Do-It-Yourself Round Bale Unroller

Do-It-Yourself Round Bale Unroller BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 23-5-29 Here's a simple round bale unroller that you can build yourself. Alec MacGregor, Jasper, Ontario, built it to feed round bales to his beef herd. Since he started rolling out bales for cattle, instead of putting the bales into feeders, MacGregor says he's able to disperse manure from the cattle over a wider area by feeding bales out in a different place each day. He's also able to reduce damage to pastures by moving around. Rolling bales out also reduces waste because he only feeds out what cattle will eat. And cattle don't fight to get at the hay when it's spread out in a windrow. The main frame of the bale unroller is rectangular 2 by 4-in. steel tubing with a vertical upright at center that attaches to the top link on the tractor 3-pt. The lower 3-pt. arms attach to the toolbar. The two pivoting side arms are made from 2-in. sq. steel tubing. They're opened and closed by a hydraulic cylinder positioned across the top of the main toolbar. Each side arm is fitted with a 12-in. rotating spear mounted on bearings. The spears fit into the center of the bale. Discs welded to the base of each spear keep the bales from rubbing on the side arms as they unroll. "It took a lot of trips out baling to get the details worked out," notes MacGregor, who notes that the unit can also be used to move bales around the yard as needed. A bale spear on the front end loader carries a second bale. MacGregor figures he spent about $90 for steel and hydraulics to build the unit. He entered it in the Environmental Farm Plan contest run by the Ontario soil & Crop Improvement Association (contact Andrew Graham, program advisor, for details on the contest at 519 826-4216) and won a $1,000 prize. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Alec MacGregor, Graffview Farms, 157 Gammell Rd., Rt. 1, Jasper, Ontario, Canada K0G 1G0 (ph 613 283-8054).

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