Lets discuss hay spears and hay mowers

I am aware of 3 styles of hay moving
equipment.

You have the traditional 3 point hitch
hay spear with one long prong and 2
short ones.


Then you have a 3 point hay carrier
that looks like a pallet forks the hay
sets on the fork part


Then you have the same thing except
it only hook to the lift arm and has a
piece of metal that rests against the
lift arms it doesn't have a top link
mounting position ( Heston and vermeer
and other companies factory produced
them)


What is the advantage and disadvantage
of each one



Which works best for just move rolls
of hay?

Is there one that works best with
smaller tractors

These work good.

By and large, I only move bales with a three tine spear on my skid steer. For big squares, I have three equal length tines. For round bales, I change out the middle tine for a longer one. I also have a hugger for wrapped bales.

I have been hauling bales down to the bottom the past three weeks with my john Deere 2030 and a 3 point carrier because it has been too wet to go with the skid steer. The carrier I use is an old one left here. It is the second style you talk about - connects to the lower arms and the toplink. It almost always cut ruts into the ground beneath the bales. I have a hydraulic cylinder in place of the toplink, so i can adjust the angle of attack on the tines, but it will still gouge.

I have seen the third style you mention, but have no experience with them. I assume they are made that way so the tines follow the contour of the ground to minimize gouging.

Skid steer loaders are almost always better than three point or loaders on tractors for handling bales. The tractor has a big advantage that it can haul a bale or several faster, but it cannot even come close to maneuverability of a skid steer loading wagons in the hay field or stacking in the barn.

Either of the first two work fine, and are by far more common than the other. The fork style, IMO, has more advantages than the spear. Though I use a spear.

I use two 4 ft spears spaced 34 inches apart. On loader or on 3 point. In my opinion the best way to move round bales. With larger tractor and heavy loaders we use 4 spears , 2 in each bale and move/ load 2 at a time. When moving 1800 lbs bales I like a heavy tractor not a skid loader. I load onto highboy so height and reach is important. Have never found a skid loader that can reach the top bales on opposite side of trailer. We load and unload from one side only.

I have a Westward built bale attachment for the front end loader or three point hitch. I mostly use it on the front end loader all the time. Single long spear in the centre with a two shorter ones lower down to stabilize the bale. It works great and can be adapted to fit any loader.

I have a round bale spear that has a hydraulic motor on it to unwind the bales I cut I hole in the top and welded a 2 5:16 ball in the top for pulling trailers

I only have a 3 point hitch tractor.


My tractor does not have a loader
I dont own a skid steer



Every tractor on my place is 3 point hitch only

Thanks

I used the fork style for many years then went to the spike style. The fork style needs to be adjusted just right and don't work as well on uneven ground. They also don't work with net wrapped hay. I made this one with two spikes and the top link floats for uneven ground.

I don't like forks for handling bales they dig in the ground and have to drag them off a trailer bed when loading.A three point with a spear works good especially for a smaller tractor because its close in to the tractor.I also have a Worksaver bale unroller that the arms open and shut,to move a bale I grab them longways they stay tight then and transport good.Then turn the tractor 90 Degrees to the bale to unroll it.Only thing with the bale unroller it requires a little larger tractor and remote
hydraulic hook up.Tractors like my Oliver 1550 and 1600 handle it fine.
Another 3pt option is a 3pt deal where a bracket goes on the 3pt and a bale spear hooks on the bracket in a scissors sort of way.Requires a set of 2 way remotes to operate the cylinder and a good size tractor with strong hydraulics to handle it.My AC 185 handles it OK.With this type you can get the bale high enough up in the air to load on a truck or double stack bales on the ground.

Plus with a bale spear instead of forks of you raise the bale too high the bale can't roll back off the forks and kill you on the tractor,which happened to a farmer I knew.

I have dual spears on both front and rear.

Long spear works well for dropping bales into feeders, also can stab into the side of a bale if required.

You do need to stab the bale pretty close to center so it does not spin when you lift it.

Double spikes or like what you call the pallet fork style I find to be a little faster to use when loading bales off the field.

One of my tractors I have set up with the doubles on front and back.

By picking from the bottom it allows me to reach high enough to load a top row on my bale truck from the side.

If trying to move cruddy old bales they will often fall apart when picked with a single spike, cradling from the bottom even if the strings are gone still usually works.

On a small tractor I prefer the fork style front and back.

On mine it does not matter how heavy the bales are, as long as I pick one with the rear first it gives me enough weight on back to counter the weight of the one on the front.

I did build an upright guard for mine so a bale can not come off backwards and end up on my hood or head.

If built heavy enough they also work well for pushing yourself out of ruts, mud, snow etc.

Come time to slaughter an animal one chain to each side does the trick.

If you park inside and are short on space the forks easily fit under the vehicle in front of it and dropping the rear forks down to the floor saves your shins.

"Then you have the same thing except it only hook to the lift arm and has a piece of metal that rests against the lift arms it doesn't have a top link mounting position ( Heston and vermeer and other companies factory produced them)"

I tried a set of rear forks like I think you're talking about - there was no hook point for the top link of the three point system. The forks connected to the bottom two lift arms and had an extension that went back under each arm to keep the points from drooping when you raised the lift arms. I did not like those forks - they put a severe strain on the bottom lift arms. I moved a few bales with them and traded them off.

Years ago, when big round bales first came into the area, I bolted 2 by material around the edge of a 3/4" sheet of plywood. I made a heavy bumper for the front of my JD B and push-rolled the bales onto the plywood, then dragged the plywood where I wanted the hay. I thought I was running with the big boys when I had that set-up.

I now use a single spear on a front loader to move almost all of my hay.

We have several of the spear type in both 3 pt and skid steer attach for our skid steer and tractor FEL's.
I also have the third pallet fork type without top link attachment, have had them for many years, unlike the 3 pt models they float on the ground and don't gouge, they have a safety chain that goes over the lift arms to keep them from flipping up into the back of the tractor, they are great for moving hay off the field fast, doesn't matter how you hit the bale, straight on, angled, from the side, when the folks go under you can pick up the bale and go, also handy for cradling bales that have been stored outside.
Pallet type are not so good for loading or stacking and I wouldn't use them on a FEL, lady down the road was killed two years ago when a bale rolled off the forks and pinned her against the steering wheel.

We use a truck axle on the front end loader with a shorter square shaft to keep bale from spinning. Then a 3 point bale mover on the back made kinda like pallet forkes. With a top link cylinder easy to keep it from digging.

This is what I have
Round bale unroller