Andy Murdoch, Eckville, Alberta, built a round bale handler that not only picks up and transports bales on the tractor front-end loader but also unrolls them.

The bale handler simply mounts on the loader arms in place of a bucket. There's a 3 by 8-in. hydraulic cylinder on each arm with a flow divider so that he can open the arm on one side when working close to a wall or cab of a truck. When you pick up a bale, you open the arms all the way. The divider brings the arms closed evenly.

Rotating gripper plates on each arm of the bale handler hold the bale. When in transport they remain stationary. To unroll a bale, you just cut the twine and start turning. The hydraulic motors, mounted in each of the bale arms, turn the bale at 0 to 60 rpm's.

Murdoch says the unique bale handler lets him transport and unroll bales no matter what condition they might be in. Even if they're flat on the bottom the unroller will be able to handle it.

Murdoch built the unroller on his own farm and would like to find a manufacturer for it.