Is it doable? I would love to put a round bale out for my 2 boys this winter but we don’t have a tractor. We’re trying to think of creative ways to work around it. Any ideas? We do have a pickup that we could fit a round bale into.
I’m also looking at round bale feeders. Best option for just 2 horses? I’d love sturdy and safe. Their run in shed is not big enough for a bale so I’d like to maybe have a roof/cover on it too if possible.
I use roundbales for 10 horses and do not have a tractor. If you can get them individually loaded into the back of your truck, you and one other person can roll them off the back into a location of your choosing (they need to be loaded correctly so this is possible). If you get a bunch delivered you can use a “lasso” around them and drag to a location of your choosing. I had an old tow chain/rope that I would cinch around the middle of the bale and then drag it to the pasture I wanted. Is it fun…no. Is it do-able…absolutely.
I roll mine 200-300 ft into place, by hand. Or should I say my built boyfriend does it and I “help”. We limit ourselves to the small round bales, 600-700lbs tops.
Otherwise bribe the neighbour 
Yes, it can be done. Ought it to be done? More complex question. A 700 pound round bale is not a benign object. Get one rolling and it might be difficult to stop. Even getting it rolling can cause injury to back, hip, knee, or ankle.
So, yes, it can be done. The question of should it be done is an individual decision.
G.
Do you have a tree or post close by you could tie to and around the bale and pull away from under it?
Have you looked at hay huts for bale feeders?
Those come in different brands.
If you have a gooseneck ball in your truck, you can get a hydraulic bed mounted bale spear. Simple to operate, and you can easily take the spear off/on as needed, you don’t have to drive around with it in traffic (though it is amazing to lower it on a tailgater and watch the tailgater back off!)
I also feed roundbales to two horses without a tractor.
Your friends will be: hay hut, slow feeder net and setting it up at close proximity to where the roundbales are stored.
I roll mine out of the barn and down a small hill, then put net over top then tip hay hut over. It would be easier with a tractor for sure, but I have managed for over a year so far this way.
I use the large 5 foot bales, but at least they are tightly packed and rolls well so it is manageable. With two horses and a slow feed net (doesn’t slow them down just reduces waste) one bale will last about 2 weeks if the are outside 24/7.
[QUOTE=Guilherme;8427948]
Yes, it can be done. Ought it to be done? More complex question. A 700 pound round bale is not a benign object. Get one rolling and it might be difficult to stop. Even getting it rolling can cause injury to back, hip, knee, or ankle.
So, yes, it can be done. The question of should it be done is an individual decision.
G.[/QUOTE]
This. Only I’ll go one step further and say, no, just, no. Don’t do it. It is in no way safe no matter how many people tell you they do it all the time.
We’ve been doing it for years with round bales of various sizes. The usual ones are 6’ x 5’. I have a 16 foot flatbed trailer and three of the big bales will just fit. I’ve also used the bed of my truck when it didn’t have a permanent gooseneck ball. We drive to the location that the bale will rest, lasso the bale, and attach the end of a very, very long lasso to the ball hitch of another vehicle. Then the second vehicle pulls the bale off very, very slowly. Rinse and repeat for the other two bales, if using. Because they are closer to the front of the trailer, the rope has to be a minimum of 50 feet or so. If the bales are small enough, they can be hand rolled but the big bales weigh about 1500 pounds. They are ALWAYS placed on level ground.
I would never do this, even though my lot is perfectly level.
I once bought a 750lb square bale of hay. The weight that is there is impressive. Rolling it by hand works until it doesn’t.
We have a hydraulic spear. Look it up. It sounds more impressive than it is…but this makes moving round bales easy. We put our bales in a lean to next to the barn and then pitch feedings over the fence into the horses’ pens. No waste that way.
Where I used to board my horses, they didn’t have a tractor either. When the weather would get bad, they would put round bales out for the horses. They just tied a rope around it and dragged it into place with their pickup, then rolled the feeder over it. Worked well enough.
[QUOTE=Guilherme;8427948]
Yes, it can be done. Ought it to be done? More complex question. A 700 pound round bale is not a benign object. Get one rolling and it might be difficult to stop. Even getting it rolling can cause injury to back, hip, knee, or ankle.
So, yes, it can be done. The question of should it be done is an individual decision.
G.[/QUOTE]
Ah yes, the terror of the flying roundbale. Had one nearly lift-off last week after we pushed it off the truck. Nothing to sneeze at but if you’re out of range, it is quite amusing to watch.
