# Small Hay Grapple



## YODA (Oct 24, 2013)

Does anyone know of someone that makes small hay grapples - say 4 to 6 bales that will attach to a quick attach loader hitch. Looking for something I can run around the field with and gather and pick up bales with my compact tractor. Most I am seeing are 8 to 10 bale models and appear to be on the heavy side.

Thanks


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

I have one that a guy built. 5 or 6 bale grapple depending on what side the bales are on. But that is not going to help you any.


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## weatherman (Dec 5, 2008)

Hoelscher sells a 5-bale grapple.


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

http://www.steffensystems.com/

There are a couple different types from Steffan's.


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## Draft Horse Hay (May 15, 2014)

If you find something or fabricate one, remember you can buy the quick-attach plate from places like Northern Hydraulics and weld or bolt it on to the grapple.


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## YODA (Oct 24, 2013)

Well folks - after picking up another cutting by hand the other day I have been looking into this more. This is what I found so far.

http://www.hoelscherinc.com/prod_model50.htm

http://www.wrlonginc.com/Grapalator.htm

http://www.steffensystems.com/

http://www.kuhnsmfg.com/grabbers/408f.shtml

I am leaning towards the Steffens TBH5-B unit with an additional side bar so the unit can work as an accumulator too in the field. http://thebalehandler.com/Small_Bale_Handlers/TBH05.htm Thoughts?

Last question - how many times can you engage and disengage the hooks in the bale? I will be running around the field, and instead of sliding the bale to the next for pickup, I was hoping to grab it, move the the next, disengage, align the second one, the grab again and so on. Will this approach work?

I will load on to a 20' equipment trailer and I do understand some restacking for interlock will be required. This is a small operation at 25 to 70 bales per field.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Not really. They are made/designed to scoot the bales. You'll have an issue right off using a conventional tractor (even a little one) because all the accumulators are designed to work with a skid steer where you have it right in front of you with unlimited (by a hood or loader arms) view of the unit.I know, I have one. Works fine with a Bobcat not so good with a tractor, in fact, I mounted a CCTV camera so I can see the grapple/accumulator position easier.

There is a learning curve involved with any of them despite video's making it look easy. It is (easy) to get a bale not squarely engaging the slot where it's supposed to go and the bale turns sideways and possibly pops a string at worst or won't turn back and square up so you have to stop and manually align it.

In real world haying, not every bale exits the bailer and falls to the ground exactly parallel to the bailer chute and every bale winfs up in a straight line either, plus an accumulator is hell in a curve, not only accumulating but attempting to roll the accumulated bales UNDER the rails as you turn.

You really only want to clamp on bales one time, possibly 2 times and no more.

I was apprehensve about scooting bales across a hayfield but my fears never materialized. I have a JR Long btw.

Mine is just a backup, stays in the barn for a just in case scenario. I've used it in the past....It ain't easy.

You might find your investement is more work than you realoze.


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

I think it would be harder to use a bale grab as an accumulator if it wasn't specifically designed for it. The problem I would see using the TBH5 that way is that you would have to let go of the bales you already had before you engage the next bale or the tines would be in the way. This might let the bales already in the handler shift out of position.

How many people do you have picking up the bales when you do it now? Are you doing it all by yourself? If you have a couple people helping you, I would think you could have someone putting the bales in groups of 5 or 6 bales and someone else arranging the bales on the trailer while you run back and forth moving the groups of bales to the trailer. This would at least eliminate a good portion of the grunt work.


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## YODA (Oct 24, 2013)

Its me, myself, and I   . The rest of the family mutinyed on me the last big pick up, and I dont blame them. I am just small time doing small lots in the subdivision, trying to make things work. Getting old is the pits.


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## hay hauler (Feb 6, 2010)

Cut a farm hand in 1/2 if ya want a cheep one that works. Picked up a full size one at a acution for 400$ last spring....

You could cut it with a cutting wheel, then if needed have a welding shop weld a bar acrost the front to hold it together and your done...


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## YODA (Oct 24, 2013)

Well folks after talking to all on the list the only folks to really work with me were Kuns. After double checking my loader capacity and actually doing some weight tests, I settled on the Kuns 205 unit. http://www.kuhnsmfg.com/specialty-grabbers/.

I am having some extra hooks added to do 4 flat in either direction too so stacking can be interlocked. The size also fits my barn better. Talk to John. Also they have the best pricing I found and really want to work with folks.

They actually designed me a custom 6 bale unit - 4 flat and two sideways, but after testing the weight it was right at my comfortable limits without adding a lot of ballast weight, which made barn maneuvering a problem, so I went conservative with their 205 model. The side bar does come off for loading folks off the stack.


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## YODA (Oct 24, 2013)

I thought I would update this. I got to use it this season and it works great. I have posted pictures over on another site.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/haying/340079-new-kuhns-hay-grapple-earned.html?highlight=

For my size tractor it is the perfect fit and once I got the hang of it I could pick up bales quickly and stack on my GN. These folks are great to work with too.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Wish I had seen your post last year. I purchased a front end loader accumulator and its accompanying grapple for loading sm sq alfalfa bales. The accumulator would drag the bales on the ground. Not wanting to do this with alfalfa, I set the accumulator aside and picked up the sm sq bales one at a time until ten were in the grapple. I would approach the first bale, put it in the right rear of the grapple and pick it up. Then move to the next bale, get it into position to the left of the first bale, release the first bale and re-attach the grapple hooks into both bales. I continued this process until I had ten bales in the grapple. I would then go to the trailer and unload from the grapple onto the trailer. I would unload the trailer and stack the bales into the barn using the grapple. This meant grabbing the first picked up bale 11 times with the grapple hooks. This did no damage to the bale except that once in a while a grapple hook would cut a string. While slow, this process sure beat bucking bales by hand. I have since begun using a Hoelscher accumulator and its accompanying grapple to accumulate and load 10 bales at a time.


