Twine Stripper Makes Bale Handling Easier

Twine Stripper Makes Bale Handling Easier BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 23-4-1 "We think it's the best piece of equipment for handling big round bales that has ever been built," says Allen Schwitzer, Melville, Sask., who built what he calls a "Twine Stripper" to fit a front-end loader bucket. One of the biggest problems with feeding big round bales is getting the twine off, says Schwitzer, especially if you've got a lot of cattle to feed. After years of continually climbing on and off the tractor to cut off twine by hand, he finally came up with a machine to do the job that works so well he brought it to the recent Farm Progress Show in Regina, Sask. The Twine Stripper consists of a drum rotor fitted with angled cutting blades that fits inside a loader bucket (7 ft. or wider). The drum is driven by two orbit motors. When pressed against the side of a bale, the drum strips the twine off the bale, wrapping it on the drum. The drum and bucket are also used to roll the bale out along the ground or - if the bucket is fitted with a grapple fork - you can pick up the bale to put it into a feeder. After you have used the rotor to strip off the twine from 30 to 40 bales, you cut the twine off by activating two hydraulic cylinders that move a cutterbar down onto the drum. It cuts the twine off as the drum turns. The twine is then dumped out of the bucket for disposal. "It's all done from the tractor seat. No need to ever get off," says Schwitzer, who says he leaves the Twine Stripper in the bucket all year long, even when he uses the bucket in winter to move snow. Sells for $4,850 (Canadian). He's also developing a second model that will mount directly on the loader arms and which can be fitted with grapple forks so there's no need for a bucket. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Checota Bison Ranch, Allen & Lauretta Schwitzer, RR1, Melville, Sask. S0A 2P0 Canada (ph 306 728-4906).

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