We do it without a tractor as well - we do occasionally use the skidsteer if we have to put it in a tricky place. So far, so good - though a tractor would certainly make things easier…
We’re handling 1350 lb round bales without a tractor. No, not rolling them anywhere! :lol:
We had them all delivered at once so have a stack. When we’re ready for a new bale in the pasture we back the truck up to a bale, chain it to the back of the truck using the frame and trailer ball and a come along to get the weight off the ground, and just drive it where we want it. The weight isn’t entirely off the ground so it’s not going to fall, or roll, or go anywhere.
I also then made my own feeder nets and so we put the net around the bale, the feeder around the hay, and say have it to the horses for another ten days.
Unloading one out of a truck bed is easy; chain around the bale, anchor to the BASE of a strong stationary object (a railroad tie post in our case) and drive away. It bloops right out. Ours are heavy so no bounce/travel.
[QUOTE=vineyridge;8428828]
We’ve been doing it for years with round bales of various sizes. The usual ones are 6’ x 5’. I have a 16 foot flatbed trailer and three of the big bales will just fit. I’ve also used the bed of my truck when it didn’t have a permanent gooseneck ball. We drive to the location that the bale will rest, lasso the bale, and attach the end of a very, very long lasso to the ball hitch of another vehicle. Then the second vehicle pulls the bale off very, very slowly. Rinse and repeat for the other two bales, if using. Because they are closer to the front of the trailer, the rope has to be a minimum of 50 feet or so. If the bales are small enough, they can be hand rolled but the big bales weigh about 1500 pounds. They are ALWAYS placed on level ground.[/QUOTE]
A stable I worked at used this method( sort of). They had just the one truck, pushed the bale up so it was on a flat end, put a chain around it ( close to the bottom) attached the chain the the ball on the bumper and slowly dragged it into place and lowered the bale ring down. I might add the ground was level.
We have 5x5’s and have on occasion moved them very short distances by hand. 3 people, not rolling them but going end over end. We have multiple tractors so this only happens in an emergency.
DH and I pick them up for my BO. We roll them off the haywagon onto my truck. When we get to the home farm we roll it onto the Kubota/Gator thing. Rachet strap it in place. Take it to the field and roll it off. We roll it across the hill. When it stops we put the pallet under it and push it onto the flat side. We have a portable corral the goes around the bale to keep them from spreading it everywhere. These are 500-600 pound rounds.
I bring my round bales in my horse trailer or tag along trailer, back it up, roll it out, put up the feeder panels. Life was easier with a tractor or when I use my neighbors, but I make it work and it isn’t too bad. 
I used an old gate like a sled- would roll the bale up onto the gate that was attached to the ball of the truck hitch with a chain and just drag the bale into the pasture then roll it off. It was certainly easier with two people. The gate kept the bale from getting gross/dragged across the ground.
Redneck version, useful if you don’t care exactly where the bale ends up, just the general vicinity:
Buy one round bale from hay supplier, have them load it in the truck so it can be rolled off. Drive into pasture, open tailgate. Drive a little way away from spot you want the bale to be. Stop, then back up at speed. Slam on brakes, bale will roll right out. :lol: An old cattle farmer taught me that.
I have learned how to do quite a few things with a round bale using a truck with trailer hitch, a long rope, and a hay hook. You can, for example, flip a bale up on end by burying the hay hook in the top edge of one end, then tying one end of the rope to the hay hook handle and the other end to the trailer hitch of the truck.
If you have the hay supplier load the bale in the truck sitting upright (on one of the flat ends), you can pull it out of the truck by tying one end of the rope around the bale and tying the other end around a tree then pulling forward in the truck. I’ve also used a cemented in gate post; if you do that, make sure you tie the rope right at ground level to minimize the risk of pulling the post over.
I can roll a smallish round bale on level ground (or downhill) by myself, but the potential for disaster is pretty high so you have to be careful. Don’t delude yourself into thinking that you can jump around to the front side and stop it from rolling away. Just because you were able to get it moving, doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to stop it.
It is also possible to push the bale across the ground with the truck, but I don’t do that unless I just can’t get it exactly where I want it any other way and I only need to move it a few feet. The bale doesn’t roll, it just gets bulldozed across the ground and makes a mess of the bale and the ground.
We don’t have a tractor either. I only use round bales in the winter, and simply have it put in the bed of my 4wd pickup, drive the truck into the pasture, climb up behind the bale and push it off, and then up on its side. It is a two person job to flip it up, but not hard with two.
I often find with a farm you just do what you need to do.
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