Cutting Round Bales - Chainsaw?

[Argonne]

Life interrupted this year, and I am ending up buying hay for the winter for our 3 equines. I went with round bales due to the economics.

We feed from a bunk feeder with hay rack out in one of the pastures, and I need to keep it that way because when it gets soupy out there the Gator is the only vehicle that can make the trip without tearing up the pasture. As such, we need to cut up the round bales (in the barn) and ration them out.

I have hopes that my wife will do the feeding most days, and I want to make it as easy as possible for her. Pulling a round apart with a pitchfork is, um, not easy, so I am researching ways to section a round bale fairly easily.

I have an old electric chainsaw gathering dust, and my plan is to modify the blade (saw the procedure on the net somewhere), replace the oil with vegetable oil, and use it to cut the bales up. In another forum I saw comments that electric chainsaws were generally not up to the task, and would burn out, but I don't know how much cutting that were doing or whether or not they had modified their blade.

Has anybody here had experience using chainsaws for this purpose? Are there alternative methods that work?

 

[bcp]

I don't have horses or round bales, but the problem is interesting.

FARM SHOW - Chainsaw Cuts Hay Bales

cutting round hay bale with saw

FARM SHOW - Easy Way To Slice Round Bales

Hand held round bale and silage saw. - YouTube

Modern Application of a Lightning Hay Knife--Stage 1: Opening the Bale - YouTube

Bruce

 

[Tx Jim]

Have you considered flipping rd bale on the flat side then peeling the hay off the bale?

 

[Birdhunter1]

Have you considered flipping rd bale on the flat side then peeling the hay off the bale?

I'm a first horse owner and this is what I am doing. I've been around cows and hay a longtime but if I put one round bale out for a horse it would go bad long before she gets 1/2 way through it. So I flipped it on end in the barn and have been peeling it apart. So far so good.

 

[Wagtail]

A friend has two large posts... she then slides a metal rod through the centre of the round, attaches both ends to the top of the posts (block & tackle?) and hoists the round up off of the ground.

She then unravels as much hay as needed like you would a roll of toilet paper.

I haven't seen this arrangement in action but she's happy with it.

 

[Argonne]

I don't have horses or round bales, but the problem is interesting.

FARM SHOW - Chainsaw Cuts Hay Bales

cutting round hay bale with saw

FARM SHOW - Easy Way To Slice Round Bales

Hand held round bale and silage saw. - YouTube

Modern Application of a Lightning Hay Knife--Stage 1: Opening the Bale - YouTube

Bruce

Yea, I've been researching this off and on for a couple of weeks now. The silage saw is the most cool but it costs $ 1400. The only hay knives I'm finding out there are antiques, and the chainsaw idea, which appeals to me the most, gets criticized from time to time for various reasons, which is why I'm hoping someone on here has done it.

My fallback plan is to leave the end-loader with toothbar on the 2210 for the winter, and use it periodically to "disorganize" the bale, but I imagine it will tear things up so thoroughly that gathering ~ 40lbs a day to transport out to the pasture could be a messy proposition. I think sliced into wedges would be much easier to handle.

Then again, I haven't tried it yet, so tooth bar demolition might work just fine. The horses are still finding things to eat on the homestead, so I figure I have 2 weeks to come up with a plan. They do a great job on all the stuff I would normally have to weed-whack in the fall.

There are disadvantages to having them police up the homestead though, like getting out of the door.

 

[Argonne]

A friend has two large posts... she then slides a metal rod through the centre of the round, attaches both ends to the top of the posts (block & tackle?) and hoists the round up off of the ground.

She then unravels as much hay as needed like you would a roll of toilet paper.

I haven't seen this arrangement in action but she's happy with it.

Cool idea, but my wife lacks the innate physics aptitude to use a system like that. She'd be asking me why it doesn't unroll when she pulls the hay, and I'd be drawing pictures and showing her the math, and she's be nodding her head, and I'd get this oft repeated sinking feeling that I'm wasting my time.

