Moving round bales

[JoZ]

Today I got two round bales. The only other time I’ve used round bales, they were delivered by a local farmer who dropped them in the fields. Today I went to a farm and had two put in the bed of my pick-up. Back at my place, I tried a few things unsuccessfully before I got into the bed of the truck, wedged myself between the two, and pushed the rearmost one out. It was a bit harder to get in between the cab and the front bale but I did it.

It is pretty easy to roll them on the ground, with two caveats. Changing their direction was a bit dicey, and I cannot stand them up on end. So here are my questions to COTH:

1. is it awful/dangerous for the horses to eat the round bales with them lying on their sides?

2. in the absence of equipment or another human, is there anything that will make moving them easier?

3. if I end up feeling I need a tool or a vehicle in order to keep using round bales, what is the best thing? And conversely, what is the cheapest/most bare-bones thing.

One thing I think I will do next time is drive to a better position in the pasture before pushing it out. It feels weird to drive in a pasture, so I stopped at the gate. I think I can get over the weirdness.

[CHT]

I cannot see why it would be bad for the bale to be on its side rather than on an end, as long as you were able to get the string off of course!

Have you seen bale buddies? You pull it behind your truck to move a round bale.

[ManyDogs]

After stacking 100 square bales, I can’t wait for my round bales! We have fed round bales for years. As our land is hilly, DH goes up the hill a bit and slams on the brakes. i have also wedged myself many times and done the two foot shove from the back of the truck.
I don’t know why end vs side would be an issue.

[brody]

I feed bales on side. That way I can slough off top if need be and my boys can share one bale at a time rather than having to put two out.

[hosspuller]

If you put a rope in the bed BEFORE loading the bales, it can be used to pull the bale/s out of the truck. Tie one end to the truck bumper, loop the other end over the bales and tie to a post at ground level. Drive the truck forward and the bales will be forced from the truck.

[moving_to_dc]

Just be careful pushing or pulling them out of the bed of your truck. You can damage/bend your tailgate…

If you don’t want to buy a tractor and your truck has a turnover ball, there are spears available that mount to the back of the bed, after you have taken the tailgate off. Works just like a 3-pt spear on a tractor…

Or like CHT said, there are bale spears on little single axle “trailers” that you can use, too.

[Jim_R]

You don’t worry about feeding round bales to horses?
I worry about dead animals being baled up. If I was breaking them down and giving it to them I would not worry as much, but to just put out in the field , I would worry.
What do your vets say about feeding round bales?

[Zu_Zu]

Feed big bales on side ~ wind block at the ‘hay buffet’ ~

Feed big brome bales on their sides ~

Ponies enjoy the middle the most !

Offers them a wind block while dining at the ‘Hay Buffet’ :lol:

Mine prefer the outside ‘hay buffet’ to the inside square bale buffet (in old water tanks ) ~

moving big bales ~ use one of those ‘poker’ attachments ( technical term ) :winkgrin: on tractor .

[SuzieQNutter]

I make round bales and no dead animals in them. You cut and then rake daily and all things are seen like sticks and leaves which you can get out of the tractor to remove.

We have a tractor with a spike which I use and can feed out 7 round bales at a time.

If you want to spend more money you can get a tractor with a hay fork.

[NancyM]

Well a tractor with a spike, or with a bucket and a cargo strap is your best plan. But depending on the size of the round bale (can vary up to 1200 lbs), you do need a tractor of some size and strength to be able to do the job. My little 35 hp Kubota can handle our smaller bales (up to about 650 lbs) no problem. But a garden tractor with less hp, no go. So if you consider a tractor, look for one at least that big.

For handling without a tractor, and not sacrificing your body in a physical manner, you can put a rope around the bale, and around a tree, and drive out from under it, and do that twice to unload two. Or use an iron bar (digging bar) as a lever to get them rolling (if on their side). When handling round bales, keep in mind that being crushed by a round bale is one of the most common accident that happens on farms, to farmers. They can kill you.

But in truth, handling round bales effectively is best done with a tractor. The bonus is that you can stack them, so can buy a bunch of them, have them delivered in bulk, and unload and stack them yourself to keep your hay supply for longer periods of time, or all year, put in the barn at haying time, not buying, taking delivery/handling bales in the rain/snow/mud.

No problem with using them standing up, or on their side. Easier to unroll and feed like small squares, individual servings unrolled.forked into a wheelbarrow and delivered at meal times if placed on the flat end, not on their side. Not all horses do well with free feed due to over eating problems.

The other problem with round bales is that the cores can be mouldy, if the hay is not dry enough when baled. Since most round bales are made for cows, not horses, the quality of the core (especially) is sometimes not what owners want for their horses. But if the hay IS correctly made, it IS as good all the way through. So be CAREFUL who you buy the hay from, NOT from someone who is making it for cows, or from a farm that does not have HIGH enough temperatures and LOW humidity in the summer during hay making.

There is no issue with the baling of small dead animals in the bales, any more than those that get baled into small square bales. If you happen to find a dried out carcass of some small furry animal, one simply puts the hay around the body into the manure pile with the remains of the animal. It does not contaminate the entire bale.

