Hay elevator systems

I am looking for a source of info. about hay elevator systems (I did a quick Internet search and came up with very little). For most of the haying I use an accumulator (the also call it a bale sledge) and grab setup and it works OK, but I am limited in how high I can stack with my loader (10 small squares high). That way, the top part of the barn is wasted space.

I"ve seen folks with hay elevators connecting to conveyor sections, which in turn take the bales into the mow, change directions, can make turns, etc. My biggest problem is that there is just the two of us (wife and myself) and I don"t have two other guys to put in the mow. So if a basic elevator delivers the bales up to the mow, I"d still have a problem stacking by myself.

Any suggestions / source info. would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

If you go to an auction sale, especially a farm that dairied, they frequently had these in the hay mows.

Difficult mowing is when you've got an elevator or conveyor poked in one end of a big barn with a mow and you carry it to the far wall.

I'm no superman, but I'm 75, and my hay crew is me, my wife and the hired man (43). Wife drives the baler, and me and the hired man tradeoff unloading loads and mowing. If I need empty wagons and hired man isn't here, wife unloads and I mow.

A more complicated setup with a convayor across the top & push-offs will cost a lot more, and take away some head room, and still you need to stack & unstack.

For that money, as others say, look to getting a loader/ tractor that will stack higher?

--->Paul

So say your grab holds 8 bales. Say you make 50 lb bales, you have 400 lbs of hay and 300 lbs of grab. The grab about weights the same as a bucket.

Even our little Kubota will lift almost 2000 lbs to full height. Why not look at getting a welder to make an extension arm for the grab? He could even get fancy and make an extendible one run off a remote so you can have a short setting too.

I'd bet you could get an extra 4 or 5 feet if you have a moderate size tractor.