lifting bales

[JimRB]

I have used a three point hitch round bale mover and I have a bale mover for my front end loader. Technically the round bales are too heavy for the front end loader so I have to be somewhat cautious. Where I live round bales are Bermuda, Fescue and Rye. A mix of any of the three yields a round bale that generally weighs no more than a thousand pounds. Maybe closer to 800 pounds. I stack the rounds 2 high in my concrete floored barn. The 3 point hitch is technically safer and far from the margin of too heavy to lift. The loader spec is almost a 1,000 pounds while the 3 point hitch is almost 1,900 pounds. My wife unrolls what she needs and feeds to the horses. Much messier than squares but more economical.

When I have been in Colorado I see a fair quantity of irrigated Alfalfa. Alfalfa bales weigh a lot more than the grass hay I get.

 

[Creamer]

The three point hitch is a much stronger lift and is the safer way to carry a bale. it is just not as flexible for stacking or handling as a loader. If you are going to carry a bale any distance this is the preferred method. You can use pallet forks the same way it is just not quite as easy. Some of the soft core big rounds do not carry well on a spear either.

If it were me I would use my 3 pt pallet forks to move the bales and then the loader with a grapple fork to handle them at the destination when using a small tractor. I just would not put the strain on my tractor front end but the tractor would technically handle it. Now my brother runs very large round bales and uses his Kubota M135 with a double spear on the back and grapple on the front. He picks up 3 bales and hauls them to where he is stacking them and uses the loader to put them up. (His alfalfa bales are typically about 1700 lbs.) His tractor is built to handle this weight. It all depends on what you have.

I am not a fan of skid steers for heavy loads as I have seen and heard of way to many accidents of them falling forward and operator injury. Just had one in my area a year ago where a guy was using his skid steer to dump manure into a spreader that was on the other side of a fence. As he approached the spreader he had the scoop up and when he stopped the skid steer tipped forward and the steel post speared the operator.

 

[coondle]

Here is a real lifter of big bales, not good for going down the highway though.

https://youtu.be/T08RlqGRZ84

 

[Creamer]

Here is a real lifter of big bales, not good for going down the highway though.

https://youtu.be/T08RlqGRZ84

A lot of whine in that tractor- is that normal?

 

[MattLynch]

I have a sheep farm here, and what equipment you use really depends on how big you want to expand. We feed round bale silage, bales weigh 1200-1400lbs. My tractor is 93hp, but is fairly light (10k with loaded tires and wheel weights). It gets the job done but needs weight on the back to keep it stable. If I was just feeding hay I would say a 40+hp tractor would be fine, but I would recommend something 60hp+ and fairly heavy for silage bales.

How big do you want to expand? If less then 100 sheep an old tractor with a 3pt spear will be fine for hay or maybe haylage. 100-300 sheep buy a small used tractor with a loader. 500+ 100hp large utility and keep a smaller tractor as a spare.

A loader is much better then a 3pt spear, but not worth the money unless you are either big enough and making the money or come across one cheap.