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## YODA (Oct 24, 2013)

I operate about the same way, but it is only 4 times in one bale. However I did take care to adjust my hooks to keep them clear of the twine locations. are your hooks adjustable? In a way I am lucky that my Hesston 4550 throws very straight and consistant bales

Kuhns is also starting to make a smaller accumilator to work with this unit, but thier current 8 bale model will work, you would just pick up 4 out of the 8 bundle from 2 differant directions to get stacking.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Just listening to this it sounds very slow, how many bales per hour would you get? We are using hay baskets right now getting about 300 bales an hour into baskets. Last year just dumping a basket without unhooking we were baling 400 bales an hour but had to have guys loading wagons from the piles.

The guy I bought my baler from would just dump a basket on the ground and drag them into packs with a long hay hook so his grapple could load flatbed trailers. The hay hook was so he didn't have to bend over.


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## YODA (Oct 24, 2013)

slowzuki said:


> Just listening to this it sounds very slow, how many bales per hour would you get? We are using hay baskets right now getting about 300 bales an hour into baskets. *Last year just dumping a basket without unhooking we were baling 400 bales an hour but had to have guys loading wagons from the piles.*
> 
> The guy I bought my baler from would just dump a basket on the ground and drag them into packs with a long hay hook so his grapple could load flatbed trailers. The hay hook was so he didn't have to bend over.


By myself after baling and dropping in the field, I moved a little over 200 in about 4 hours, but had to take the GN and empty it in the middle of the operation. ( used the grapple to unload and stack too) I did everything with the grapple. I am a very small operation doing possibly 700 - 1000 bales a year. My grapple does 4 at a time and can handle both directions to get good stacking.

When I researched the grapple I ran across folks doing close to 400 or more and hour with the accumulator and grapple behind a MF 1839. He could grab and load hay wagons as fast as the baler could bale and that was with an 8 or 10 bale grapple using their accumulator. (Kuhns set up).

If I had the accumulator, I am sure my speed would double or more, but I work small areas and the accumulator would be a tight fit. It also would be too much tow weight for my tractor.

The key here is for me is it's a one man operation and *ZERO* hand work. I got pretty good after a while too. Depending on the customers trailer, I can also use the grapple to load, saving them effort and folks are willing to pay a bit extra for that service.

I am sure others here can chime in on their production rates.

Hope this helps

PS On edit. To get a base line, last year it took me about 2 days to move the same 200 bales. I used pallets and hand staked 12 at a time (3 rows of 4) and drove the 1/4 mile back to my barn and then unloaded same into a larger stack. I also used my pickup with the wife driving and my son helping. They refused to work after the 4th load :angry:  I killed my back and the wife was not happy for days - thus the grapple this year.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

slowzuki said:


> Just listening to this it sounds very slow, how many bales per hour would you get? We are using hay baskets right now getting about 300 bales an hour into baskets. Last year just dumping a basket without unhooking we were baling 400 bales an hour but had to have guys loading wagons from the piles.
> 
> The guy I bought my baler from would just dump a basket on the ground and drag them into packs with a long hay hook so his grapple could load flatbed trailers. The hay hook was so he didn't have to bend over.


And if we compare yours to a NH balewagon, baron, or bandit yours will probably be slow as well, and still require additional labor. Different strokes for different folks.

Sounds like the perfect setup for you Yoda. And all with a cut.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Didn't want to sound negative on it, hard to set tone in typing. Yes, I'm not completely happy with the speed of my setup either. We made it to 1600 bales a day last year on one baler but it took a lot more planning and coordination than a 1200 bale day.

By myself I can only do about 600 per day with the baskets and if they go in my barn I have to handle every single one of them.

I'd like to get to 2000 bales per day but I need to run our second baler or use acid to extend the baling window.



deadmoose said:


> And if we compare yours to a NH balewagon, baron, or bandit yours will probably be slow as well, and still require additional labor. Different strokes for different folks.
> 
> Sounds like the perfect setup for you Yoda. And all with a cut.


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## YODA (Oct 24, 2013)

slowzuki

A the top of this thread there are links to at least 4 or 5 companies the sell hay moving products. I only listed the ones with small grapples as that is what I was looking for. However some make equipment that will easily do what you want. There is one that I remember running across that would automatically stack a hay wagon as you go and the hay wagon will stack the load in the barn. No hand work except hooking up and dropping the wagon.

Whats great is there is enough choices for folks to find a fit for them. I like what Kuhns did for me as they wanted to be sure it fit my needs and did not overload my tractor. They were willing to customize where other were not.

Finding hay equipment that works well with compact tractors is tough, but they are one outfit that has a unit that fits, and I believe they are designing a small accumulator to go along with it.

The other thing is here with the folks a lot of great information is shared. I have learned a lot and expect to learn a lot more.

Hope you have a great hay season.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Glad I have a reliable crew. Sure makes life easier.


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

What baler are you using? Are you using your little tractor to run it?

I have never seen them up close, but I'm wondering if a smaller version of the accumulators that are used with the big square balers would work. If you could make something like this and have it drop the bales in packs of 4 right behind the baler, it would save you a lot of time and hooking/unhooking bales.


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## YODA (Oct 24, 2013)

I am running a full size Hesston 4550 baler with my 35 hp Bobcat CT 235 tractor. It has 26.5 PTO HP. Kuhns is in the process of making a small accumulator, but their bigger unit that drops 8 bales will also work. However most of the fields I cut are really too small for the train, and I am at the towing weight limit with the tractor. I have gotten very good hooking and unhooking as I pick them up. I used to stop to do it and now I am able to hook up on the run.


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