# Unloading NH bale wagon with a grapple



## pms (Feb 28, 2017)

Anyone out there handle small squares with a New Holland bale wagon and then unload with a grapple.Seems like that would be the way to go if barns are not high enough for the bale wagon.I have a IH 686 with a 2250 loader reaches about 13 to 14 feet high.Figured it would be cheaper than getting an accumulator and another loader tractor for the field.What do you guys think?
Thank's Paul


----------



## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

are you thinking unloading the NH stacker outside and using the grapple to take hay inside? Because I don’t know how you would get your grapple over the side racks and the rear tines to unload it.


----------



## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

Befor I built my barn I went into a 13.5' barn just like that. I would lean 4 or 5 stacks against a close grain bin . then jump on my loader tractor and stack into the barn. It was really nice when I had a buddy run my loader tractor going into the barn while I ran stacker


----------



## MFSuper90 (Jun 26, 2015)

I have a new Holland 1032 and it makes a two wide stack. I have unloaded the bale wagon in the feild and loaded and unloaded trailers off the balewagon stack. It works good until you hit the tie layer (I make two per stack). With my farmhand grapple, I can't pick the outside tie bale so I have to load that one by hand. Also if you find a farmhand or hoeshler forget about picking anything um from the front of the balewagon stack, those grapple only have four rows of hooks and the balewagon puts 5 rows on edge (pull type models). The only grapples I've seen that have 5 rows of hooks is the Kuhn 510. You can also buy the balewagon grapple from Kuhn but I'm not sure how well they would tear apart a stack from the side


----------



## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Tilt it back like this and use grapple?


----------



## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

MFSuper90 said:


> I have a new Holland 1032 and it makes a two wide stack. I have unloaded the bale wagon in the feild and loaded and unloaded trailers off the balewagon stack. It works good until you hit the tie layer (I make two per stack). With my farmhand grapple, I can't pick the outside tie bale so I have to load that one by hand.* Also if you find a farmhand or hoeshler forget about picking anything um from the front of the balewagon stack, those grapple only have four rows of hooks and the balewagon puts 5 rows on edge (pull type models). *The only grapples I've seen that have 5 rows of hooks is the Kuhn 510. You can also buy the balewagon grapple from Kuhn but I'm not sure how well they would tear apart a stack from the side


When you wrote "farmhand or hoeshler..." did you mean Holscher? If so, perhaps my old Holscher grapple is so antiquated that it has five rows of hooks that pick up ten on-edge bales as deposited in two rows of five bales each by the Holscher accumulator trailer attached behind the NH baler.


----------



## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

slowzuki said:


> Tilt it back like this and use grapple?


That would work. Unless he is getting a SP NH stacker. Then the 13-14 feet reach of the grapple wouldn't work. Also doing that a lot might be kinda hard on the hydraulic cylinders over time. I would probably be better just to put up some poles and boards to lean the stack against and totally unload. Then if it's a nice day he could just do the stacking part, and then do the grapple part later.


----------



## MFSuper90 (Jun 26, 2015)

When you wrote "farmhand or hoeshler..." did you mean Holscher? If so, perhaps my old Holscher grapple is so antiquated that it has five rows of hooks that pick up ten on-edge bales as deposited in two rows of five bales each by the Holscher accumulator trailer attached behind the NH baler.[/quote]
When I mean 5 rows of hooks, I mean 5 rotating bars that the hooks bolt to. In order for it to work you need five bars and five rows of hooks


----------



## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

Paul,

If you are thinking of picking the bales directly off the wagon, that might be pretty hard. If you are thinking of setting the load off and then moving the bales, that is pretty much what I do at my place. Our old barn is set up with sliding doors in the middle third with a wall on either side . We tip the stack back and lean it against the wall beside the door and then just move the bales with the bale grab. I would have moved the bales into our addition with the grab and stacked on pallets, but it was full of round bales from our first cutting. So we did what we have done for about three years now (since we got our bale grab) and use the grab to carry the bales into the loft where a hay crew stacks them away by hand. My dad and others doubted this would be faster than using the elevator at first, but with a decent crew we can outpace the 15 bale grab on the tractor.


----------



## pms (Feb 28, 2017)

I would tip the stack first and then unload with a grapple.I think my biggest issue would be reaching the top layer of bales with grapple.Thank's everyone for your reply's
Paul


----------



## Beav (Feb 14, 2016)

sell the bale wagon and get an accumulator set-up you will spend money on the front end but time and headaches saved will be worth it


----------



## Wethay (Jul 17, 2015)

I have an accumulator and grapple set, never have had a bale wagon. I try to sell all my hay in the field, if it isn't it has to be put in the barn by hand. When I get rich selling hay I'm going to build a hay shed that can be stacked in with a tractor and grapple. I've thought that if a guy had big fields and/ or very far to the barn a bale wagon would speed things up. I would think that a bale wagon would pick up hay faster than using an accumulator and then grapple and make the trip to the barn faster. But I think I'll have time for plenty of research before I get rich making hay.


----------



## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Wethay said:


> I have an accumulator and grapple set, never have had a bale wagon. I try to sell all my hay in the field, if it isn't it has to be put in the barn by hand. When I get rich selling hay I'm going to build a hay shed that can be stacked in with a tractor and grapple. I've thought that if a guy had big fields and/ or very far to the barn a bale wagon would speed things up. I would think that a bale wagon would pick up hay faster than using an accumulator and then grapple and make the trip to the barn faster. But I think I'll have time for plenty of research before I get rich making hay.


