Around here, hay has been hard to find at a decent price this year & good news, I think I’ve found some good hay. The catch? It’s in 1000 lb round bales and I’m not sure I can handle unloading those up a small hill. I might be able to borrow a friend’s skidloader to unload. Will 1000 lb bales be too much for it? Once it’s in the barn, I can unwrap the bales and feed by hand. Is this possible or am I headed towards disaster? :lol:
Do you have anything to handle it with? Small tractor? We have a (tiny, real farmers would laugh at it) kubota but it does have a bucket. When the weight of the bale surpasses the power of the tractor we’ve gotten creative. Drag it in to position (not good if it’s muddy). Flip it end over end using the tractor. Attach it to bucket with straps, barely lift the bucket off the ground and drive it in.
Worst case scenario, if you have another pair of hands two people can roll it in to place.
I’ve been stuffing my hay nets from round and large squared for a few years and it works well as long as the hay is of good quality. Last year I experienced the down side with dusty hay that took a lot of extra management, this year has been much better.
even if you do get it to a secure covered barn/shed, my experience with unrolling is that when you put it on-end, that unlike a roll of toilet tissue, you will soon not be able to unwrap the bottom of the bale and that unroll-ability grows further and further up the bale over time. You’d be a lot better off buying a roundbale feeder and letting them free feed.
we are a farm and i have a couple of large tractors with hay spikes on both ends and we make and handle our own roundbales all the time. I’ve never used a skidsteer, but when i’ve gone to pickup bundles of alfalfa hay, they use a skidsteer. And those bundles are a brick of 21 sq bales weighing 50 pounds each…and much more awkward than a nice tight roundbale…so i think a bobcat with forks ought to be able to get a bale up a hill (down would be harder!) but you’ll have to shove those forks waaaaaaay in. It won’t hurt to try.
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I think it depends on what your goal is. if you’re filling nets like I do, it’s actually quite easy. Just cut the strings or take the wrap off after you’ve set the bale on a pallet and you’re good. It doesn’t peel off in nice layers like you would hope, but if you walk your way around the bale it doesn’t get bound up.
Even easier if you’re forking loose hay, I’d guess.
I dropped the big $ on a hay hut AND a round bale net but after 2 years of trial and error have come to the conclusion that my particular horse can’t have a hint of dust or eat hay from an elevated position, so they were not good purchases. Horses. Money pits!
Depends on the machine! Some can handle 1000#s and some cannot. If you google the make and model, you’ll be able to turn up the specs. :yes:
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I have a large concrete pad that is outside the pastures where we can store round bales. To feed one first I push it over on to a pallet then it is off the ground. This allows me to unroll the bale as needed. (I run a rope around the bale with a slip knot that keeps the whole thing together)… also cover the flipped bale with a trap.
If we use a round bale feeder our horses would just stand thee eating All Day and Night.
Every one comes up with their own solution, some work better than others but eventually you default to what works for you.
I have fed off round bales before by pulling chunks off, it works just fine, not really much different than feeding flakes off small squares.
Do you have enough space that you can back the truck carrying them up to where you’re storing them, and just roll them off? Or do you need to stack them?
I have a little sub-compact New Holland. I get three rolls delivered at a time, and right now the horses eating them get 24/7 access in the field. I use my bucket and push the roll up the little hill their field. If it’s too heavy for my little tractor to push, I roll it up the hill one swing at a time (put the bucket at they very bottom of the bale, push the lever so the bucket comes up, rolling the bale away). Even though I have a tractor and can easily move them around, the hay delivery guy always backs up to my barn and rolls them off the truck right into their storage spot.
Okay, this is good! Your info and questions are helping me think this out. I have no equipment other than possibly my friend’s skidloader to unload. It is a bank barn not built into a hillside, so we have to go UP the bank bridge to get the hay into the barn. The truck may or may not be able to back far enough up the bank bridge to back straight into the barn. If the bales were 500-lb 4x4s I wouldn’t be so concerned (I’ve pushed those by hand), but 4x6s that have weighed in at close to 1000lbs each give me pause. This isn’t my barn and I don’t usually feed round bales, so I don’t really want to invest in a round bale feeder right now if I can make do with stuffing haybags (although with some inconvenience!). I just need 4-5 round bales to close out my hay needs for the year after my hay guy with small squares ended up with less hay than expected. I did stuff hay bags off round bales in the past, but it was a long time ago – I remember having issues unrolling it, but I made it work with a pitchfork and a utility knife. Fortunately, I wouldn’t need to stack the bales, we’d have enough room to just put the bales on the floor level.
And @Simkie that is a good idea, I will find out the make and model and look into it! I just really didn’t want to be the a**hole asking someone to use their equipment for something it is definitely not intended for 
Friend is nice and would probably try to help anyway! But a skidloader repair bill would really make “cheaper” hay expensive…
Most skidsteers would not so much as blink at 1000lb (I honestly can’t think of one that couldn’t handle that). One of their key attributes is weight lifting capacity, because the loader arms are anchored near the back of the machine, where all its weight is. Compare to a tractor FEL which is anchored much further frontwards. (is that a word?) Picture lifting a 50# salt block–would it be easier if you have your elbows held out in front of you, or tucked back near your hips?
As long as your neighbor is ok with lending the assist, you should have no problem moving them to where you need.
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You’ll probably need the skid steer! But worst case you can probably push or pull it up the bank to the barn. Last time I had to drag one of the monstrous squares I left it on the skid, put the chain on the skid and dragged it. I’m going to develop some kind of skid on skis system to make that easier in the future, especially when snow comes.
I’ve run across a bunch of older machines that top out at less than 1000#s. 
A typical skid steer can usually handle a 1000 lb round bale. I do it all the time at my sister’s and it’s great. The only problem is that it’s low to the ground and apt to get stuck in the mud. We have a tractor and it’s presented some challenges. We need to take the bale down a hill and a few times I thought my husband was going to tip the tractor over. Initially, we drove the hay bale in the back of our truck to the desired location and then off-loaded. Since then, we’ve purchased a hay for for the back of our tractor and it works great. The hay spear on the front of the tractor resulted in the hay being lifted too high and caused some stability issues.
Just keep working to find what works for you and always be safe! You’ll find the best way!
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This is how I have been feeding my horses for 10 years. It is hard work, but I am able to roll a bale off the truck. If you can get a second person to help you get it up the slope, that would be best. I agree that you then have to get it standing on end. Sometimes I get them up on my own but it’s easier with two people. Or I hook a rope over them and pull them up with the truck. You need a really thick rope and patience with this approach. If you don’t mind the horses gaining some weight, I suggest investing in a hay net and just dump the whole bale in the field. I sometimes get my hay dealer to help me put the net on when I go get the bale. I buy one bale at a time because I don’t have indoor storage for hay.
Thanks for the help! I think I found some small squares for a little bit more money, but also more convenient. I’m probably going to go that way for the small amount I still need this year, but will file this info away for the future Friend did say skidloader can do 4x6 rounds, so that’s good to know!
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