kubota L3940 with FEL & Bucket, 3rd function remote. Remote hydraulic available at rear.

Thanks, this place has helped me tremendously.


Big Al

What are you going to do with your round bales? I use a loader mounted spear to load our trailer and clear the field and then stack the bales. I then unstack them and use a bale spinner to feed the cows. You can't do that with a three point mounted spear. About all you can do with a three point spear is pick a bale up and drive off with it and set it down.