Here is some research for you. Stop selling out of the field. Get it in a barn as soon as you can. Unless your market area is vastly different then mine you should be able to nearly double your price for barn stored hay then hay sold out of the field. Here just stacked and tarped gets you quite a bit more per bale then out of the field. But I guess if people in your area pay the same for inside stored hay as coming and getting it out of the field might as well sell it out of the field.


----------



## Beav (Feb 14, 2016)

Sell most of my hay out of the field only get $.50 to $1.00/bale more stored in the barn break even rounds get an extra $10/bale stored inside. Hard get much more than that in this area unless something drastically the market. We get $4.50 for 1st cutting out of the field and $5 for 2nd.


----------



## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Teslan said:


> Here is some research for you. Stop selling out of the field. Get it in a barn as soon as you can. Unless your market area is vastly different then mine you should be able to nearly double your price for barn stored hay then hay sold out of the field. Here just stacked and tarped gets you quite a bit more per bale then out of the field. But I guess if people in your area pay the same for inside stored hay as coming and getting it out of the field might as well sell it out of the field.


Would like to sell all out of the field. Lot less labor and expense not moving it to barn. I'm same as wethay if it's at the barn it is stacked by hand. I am not set up for mechanical stacking. Price in field $2.45 1st , $3 2nd In the barn 1st $3-$3.50 and 2nd $4. Had to lower prices to be able to move hay in this area. Very common to see ads for hay at the barn for $2-$3. People don't care what it is, all they look at is the $.

For me 2nd is a different story. I want as much in the barn now that I have a buyer taking it south. Unlimited quantity.


----------



## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

pms said:


> I would tip the stack first and then unload with a grapple.I think my biggest issue would be reaching the top layer of bales with grapple.Thank's everyone for your reply's
> Paul


If you have a pull type bale wagon, most of them stack 7 layers high which would be around 10.5 feet. Shouldn't be a problem for your loader. The self propelled wagons stack 9 layers high, which is 13.5 feet... might be a tough if you use a rigid mount bale grab, but one like a Steffen Systems would probably work. I'm assuming when you said your loader reaches 13 to 14 feet, that was at the pins.

http://www.steffensystems.com/ed-small-bale-handlers.php


----------



## Waldo (Apr 29, 2016)

We put hay up with the stack cruiser ,and load out with grab,so i suppose you just go in reverse. We have also converted the wagon to pick up on the flat ,just cut the pick up elevator and add 2 inches into it,work,s like magic


----------



## someday hay king (Oct 13, 2019)

Waldo said:


> We put hay up with the stack cruiser ,and load out with grab,so i suppose you just go in reverse. We have also converted the wagon to pick up on the flat ,just cut the pick up elevator and add 2 inches into it,work,s like magic


What model grapple do you use?


----------



## GOOD HAY (Aug 8, 2010)

Hi there, we have been doing this for the last 11 seasons. There are some pics of our equipment in my gallery. I use a forklift with a grapple which lets me stack 11 high. To unload I tip the load rack up to slightly less than 90 degrees and pick off 15 bales at a time, we use a 1038 wagon. I bring hay in and stack it at around 250 bales per hour when working on the home farm and of course a little slower when travelling on the road. My wife and I bring in about 14000 bales like this which all goes for horses, something that we have been doing for about 30 years now. We used to do around 20,000 but had to cut back a bit 2 years ago. Seems to me to be a pretty decent way to do hay. Not a lot invested 3 small tractors and the usual hay equipment. We have dedicated customers so right now I know pretty much exactly where next years crop is going and the price. It works for me.


----------



## HWRanch (7 mo ago)

Is anyone using a bale squeeze (like an Oregon Road Runner or similar) to move 160 bale stacks of 14" x 18" bales created by a self propelled bale wagon?


----------



## ttazzman (Sep 29, 2019)

Beav said:


> Sell most of my hay out of the field only get $.50 to $1.00/bale more stored in the barn break even rounds get an extra $10/bale stored inside. Hard get much more than that in this area unless something drastically the market. We get $4.50 for 1st cutting out of the field and $5 for 2nd.


Here guys sell 3-5 out of the field....I get 8-10 out of the barn in the winter...."last year's numbers"......nope it has to be freebies for family to get "sold" out of the field


----------



## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I spent quite a time looking into this, block stacker wagon models technically can make blocks with 4 ft long 14x18 bales but everyone says it is a nightmare and the blocks don’t handle well.

The 160 bale wagons don’t make blocks and you can’t squeeze those loads.



HWRanch said:


> Is anyone using a bale squeeze (like an Oregon Road Runner or similar) to move 160 bale stacks of 14" x 18" bales created by a self propelled bale wagon?


----------



## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

I technically could do this with my 15/18 pack high reach on the Bobcat S300 that is heavily weighted. This is in reference to a 1069, or similar. There are several reasons that I wouldn't really want to in the long term. In summary it's possible, and easier if you unload entirely against something rather than depending on 45 year old hydraulics to hold the load rack while you mess around with the hay.


----------