 

[Dadnatron]

My only fear would be the stems twisting around the shaft or knocking the chain off the bar. Might be worth just firing up your regular saw and seeing how it works first. Although it will have a lot more speed and power, and might not represent an electric saw's action.

What about a $18 reciprocating saw from Harbor Freight with a long blade?

 

[Toyboy]

Sawzall ??

 

[roadhunter]

 

[sd455dan]

Cool idea, but my wife lacks the innate physics aptitude to use a system like that. She'd be asking me why it doesn't unroll when she pulls the hay, and I'd be drawing pictures and showing her the math, and she's be nodding her head, and I'd get this oft repeated sinking feeling that I'm wasting my time.

We bought rounds for our horses in the past and what i normally did was get one set it on it's side on a pallet (leaving room to walk around it).
The wife would then start peeling the hay off of the roll while walking around the bale, and then tear when she had the amount desired.

Although this did work for a few years mixed with other years of small squares.
I gave up on rounds and small squares, and now buy large 1200lb squares set them on pallets and cut the bale strings and lay over a layer and then just pitch fork what is needed. Just to old to stack small bales anymore.
Hope one of the methods will work for peeling a round bale for you Or even that Chainsaw method roadhunter posted that's pretty cool .

 

[Argonne]

...Or even that Chainsaw method roadhunter posted that's pretty cool .

I found that video encouraging. Once I get a bale in the barn I'm going to give the electric chainsaw a try unmodified. Could be the key to not jamming is to cut in a spot that will spread open naturally once cut, and use a light touch on the pressure.

 

[Al 2]

A few years ago a local farmer was cutting such a bale with his chain saw and started a fire in the barn . He didn't make it out.
Al

 

[holeycow]

Set the bale on edge and peel off what you need with a pitchfork. Work the bale from the bottom to keep it clean at the bottom.

Simples. You are overthinking this. All you need is a pitchfork and work the bale from the bottom. Feeding three horses is not very much hay everday. About 4-5seconds to peel off a day's feed.

Work the bale from the bottom and keep the bottom edge clean. That is the key.

 

[Argonne]

...You are overthinking this. ...

Hey, who let this guy in? Overthinking is what we DO here :cool2:.

 

[holeycow]

Ok. Unsubscribed.

But my suggestions work way more easily than trying to cut pieces of a bale off while it is lying on its side.

This part of the world feeds thousands upon thousands of round bales every winter. Hundreds of thousands.

Most of those bales are set out whole (on edge as the animals clean them up better that way). Some get fed individually and portioned out as I described. Work the on -edge bale from the bottom, that way it will unwrap right to the core cleanly...use a 5 or 6 tine fork. A manure fork.

Done it hundreds of times. This after fighting with bales on their side for a while before we wisened up about 20 years ago.

 

[sd455dan]

YEP.
i forgot to ad the part about making sure to start with the bottom edge,
have to keep it from being left - same principle as a roll of tape that splits on one side, If it isn't unraveled and made sure a whole layer is unwound it creates an on going problem.

Agree- This is not rocket science

 

[mapper]

I used straw bales for raising tomatoes for a few years, it required making pockets in the bales for the plants. I used a chainsaw to cut the pockets, cutting about two dozen pockets I needed to remove the chain and bar at least three times to clean out the debris that would pack in around the drive sprocket and cover. The straw was damp from conditioning it for planting so that may have affected the tendency to clog. If the dry hay clogs like that it would probably be a serious fire hazard!

 

[holeycow]

Neat planting idea. How did that work out?

 

[mapper]

Straw bales worked well for tomatoes, there is a book 'Straw Bale Gardening' that I used for the basic idea. I used this method to reduce the occurrence of tobacco mosaic disease. I was running out of places to raise them that I had not used recently.
I switched over to a greenhouse and pots this year to extend the growing season. I am going to clean the tomato plants out of the greenhouse this week, they are not setting much and the I am fighting a losing battle with mold now. It's been an interesting learning experience this year. Figure I will be starting again in late February if all goes well.