"As far as we know, it's the first trailer in North America designed to handle wrapped silage bales," says Harold Lyman of the Lyman Company, Tigard, Ore.

The problem with moving wrapped bales is that most conventional bale handling equipment tears holes in the plastic. Lyman's new trailer has a bale loader with a hydraulic squeeze mechanism that handles bales "as gently as a baby" from either side of the trailer. It drops bales onto a wide concave conveyor belt that moves each bale to the back of the trailer to make room for the next bale to be loaded.

The trailer holds six 4-ft. bales or five 5-ft. bales. It's powered by a self-contained hydraulic system driven by a pto pump. All controls are in the cab. Twin offset axle assembly moves the trailer smoothly over uneven ground.

To unload, the back end of the trailer drops to the ground and the belt pulls the bales to the back of the trailer as the trailer pulls forward, leaving bales in a tight row. "In field tests, even inexperienced operators were able to clear 36 bales per hour, transporting them over a half mile. An experienced operator can do a lot more," says Lyman, who's already producing and selling the new trailer.