Loader-Mounted Bale Spinner

Loader-Mounted Bale Spinner HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Bale Handling (5) 18-4-25 "It eliminates the need to look back all the time and cost only about $200 to build," says Lorne Rawluk, St. Martin, Manitoba, about the loader-mounted bale spinner he built for his Deere 4020 tractor. Rawluk used 4-in. sq. steel tubing to build a rectangular frame that bolts onto the loader in place of his grapple fork. A 3-in. dia. bale spear made from a solid steel shaft and three 16-in. long spikes are welded to a square steel plate that's chain-driven by an orbit motor. "It's built similar to 3-pt. mounted bale spinners but works a lot better. I can reach bales stacked 12 ft. high and see what's in front of me as I unroll the bale," says Rawluk, who has a cow-calf operation. "Commercial 3-pt. bale spinners can lift bales only about 3 ft. high and sell for $1,600 to $1,700. Another advantage is that on a windy day I don't have loose hay flying in my face all the time. It really does a good job of breaking up hard core bales. I had been using a grapple fork but I couldn't get it to break up the bales. I got tired of unrolling them by hand or using a pitch fork. "I use it mostly to unroll bales between cows on pasture. It scatters the hay all over so that the cows don't have to fight for it. I can spin the bale forward or backward via a 2-way control valve on the orbit motor or I can use the loader controls. Calves often have a hard time pulling hay out from hard core bales so I also use this bale spinner to unroll bales into a self-feeder." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Lorne Rawluk, S t. Martin, Manitoba, Canada ROC 2T0 (ph 204 659-2620).

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