A Better Way To Carry Hay

KeeganHornby

New User
Hello,

I'm apart of a research team of four other students at the University of Wyoming. We are looking into finding a better way to lift hay bales, mainly by carrying them from point A to point B, but also could look into lifting from the ground to the trailer. We are thinking something along the lines of hay hooks, but maybe attaching to the twine. If you have any thoughts or comments on this please let me know. Would there be a demand for this product? Why would someone want to buy it? Would it be a waste of time?
 
Trying to use the twine would be a waste of time and effort; there would too much breakage. Primary lifting should be done through the hay, with only a little involvement of the twine, if any.
 
Can we assume you are looking at little square bales?

Really cannot lift any bale by the strings.

With little squares, actually rectangles, have you researched what is out there? Bale buggies, accumulators, ejectors/throwers, and harrow beds/bale wagons, to name a few.
 
I think there is already something out there like you want.
Neighbor has an attachment for on a skid loader that can grab like 4 or 6 bales at a time and lift them. It is a platform you set on top of a stack of bales with hooks that come down into the bale.
 
Did this research team go to college ? If so then you must be a part of a team not apart. Google image type in word LULL.
 
Keegan,

Since I don't know exactly what you have in mind, my opinion might not be valid. Having said that though, I put up about 2,500 small square bales of mixed hay each year, by myself. I lift them from the ground onto the trailer, pitch them off the trailer into a staging area, and then stack them in the barns. In the winter, then, I pitch them out of hay mow into a staging area, load them onto a trailer, haul them to the pasture, lift them off the trailer and put them onto the ground, cut the strings, and distribute the bale into four or five pieces so the cows don't fight over them so much.

In my opinion, the best way to handle them is to grasp both strings in one hand, then grab the strings with my other hand too, and carry them to wherever I want them to go.

Hay hooks are only helpful if you are above the level of the hay and want to reach down and pull it up to you. Or, if the bale is coming off an elevator and is above you, you can grab the bale with the hook and direct it down to the level you want it on.

Short of mechanical means of handling bales, the both strings pulled together into one hand first then the other hand too, is the best way I've found to handle them.

Keep inventing. You might come up with a real winner.

Tom in TN
 
Carry bales knots down that way the twine won't break. Strange but true had a lot of fun with that trick show someone that you can break a bale open by snapping the twine tell him to do the same thing but have the bale with knot down.
 

Don't let my opinion stop you from trying. I guess I don't fully understand your question.

Between the stack wagons, accumulator/grapple, and the bale banding (Bale Bandit) equipment, the small square bale handling has been beat to death. For less than five hundred bales I would hire kids to load. For over five hundred bales the hay is being handled by a commercial operator with the above mentioned equipment on irrigated fields. The small operator can't afford big fancy equipment. The large operator needs a one or two man system that pays off with both speed and efficiency.

Round bales for the most part are still loaded one at a time with a front end loader. Is there a way to attach an arm to the front of a flat bed trailer to approximate the operation of a stack wagon? May be a three point implement that can pull the trailer behind it while the arm loads the trailer? I am not sure I would want to drop my trailer at the field edge to get it loaded while I wait and then hook up again. For a large operator loading forty foot tractor trailers it might work.

Loading hay by the strings or wires is asking for trouble. Poor quality string would bust or rub through on heavy bales. In your design; fewer moving parts results in easier maintenance normally.

I wish you luck
 
As for getting bales off the field and onto a truck or trailer, well do a search on Snowco bale loader. The ones I knew were not new when I used them in the 60s. As for handling bales, hay hooks are only maybe good when you have to carry the bales a long way and the strings get a little too much for your fingers. We always got tough enough fingers after a while to not bother with them for just normal short handling times. They are slow and awkward for normal handling.

If anyone knows where there is an Snowco loader in the New England area that is for sale and saveable I would like to restore one of these neat and unique machines.
 
Can't lift bales by the strings? Better tell that to the 10's of thousands of bales I've handled in the last 35 years...

I find hay hooks to be cumbersome and awkward. They're only good for yanking bales out of a tightly-packed pile when you're starting on a center-unloading kicker rack.

As far as market, like someone else said the small bale handling market has been beat to death. On top of that the small bale market is dwindling as people are too lazy to handle "idiot cubes" even though they're the most efficient way to get hay off the field and under cover.
 
Start with a good pair of leather gloves. Carry bale crosswise against right leg. Left hand has the string closest to you, Right has the far string. Hands about foot to foot and a half apart. Right leg can be used to help boost bale when lifting to chest level. (Reverse for lefties.) Hooks and other contraptions just get in the way. Also add length to your arms, making carrying more difficult. Only use a long hook for dragging bales off baler chute onto trailing wagon when loading behind baler. Mu dad fabricated a right leg apron out of an old truck innertube to protect leg and blue jeans. Fastened at waist line and tied around leg above and just below knee with shoe strings. Worked well. Natural curve of rubber kept rubber away from leg, air circulating behind the apron.

Sounds to me like your instructor is having a secret laugh at your eapense. Many have tackled the problem over the years. Haven't seen any breakthrougs in hand bale handling.
 
I should have said; handling bales by the strings or wires with some form of metal hook will cause problems.
 
(quoted from post at 10:26:55 09/21/16) So in a nutshell Keegan,
You want us to do the work for you?

Larry

A part of most research is gathering information from likely knowledgeable people.
 
Grew up on a Dairy farm. Observed and carried myself many tens if not hundreds of thousands of square bales by the strings, and my Dad's bales averaged 70+ pounds a piece. breaking them by carrying them was a rare occurrence.

If they are breaking that often either someone is cheaping out on the twine or the tension is set way to high on the knotters.
 
(quoted from post at 13:14:06 09/21/16) Can't lift bales by the strings? Better tell that to the 10's of thousands of bales I've handled in the last 35 years...

I find hay hooks to be cumbersome and awkward. They're only good for yanking bales out of a tightly-packed pile when you're starting on a center-unloading kicker rack.

As far as market, like someone else said the small bale handling market has been beat to death. On top of that the small bale market is dwindling as people are too lazy to handle "idiot cubes" even though they're the most efficient way to get hay off the field and under cover.

Same here. We handle all our bales by the strings. I think if you pick them up by the strings and they bust your knotter has issues or the bale is too big. We haven't even owned a hay hook since my parents sold the farm 40 years ago. No use for one in our set up.
 

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