I need to automate my bale handling

[WTA]

We automated everything this year and I have to say I love it now.I can sit out there in the air conditioning, when my tractor works, and do the work myself that used to take 4 people. I don't worry as much if a storm is on the horizon now either. It seems to happen so often that now right after I cut my hay I go to the co-op and pick up another full fertilizer spreader so it's ready to go as soon as my last bale is off the ground.
Last year we were breaking our backs so bad to get the hay picked up that I wasn't in any shape to drive the tractor again and spread fertilizer.

I've only got one night of use on my NH stack wagon right now. It's an old 1002 but it's a good machine and easy to work on. It stacks 56 bales which is fine with me. I don't have a barn to stack it in so we make long stacks alongside the driveway with a heavy tarp underneath and more tarps on top to completely seal it.

The biggest tip I have about these stack wagons is to blow them off good with air after you are done using it. Anywhere grass and debris collects it's going to rust. I had to replace a few pieces of steel on mine right after I got it from that. I keep the tables in the up position now too so water can run off of them instead of pool on the sheet metal. I'll be repainting it real soon too and that will help a lot.
About the only thing I keep indoors is my baler.

I'm still trying to figure out what everyone is talking about with adjusting one of the stacks on the table so you can tie it. I've had a couple fall over now as I was unloading the stacker and it can be a pain.

 

[jimg]

If its bigger bales w/o the expense of a big baler then there are options...you can wire tie or go w/ a med sized bale (between small/big sqs). Not sure how those balers price out but I assume its somewhere in the middle. I dont know how well handling systems work w/ med sized bales though.

 

[zzvyb6]

WTA:

Take a look at this image. When you have 4 or 5 layers on the load table, stop the machine when the 2nd table is full, just befor it lifts. Rearrange the bales on this slab to the order shown on the right. The reordered bales in the center of the pack will tie the two side lobes together. This is usually recommended when you intend to retrive the stack later, but its also a good way to keep the pile from falling if you are just unloading at an elevator.

BTW: Its a lot of fun to take the stack apart after unloading by removing bales at the bottom to see how many you can take out befor it tumbles. You'd be surprized at the skills kids have developed these days....

 

[tjkadar]

I'm a big fan of a stack wagon. The hay farm I used to work at has used the same stack wagon for over 20 years. Until you're loading a bale on someone's pickup, you don't need need to touch the hay from the field to the barn.

Pickups are generally done only on weekends and stacking is done by one or two younger guys. Deliveries are handled by the same fellas during the week.

A stack wagon is a real labor saving device.

 

[WTA]

Well a picture says a thousand words. Thanks a lot for posting that for me. Now I understand.

I have a telephone pole out in the back yard now that we are going to cut in half and plant in the ground so I have something to lay my first stack up against too. I've been told I should nail a couple pieces of plywood across them also and I probably will.

My eventual goal is to keep putting those poles in the ground, leaving them high enough that I can get the whole tractor and stacker in there and operate it and then build a roof over it and then sides eventually. A poor mans pole barn. I just have to make it as nice looking as possible to make my wife happy. She's a Yankee ya know and has her priorities a little off. A good paint job seems more important than a good roof to her.

 

[tjkadar]

Intsead of plywood, a couple stringers running from pole to pole will work just fine.

 

[slowzuki]

Robert I'll address one thing the other thread didn't. Every person I've ever talked to about the single bale unload says its near useless.

If you think roading and unloading a stack eats into the productivity, the single bale unload ties the machine up for the time to unload. It could hobble a SP to slower than a towed model unloading into stacks.

I've been struggling with the same types of issues. As a cheap step this year I put a chute on my baler this year so a couple of people riding the wagon could easily stack. It worked out great, the wagons hold more than a thrower filled one, its not as dusty as setting a guy catching thrower bales and I only stop to swap wagons.

The other wagon goes back to the barn behind a truck or other tractor.

If I had a grapple on the other tractor it could unstack that wagon and have it back by the time the next was full.

I looked at running a bale wagon and it could work too but the drawbacks I see:

-Baling around bales in the field. You have a thrower so you don't have to worry but this is a pain with ground dropping in the east with our narrow raking.

-Time to pick up bales if I am stuck working on my own one day.

-Stacks, its too wet here to leave stacks outside. I don't have buildings to accommodate etc etc.

If you are just using the machine to accumulate stacks and set at the edge of the field, why not use an accumulator which lets the guy in the tractor do that himself freeing up a tractor and person.

I will second the fellow talking about a dolly for your flatbed trailer. They are great for stacking on and will hold 600+ bales. Thats almost 3 wagons there. I saw a dolly for sale locally for 150$ last month.

I see a few guys with accumulators using skidsteers to load with, and forklifts at their barns. I don't know what other equipment you have from the orchards but it may cross over.

 

[Niji]

This is a great discussion for me as I anticipate seeking just such labor savers for my square baling here in the mountains of VA in a couple of years. I could easily expand my hay acreage, as I already have other nieghbors calling me up to see if I'll hay their land, but even with the 50 acres I've got going already, depending on other folks, even if I'm holding a ton of cash in one hand and cold lemonade in the other, it makes no difference--there's no dependable help. I remember skipping school to doctor cattle or drive a tractor all day, I loved it, but I guess I was just retarded or the times really have changed....

I had not heard of a machine to re-bale rounds into small squares. I'm curious but concerned by the prospect. We put up hay mostly for horses, so the square bales are preferable. While I have put up rounds bales that were horse quality feed, the typical round bale is right questionable with mold, heating up, and general wierdness that ruminants don't think twice about but gets the vet out for a horse. I'm figuring round balers in general are mechanically able to put up greener hay that would be more troubling to the square baler as well. So, I wonder if the process of going from rounds to squares--unless you did all the haying yourself and could be absolutely certain of the round bale quality--could get you into a mess? Especially selling to other horse owners. Any thoughts/experience?

As for the big square bales, man, I had never seen one of those things until last winter when I bought a half semi load from Ontario. They were the cat's pajamas in my opinion. I think there were 50 to an enclosed semi, and they stacked beautifully with hardly a wasted inch in the truck. Picking up a flake from the bale to feed was like handling a sheet of heavy plywood, but I could stack them into the front end loader and easily feed up around the farm. If I had the money, and the storage facility, I would definitely go that route for myself.

 

[jimg]

It seems to me that the solution depends somewhat on how youre selling the hay. An accumulator/grapple for out of the field and stack wagon for out of the barn.

 

[slowzuki]

The problems with bale unrollers that I see right away are:

Fuel use
Loss of leaf
Space/time to rebale

Rounders are great to get hay out of a field but take time to stack. They have to be drier to produce the same quality hay as small squares. They lose more leaf by nature already so rebaling a round isn't the best idea.

It is nice to bale larger windrows with a rounder, so you can use a wider rake and skip some passes.