Bale Hauler Feeder

Bale hauler feeder HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Bale Handling (5) 15-3-10 Bill Kirby, Woodstown, N.J., built a tandem-axle bale hauler-feeder using the axle from a 1965 Fruehauf 40-ft. long double decker cattle trailer. "The bale hauler-feeder was easy to build and cost less than $ 100," says Kirby. He used the cattle trailer's tandem axle chassis and lengths of 3-in. dia. galvanized pipe to build the 18-ft. long, 4-ft. wide rig. The hauler-feeder, which holds seven round bales and feeds 40 cattle at a time, is supported by eight 10.00 by 20 tires and is equipped with a pair of narrow front wheels removed from an old Oliver tractor. A length of flat iron welded to the spindle between the front wheels serves as a tongue and hitch. "It works much better than most commercial round bale feeders because it's so narrow that cattle can reach all the way across it. I never have to clean it off," says Kirby. "Some hay does drop between the pipes, but when I pull the trailer away cattle clean up whatever is left on the ground. It works great for feeding bales stored outside that have a lot of spoilage. If too much spoiled hay accumulates under the feeder, or if it gets too muddy, I can just move the feeder to another location. I had been feeding bales from a solid floor wagon, but cattle couldn't reach all the hay so I always had to throw some off by hand. I unload bales by pushing them off with a front-end loader or by hand. I use my pickup to pull the trailer and I can take it anywhere. The tandem dual wheels pull through mud without sinking and the front wheels turn 360 degrees like a big castor wheel so I never get stuck." Kirby welded four 18-ft. lengths of 3-in. pipe, salvaged from an old chicken house, to the top of the axle assembly and to a 4-ft. long, 6-in. wide piece of channel iron mounted on top of the spindle between the front wheels. Two other pipes run diagonally from the front of the cross-bar back to the axles. The front wheels swivel 360 degrees. Kirby used the 12-ft. high sides of the Fruehauf trailer as walls for two cattle sheds, and he used both of the trailer's aluminum floors to build new floors on a pair of old New Holland wagons. Contact FARM SHOW Followup, Bill Kirby, RR 1, Box 638, Woodstown, NJ. 08098 (ph 609 769-0792).

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