# Stacking round bales - thoughts on a bale grab?



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I'm sitting here Sunday morning thinking (which usually get me in trouble).

Yesterday, I saw a nice loader tractor for sale on craigslist and I have been looking to replace my old IH 966. This is a NH TL100A with 500 hours, looks like its in real good shape and the loader is wired for a 3rd hydraulic. Comes with a bucket but no bale handling attachment.

So I was thinking about using it with a bale grab (bale hugger) and stacking bales on the flat end in my hay barn.

My thinking is that if I could use a pattern that would allow the bales to go through their sweat and breathe, I could stack them immediately out of the field and not have to move them a second time.

Here's the details: My bales are usually 5x5's, but I will go down to 4.5x5 or 5.5x5 depending on cutting, market conditions, etc. My hay barn is a 42x60 hoop building on a 5' pony wall. I am currently stacking in a pyramid of 6-7-8 on the round side.

--OOOOOOO--
-OOOOOOOO-
OOOOOOOOO

This pattern is OK as long as the bales are really dry. But if there is any moisture, the bales towards the middle show mold where they are in contact.

I am thinking that a bale grab me to stack in a pattern on end with a small space between each pile to allow a little air flow.

The pattern might look something like this:

-IIIIIII-
IIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIII

So I'm curious--who's done what with a bale grab? How many bales high and bale size? What kind of pattern? Stack one on top of the next or stagger? What model/brand of grab? What works/what doesn't? Problems getting the bales out of storage? Loading on a bale trailer (like an EZ haul)?

Thanks

Ralph


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## Thad (Nov 29, 2011)

Ralph, that works grate its how I stack. I do not use a bale grab I just use my forks. It will be better with the grab. I go 3 bales high. If the barn and the tractor would get taller I could go 4. I put one right on top of the outher. But It would get more air if u stagger them. I have done this with 4x5 and 4x6 bales. There is a pic of some of mine in the barn in my album (haying around the farm). Hope this helps.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

Ralph, I do this with my bales but there are a few important things to do. Be sure that your base floor is pretty flat and make sure your bales are as tight as you can get them. Stagger your bales so that air can move thru. You will still probably find some bales with the dark heat spots on the end. My grabber was made by Frontier. Mike


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Don't need a grab for round bales, I've used one before on a borrowed loader and you couldn't pay me to use it again.

This is how I do it, Stacking Hay - YouTube, works very well with a little practice.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

mlappin said:


> Don't need a grab for round bales, I've used one before on a borrowed loader and you couldn't pay me to use it again.
> 
> This is how I do it, Stacking Hay - YouTube, works very well with a little practice.


Neat video! Are those 5' bales? What were the problems with the grab you borrowed?

Ralph


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Yup, 4x5's. The grab I used was really meant for wrapped silage bales, the problem with dry hay was I had to apply so much pressure to keep the bales from sliding out of it I made egg shaped bales, it's also harder to keep em tight side to side with the style I was using. Maybe if you had one that worked more like a small square grab with the curved teeth instead of the one I had that went two thirds of the way around the bale.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

mlappin said:


> Yup, 4x5's.


Sorry, but just to be clear--5' diameter or 5' length?

Ralph


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## Toyes Hill Angus (Dec 21, 2010)

Ralph, you will have to make sure that the bales are off of the ground, on pallets or something like that. The bale seems to take moistue in twice as fast when on its end. Secondly, I find the grab very slow, it will only handle one bale at a time compared to two on the bale spear (two tines). I do have a bale grab, but I don't use it to stack bales anymore because of how long it takes (I seem to be behind all of the time).
Stacking bales on end like you want definately keeps the bale in better shape, they stay round. And they even seem to stack more tightly into an area in the shed, which is a nice thing too. A bale grab is not a waste of money you can always find something to do with it. So I say if you find one at the right price, buy it and try it out.
Marty is right, dry bales are (more) slippery(er) than wrapped bales, so you will have to squeze harder.


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## tjustice (Dec 29, 2011)

I have a grabber and love it. Yes, it does take a little longer to put in the barn but as one becomes more efficient with the use of it, it's not that much longer. The tighter the bales, the better mine seems to work. I usually have two guys hauling to the barn while one person does the stacking, he usually keeps up, most of the time is waiting on them to bring more. I have found that i have very little waste by doing it this way...Just my 2 cents....


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

rjmoses said:


> Sorry, but just to be clear--5' diameter or 5' length?
> 
> Ralph


4' wide, 5' diameter.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

tjustice said:


> I have a grabber and love it. Yes, it does take a little longer to put in the barn but as one becomes more efficient with the use of it, it's not that much longer. The tighter the bales, the better mine seems to work. I usually have two guys hauling to the barn while one person does the stacking, he usually keeps up, most of the time is waiting on them to bring more. I have found that i have very little waste by doing it this way...Just my 2 cents....


I can start out with 50 or 60 bales on the ground and with using two trucks with one guy loading them in the field and one guy driving trucks, I can get caught up stacking and end up waiting on loads to show up. I couldn't do that with the grab but can easily do it with my spears. On the second layer I can actually stack two at a time, can do it on the bottom layer as well but that tends to scoot around or break the pallets.

Tight wasn't the problem as these were thousand pound bales, being dry hay with net wrap on them they were just too slippery for the grab to hang onto without excessive pressure. Another advantage to spears, they slide right into bales that are 19% or under, a little tougher to get into bales running 20% to 23% and have to be worked at with bales over 24%, kinda like having a primitive moisture tester on the stacking tractor. I use Hayguard on my hay and try to keep any wet ones separated from the dry while baling but sometimes they do get mixed up while loading. When the Harvestec unit says one was wetter than the rest I'll back up and turn 90 degrees to the row I'm baling then drop the bale so I know which ones might be tougher than the rest.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Nice looking bales what make and model baler /? Does the have a cutter are these cut /sliced bales/


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

endrow said:


> Nice looking bales what make and model baler /? Does the have a cutter are these cut /sliced bales/


These bales were made with a 1996 New Holland 644 no cutter or slice on it. Have replaced that baler with a BR740 Silage Special.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

tjustice said:


> I have a grabber and love it.


Thanks for the info, guys.

After hearing about using the bale spears, I went out and played with stacking a few that way. Seemed pretty easy, but I was wondering about a couple of things.

First, time savings. It seems to me that a grabber would be faster to stack because I would not have to lay the bale down, then stab it and pick it up to put it on the stack.

tjustice, have you tired both ways?

Second, what a about spacing between bales? It seems to me that a grabber would need more space between bales to allow for the arms to open. Is that the case? It seems that by spearing I can put the bales tighter together sp that they are just touching.

More thoughts?

Ralph


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

rjmoses said:


> Thanks for the info, guys.
> 
> After hearing about using the bale spears, I went out and played with stacking a few that way. Seemed pretty easy, but I was wondering about a couple of things.
> 
> ...


It doesn't take but a few seconds to set the bale down then spear it thru the side. Since I carry two at a time into the barn, a grabber would really slow me down. I can also stack two at a time for the second layer, again one at a time with the grab would slow me down.

With the space between the bales I found it really difficult to get the same number of bales per layer as I would get using the spears.


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