Pallet forks to move round bales

[Sportsman762]

Are they net wrapped? Or string? What size? 5’ wide?
If net, you can, but spread the forks pretty wide and be VERY careful. If they are narrow set, you’ll either tear through the net, or dig up dirt under them.

I used forks for moving 5x6 twine bales and they worked good enough. Hay Dude lays out the points well. Used a rough terrain forklift a few times when the skidsteer or backhoe was at another farm. Bale Spear is much easier and does not require any skill. A Squeeze Grapple like @LouNY recomends is nice in that it does not hurt bales at all, however they are much slower. With a spear I could grab a bale without stopping making hay moving much faster. Also Squeeze Grapple are much more $$ than a spear. Normally I see them when folks are doing haylage bales that are individually wrapped. The Squeeze Grapple is the only way to move the individually wrapped haylage bales without damage.

 

[Cycledude]

Forks will work, when picking them up in a field going in along the sides with the forks spread some what wide works very well.
If they are going to be stacked on end it is a bit more difficult unless you are on concrete. On dirt you will tend to get into the dirt and carry dirt along with your bale.
If you end up handling a lot of round bales the squeeze grapples for round bales are the best way to go.
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I have never handled any round bales but after you mentioned the Squeeze Grapple I watched some YouTube videos about them and wow they seem to work VERY WELL

 

[Hay Dude]

They do, but for the OP, he can get a simple single bale spear used for $300.
He’s only moving 40-60 bales and they aren’t haylage (at least I don’t think he said they were)

 

[Needville]

I have a bale spear and still probably use pallet forks to move mine about 70% of the time. It seems I always have the wrong attachment on and am too lazy to take the time to switch them. Just spread them wide and go under the bale. Don't try to pierce the bale like a spear, which I initially thought I could do.

I cut the net wrap and partially unwrap it then flip it on its end with the forks to pull the wrap the rest of the way off.

 

[Hay Dude]

Youll do fine with the forks, but may rip some net here & there. No biggie if it’s going straight into the feeder.

 

[Silly question]

Wow, thanks everyone for all the comments and suggestions. I was thinking that I might be able to insert the forks into the bales to move them, however, I can definitely see why this would not work well. And with the bales mostly being to sell, and a bit of distance, hills, and rough ground between the paddock and the shed, I will see if I can pick up the loader bale spears and sell them after if I don't see myself using rounds in the future. Thanks again everyone

 

[jyoutz]

I’m planning to make a bracket that bolts to the rack on my pallet forks that has a single bale spear in the center. That way the forks support the bottom of the bale and the spear keeps it from sliding off. You can buy a single spear on Amazon fairly cheap and fabricate a bolt on bracket that can be removed when you want to use the forks for other purposes.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I’m planning to make a bracket that bolts to the rack on my pallet forks that has a single bale spear in the center. That way the forks support the bottom of the bale and the spear keeps it from sliding off. You can buy a single spear on Amazon fairly cheap and fabricate a bolt on bracket that can be removed when you want to use the forks for other purposes.

I've never needed anything like that on my pallet forks, I don't even see why it's needed at all.

SR

 

[jyoutz]

I've never needed anything like that on my pallet forks, I don't even see why it's needed at all.

SR

Not to say it will happen to everyone, but there have been more than one person stacking round bales with pallet forks and have the bale fall backwards, causing injuries and damaging the machine. The spear prevents this.

 

[LouNY]

If planning to stack like oil cans a bale spear likely will not work. You would need to push the spear into the side of the bale or curl way down to stack which would reduce the height available to stack.