Finally started picking up my hay bales for the winter from my local supplier (I purchase all winter hay). It has been a very busy summer and show season. Fortunately the weather and my hay supplier have been very cooperative.

I am fortunate to still have one pasture with good grazing for awhile yet. But hay feeding time is nearing as is weaning. I buy 5x6ft bales that weigh in the 1500-1650 lb range and are mixed grass with some alfalfa but not dairy quality hay by any means. But it is good beef hay. I am going to take a hay sample in for testing after I get these all trailered and wrapped. I took a picture of the wrapping operation late this afternoon. FWIW.

I use my loader spear to pick the heavy bales from the trailer. I then turn around and spear the bale as close to the center as possible with the wrapper spear, wrap the bale then transport it on the wrapper spear to the nearby sloped storage area where I line the wrapped bales up in rows going up and down the slope.

In this operation the Gnuse hydraulic top link makes life so much easier. A couple rows are on old pallets. These will be the last bales used in the spring. Even with wrapping it still pays to get the bales up & off of the ground. When I run out of good pallets I will put them in a separate row and use those bales first. Here is a picture, fwiw.

Jim at Dawn

(IMG_3871_Wrapping Bales_100911.JPG)

IMG_3871_Wrapping Bales_100911.JPG (72KB - 128 downloads)