moving round bales

[Hay Dude]

My Krone baler has a scale, but there’s no way to prove weights to customers. The bales plop out the back of the baler on the ground and you only get the wights in real time.
I’d like a loader with a scale. Might have to be in the future world when I come back reincarnated as a “wealthy” hay farmer.

 

[5030]

A little something I was reminded of yesterday. If you’re buying, take a tape measure along. A 4x5 or 5x5 may not be as round as its supposed to be. One of the local hay guys was bragging about getting more bales to sell because he only does 44” and no one notices.

All that takes is a customer with a tape measure and no more customer...

 

[5030]

As for the OP. Get a bale spear that attaches to the loader. Ones that go on the bucket will eventually bend your bucket.

That applies to a light duty material bucket, not a heavy duty excavation bucket. Been using a bucket spear on mine for years with no issues.

 

[mo1]

i have john deere 4410 compact utility with front bucket. i am hoping to use this tractor to move round bales to unload off trailer and to put in storage building. would the spears that attaches to the front bucket using a bracketwork well or is it best to remove the front bucket and attach a a bracket where the bucket is. I want the best product and I am looking for practical advice. thanks in advance.

You will want a bale spear with its own frame that attaches to the loader carrier after you remove your bucket, rather than something that attaches to the bucket. Your loader should have the JD100-400 QA that Deere still uses on its compact loaders, so it would not be difficult to get a bale spear to fit your loader.

Sometimes better on the light side than heavy. Although higher density makes bales weigh more, so does moisture. A hay buyer doesn’t want to pay for water, they want to pay for hay- DRY hay.

Most bales here are bought per bale rather than per ton, so the exact weight of the bales is often just a guess. Small squares are easy to weigh and I do weigh some I make just for my own knowledge, but nobody buying any has ever asked me how much they weigh. They can see the size of the bale and sometimes they pick one up so they can tell if you are making really small bales. If somebody makes an unusually loose or small diameter round bale the buyers would generally know it after looking at and poking at the bales, and I've had people take out a measuring tape to check the size. Nobody has ever pulled out a scale to weigh one though. A lot of hay here is made and sold locally, so it's a different ballgame than selling hay and shipping a long distance.

Baling hay too wet would also not win you many repeat customers after the bales you sold them get moldy and spoil, or worse, start on fire.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I've been buying round bales for awhile now, and I've found that everyone selling round bales, lies about what they weigh. A guy on YouTube took one 4x5 round bale to the TXDOT Scale and had his trailer weighed with the bale, and without the bale. Actual weight of a tightly rolled bale was just over 700 pounds. Say 750 for easy math.

I agree with everyone else that you are better off removing the bucket and getting a proper hay spear. I have two tractors with hay spears. Both are the double spear designs. They work great, but I've never used any other type.

I also have a 3 point spear for my smaller 37 hp tractor without a loader. I use it when the other tractors are broke down and I'm desperate to get a bale out. I can pick up the bale and bring it into the pasture, but I can't get it into the cradle, so I just unwrap it and leave it on the ground. It goes twice as fast without being in the hay cradle.

Every body is liars or just the people that have hay? People that don't have scales can only say what the book says a bale weighs. Plus, in your own statement you told us what the YouTubers bale weighed but no mention of what it should weigh. No different than he was driving 37 miles an hour. Well, was it in a 25 zone? 35 zone? 55 zone?

I wouldn't put a bale out in front of a bucket. Has too much leverage out away from tractor. You need it as close to the tractor as possible. Especially if you are dealing with all those liars.