Deere Combine Moves Two Bales At Once

Deere Combine Moves Two Bales At Once BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 33-4-6 Chuck Misek used to dread the task of moving big round hay bales. Then he started using a combine to move them and suddenly the job became fun. "I'm getting older so it was becoming harder to turn around and pick them up with a 3-pt. mounted bale fork," the Schuyler, Neb., farmer explains. "I wanted to figure out an easier way. I had an unused Deere 6600 that my wife wanted me to get rid of. I loved that old combine and didn't want to take it to the bone yard." Misek convinced a friend to build double forks out of 1/2-in. steel. He removed the combine header and used part of it to weld a frame to hold the tines, which are bolted on. The sets of tines are spaced far enough apart to pick up the bales easily and set them down with a space between them. "You don't even have to stop to pick the bales up," Misek says. "I never have to look back. It cuts my time in half, and I enjoy doing it." He bales between 550 and 600 bales a year. Before he kept the bales on the field as long as he could, with the combine he moves them right away. The job is also more comfortable because of the air-conditioned cab. Misek's wife, Glenetta, doesn't bug him to get rid of the combine any more. "She says now I'm civil after moving bales," Misek laughs. He estimates he spent about $200 on the combine makeover. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Chuck Misek, 1449 Rd. D, Schuyler, Neb. 68661 (402 352-3649; cpmisek@yahoo.com).

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