Plans for bale spear on front bucket?
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texasjohn
Super Member
I have a L5030 which is larger than your tractor and I consider that the large round bales that it handles is at its FEL limit.... about 1500 lbs per bale. And, I MUST have very significant rear weight and liquid filled tires, else it turns into a see-saw. And this is with a QA bale spike... no additional weight on front from the bucket.
I fear that your tractor plus bucket plus spike would have trouble picking up a large bale in the front, even with sufficient rear ballast. What size are the bales you wish to pick up? Specs from the Kubota site indicate that the specs for the loader are
LA 463 LA 703
Lift Capacity (500mm forward)
853 lbs. (387kg) 1356 lbs. (615kg)
Lift Capacity (Pivot pin)
1142 lbs. (518kg) 1818 lbs. (825kg)
Lift Capacity (Bucket center)
1014 lbs. (460kg) 1543 lbs. (700kg)
Perhaps someone with your exact tractor and specific experience with a front spike can give actual experience.
Unless you are going to handle lots of bales, which with your acreage seems unlikely, I'd consider a rear hay fork (or spike) on your 3 point. It can handle larger bales, will be safer, much less tippy, and you can put a platform on the fork and use it for many, many other purposes than hauling hay.
That said, I have both a spike and hay fork to move about 100 round bales a year. Good luck!
I fear that your tractor plus bucket plus spike would have trouble picking up a large bale in the front, even with sufficient rear ballast. What size are the bales you wish to pick up? Specs from the Kubota site indicate that the specs for the loader are
LA 463 LA 703
Lift Capacity (500mm forward)
853 lbs. (387kg) 1356 lbs. (615kg)
Lift Capacity (Pivot pin)
1142 lbs. (518kg) 1818 lbs. (825kg)
Lift Capacity (Bucket center)
1014 lbs. (460kg) 1543 lbs. (700kg)
Perhaps someone with your exact tractor and specific experience with a front spike can give actual experience.
Unless you are going to handle lots of bales, which with your acreage seems unlikely, I'd consider a rear hay fork (or spike) on your 3 point. It can handle larger bales, will be safer, much less tippy, and you can put a platform on the fork and use it for many, many other purposes than hauling hay.
That said, I have both a spike and hay fork to move about 100 round bales a year. Good luck!
BloomingtonMike
Platinum Member
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BE careful my friend. Look into a 3pt bale spear. They are toooo big and would be unsafe with the FEL and bucket attached (and maybe even without the bucket?).
Are you using a larger tractor for them maybe???
Are you using a larger tractor for them maybe???
Thanks for the input guy's. I will try to find out the average weight of the bales locally. What I have is a couple cows and right now we use good ol standard 40lb. ish bales. I also buy 100lb alfalfa bales. I was thinking about the large round bales so that the cows could sort of be self feeding for the grass hay and still giving some alfalfa and grain. I think I will buy one large bail, pull it off my truck and see how the cows do with it and go from there. Thanks again for the help. Brian
texasjohn
Super Member
Lots of issues here... some of them can/will be painful .. I've struggled with the same issues you have. Let me list the ones that come to mind immediately.
With just a couple of cows, it takes them a long time (month plus) to eat a round bale. It will rot once they start into it if not under a rain proof shed.
The cows will eat too much alfalfa, bloat and die if you don't find some way to aggressively watch them *every time* to prevent them from eating too much... my opinion. You must find a way to limit the amount of such feed that they get... by limiting their feeding time if you don't limit the amount. You may be limiting the amount now by breaking up the 100 lb alfalfa bales. It may not happen the first time, or the second time you let them eat all the alfalfa they want, but IMHO it will happen sooner or later. If you dont know what bloat is, you gotta understand it before feeding high nitrogen/protein feeds. As a minimum, if you decide to *ever* feed alfalfa unlimited you need to get a hollow bloat spike you can stick into the cow's side/stomach to release the tension when she bloats... death comes rather quickly and unless your vet lives next door you won't have time to call one.
I agree that bales of hay grazer, oat hay, or some other form of reasonable, less expensive hay for your cows works fine, even if that is all they have. Any supplement is fine, particularly to keep the cows gentle... and the most important attribute is a gentle cow.
I suspect you are seeking to use round bales to limit the amount of time/effort you have to apply to feed the cows. You can do this by putting the bales under a shed, separated somewhat and not piled up. Then surround the bale you are letting the cows have with a round bale feeder to minimize the amount of hay loss from them from trampeling it down. Surround the other bales with an electric fence to keep them away. When they have eaten the first bale, you can readjust the electric fence and reset the round bale feeder for the next bale. I did this one year when I didn't have a tractor to move the bales. I paid a neighbor to initially place the bales with his tractor when I bought the hay.
Another idea is a trailer type of round bale fork/spike. They are used a lot around here. Many are shop made, have two wheels and a winch. They are not too expensive, can be hooked behind a tractor, pickup, whatever has a trailer hitch. The kind with a manual winch will do fine for you since you are not carrying lots and lots of hay. I think this is your most effective approach. It works on several types of vehicles, so if one is dead, you can still move hay with another. It can also be used to move hay from a field several miles away to your place.
Good luck!
With just a couple of cows, it takes them a long time (month plus) to eat a round bale. It will rot once they start into it if not under a rain proof shed.
The cows will eat too much alfalfa, bloat and die if you don't find some way to aggressively watch them *every time* to prevent them from eating too much... my opinion. You must find a way to limit the amount of such feed that they get... by limiting their feeding time if you don't limit the amount. You may be limiting the amount now by breaking up the 100 lb alfalfa bales. It may not happen the first time, or the second time you let them eat all the alfalfa they want, but IMHO it will happen sooner or later. If you dont know what bloat is, you gotta understand it before feeding high nitrogen/protein feeds. As a minimum, if you decide to *ever* feed alfalfa unlimited you need to get a hollow bloat spike you can stick into the cow's side/stomach to release the tension when she bloats... death comes rather quickly and unless your vet lives next door you won't have time to call one.
I agree that bales of hay grazer, oat hay, or some other form of reasonable, less expensive hay for your cows works fine, even if that is all they have. Any supplement is fine, particularly to keep the cows gentle... and the most important attribute is a gentle cow.
I suspect you are seeking to use round bales to limit the amount of time/effort you have to apply to feed the cows. You can do this by putting the bales under a shed, separated somewhat and not piled up. Then surround the bale you are letting the cows have with a round bale feeder to minimize the amount of hay loss from them from trampeling it down. Surround the other bales with an electric fence to keep them away. When they have eaten the first bale, you can readjust the electric fence and reset the round bale feeder for the next bale. I did this one year when I didn't have a tractor to move the bales. I paid a neighbor to initially place the bales with his tractor when I bought the hay.
Another idea is a trailer type of round bale fork/spike. They are used a lot around here. Many are shop made, have two wheels and a winch. They are not too expensive, can be hooked behind a tractor, pickup, whatever has a trailer hitch. The kind with a manual winch will do fine for you since you are not carrying lots and lots of hay. I think this is your most effective approach. It works on several types of vehicles, so if one is dead, you can still move hay with another. It can also be used to move hay from a field several miles away to your place.
Good luck!