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Fitchburg,WI | We've been using a kicker bale wagon sytem for 40 yrs. Still use a round baler for rained on hay. Tried a NH bale wagon for a few years - broke too many bales trying to pick them up at night when the dew came in. A year ago, we tried a Hoelscher accumulator - had some problems on our steep hillsides and the bale grabber on the tractor loader did not fit around the many poles in our sheds. We may give this system another try using a grapple on a forklift with a decent side shift. We hired a guy with a 3X4 Vermeer baler, and this worked out pretty well, as we had gooseneck trailer and a loader tractor in the field and one at the barn. We put up a lot of hay in a hurrythat way and never laid a hand on the hay.
As anyone who has baled hay would tell you, the main worry with any of these systems is the risk of having the bales get rained on befor they can be picked up. Big round bales will shed some rain, big squares equal a big mess. I liked the idea behind the Bale Bandit system, with a larger accumulator package (21 bales) that looks great for shipping on trucks. The price on that one pretty well eliminates it from most operations. Wouldn't it be something if some manufacturer built a self propelled baler with its own accumulator with a capacity of 100 to 150 bales? Think of the hay 2 people could put up with a truck mounted stack retriever hauling it to the barn! | |
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I need to automate my bale handling