[Gloria]

Your horses will survive just fine with the bale laying on its side. In the absence of a tractor, you can probably tie a rope around the round bale, attach it to another truck, and just pull it out of the bed. I don’t recommend you doing this using brute human force. You can seriously pull a muscle.

But really, the best option for handling round bales is to have a heavy enough tractor with a spike. We feed mostly round bales, and I cannot imagine doing so without a tractor. The farmer comes with a couple of semi loads and stack the round bales in a field for us. We then use the tractor to move the round bale to the pasture when needed. If you want to go this route, make sure your tractor is heavy enough to handle the weight of your round bales. Most of the compact tractors you see at Home Depot are for city folks, and not heavy enough for farm use.

[cutter99]

Dead animals can be baled into small square bales as well!

[besttwtbever]

[QUOTE=moving to dc;8190714]
If you don’t want to buy a tractor and your truck has a turnover ball, there are spears available that mount to the back of the bed, after you have taken the tailgate off. Works just like a 3-pt spear on a tractor…

Or like CHT said, there are bale spears on little single axle “trailers” that you can use, too.[/QUOTE]

Could someone post a link to one or both of these?

[Kodiak]

Round bales can be rolled around with two people and a hay hook (or one in each hand). It’ll take a little trial and error, but you’ll figure out how to lift/pull/spin.

I always keep mine on the round side. They absorb moisture from the ground and go bad more quickly if you flop them over on the flat side. It’s a pretty simple operation to use a utility knife or similar to slice through the strings or net wrapping and roll the bale a short distance to remove them. Once that part is removed, there isn’t much left that can hurt a horse.

I treat mine like big square bales and store them in the dry part of the barn on pallets. It’s fairly easy to roll them back and forth (there’s a direction they unroll like a big piece of carpet) and scoop up the loose hay with a pitchfork. Outside, they’ll last a lot longer if you can at least put a roundbale feeder (some call it a ring) around the bale.

[Jarpur]

Back when we fed round bales, when the producer delivered them on a flatbed trailer, he used the rope around the tree trick to unload them. When we had to go get a couple ourselves in the bed of our pickup, we did the park on a slope and ease them out method.

When I had to move them around our place by myself, I got a large galvanized pipe long enough to go through the center and a length of very heavy chain. Put the pipe through the bale, hooked the chain on either end of the pipe and hitched this to my truck. Drove the truck slowly while rolling the bales where I needed them, making wide turns to change direction.

We fed them using a round bale feeder meant for horses, basically a metal ring on short legs, with the bale on its rounded surface, not a flat end.

[cowboymom]

If you got two of them in the back of your truck they aren’t too big. Use the truck to turn, drag or upend them. big come along or tie-down strap is very handy. We get the 1500 lb round bales and treat them like that. Yes, take the tailgate off, tie off the bale to a fence post at the bottom and drive out from under the bale.

The ONLY time I’ve ever found a dead animal in a bale of hay, in 40 years of baled hay in Montana where we feed hay 11.5 months of the year, was in a small square. It was a fawn. never any other time.

Your round bale might do better on its side, it sheds water better. It really doesn’t matter, it’s just a heap of hay at this point.

[SonnysMom]

DH and I would pick up round bales for 2 of the fields this winter. We have guesstimated the weight as 400-500 pound rounds. We would roll them onto the truck right off the hay wagon. I can only get 1 on my truck since my truck has the 6.5 foot short bed.
When we get it to the farm we park it on a level spot, back the Gator up to the truck roll it off the truck onto the Gator, and strap it on the Gator. Take the Gator to the pallet in the field and drop next to the pallet. It takes 2 people to easily move the bale around. We flop it cut side down onto the pallet.

DH built a corral for around the bale to prevent waste. We then put that back in place.

We had been taking the truck up to the field but it is a really tight fit so transferring it to the Gator works much better. One of the farriers mentioned that is how they move theirs. I would not have thought it would fit but it does. We just use rachet straps to secure it.

We have found dead animals in small squares- rabbit, fawn, snake. Of course it is always in the second half of the bale after you fed most of it the day before.
My old BO found a deer leg in a round bale once. They show up in both. I am also told that mice get caught in the grain mills and die in grain.

[Frog_Pond]

[QUOTE=JoZ;8190562]
in the absence of equipment or another human, is there anything that will make moving them easier?[/QUOTE]

1. Hay hooks.

2. Patience, so you take the time to study the lay of the land and choose the best route.

3. Some sort of meditation practice that allows you to keep repeating this thought while you’re handling round bales alone in a pasture with hand tools: not gonna die like this.

Be very careful handling them alone, JoZ. Even the small ones can surprise-crush you pretty fast, and the big ones can tip equipment over if mishandled. I like my hay bales small these days, so I can win any fight it tosses my way!

[AmarachAcres]

You can also cover the bale with a hay hut. Protects it from rain, peeing horses, and wind.

[twelvegates]

[QUOTE=JoZ;8190562]
is it awful/dangerous for the horses to eat the round bales with them lying on their sides?[/QUOTE]

My horses prefer to lie on their sides while eating.