Handy tool will bring a spike in productivity
But that’s not the best way to make progress.
Unlike the new tractor, which many see as the outward sign of farm progress, making this bale spike/flipper involves little or no expense, but will result in a faster, easier and more accurate work rate.
Stacking bales is one of those jobs which can be done using a 30-year-old tractor and loader, almost as well as with a modern handler.
When the loader has this simple bale flipper fitted to it, you have a machine which can achieve a good deal in an hour, a morning, or a full day.
It’s well known that you get more round bales into a shed if you stack them on their base, like cylinders, rather than their sides.
The real question is how to get them turned from sides to end really easily, and when I saw this bale flipper working a few years ago, I knew from the start that the midlands farmer had the job licked.
The implement he uses is all home-built, and it has brackets for the Quicke 3260 loader which he has mounted on a Case 885XL.
The bale spike part has a length of 2 x 4in channel fitted edgeways to the loader faceplate, with two bracket-type hooks. Welded to the top of the channel is a 4ft upright made from 3in channel, that has a bush on the top that carries an arm with a tine — similar to one on a flat eight grab.
The tine is moved up and down with a double acting ram. The beauty of this implement is that any farmer with welding skills can make it in the workshop over a weekend or less, and once constructed, it will be in use for many seasons — until such time as round bales are no longer in use.
There’s nothing quite like this machine in production, so acquiring one will mean dusting off the welder and getting stuck in. The first part to tackle is the main cross bar which needs holes drilled or cut out to take bushes for the two Kverneland tines that get bolted to the back.
The upright needs gussets on both sides and also front and back, and then you need a bracket on which to fit the base of the ram. This can be at the base, but could also be fitted some distance up the upright, if the ram is short (which it can be, because the leverage is good).
There’s an added strut that goes out the back and is lined up with a cross member on the loader, and is there to prevent it folding too far back under the weight of the bale. Tractors or handlers with heavier hydraulics probably won’t need this.
Ben Shanks, who made this one, says it is far better than the average spike, and he uses it all the time. It’s faster, because the tines are pushed underneath the bale rather than into the straw or hay. There’s less energy taken up in engaging and disengaging the bale. Which means that it stays where you put it and want it, rather than finding it moving with the loader.
Stacking bales is done by lining up the base with the loader tipped back a few degrees, and then levelling it, lifting the top tine, and reversing the tractor.
Stacking bales off the floor prevents the damp from spoiling them. Ben stacks on old wooden pallets, but others have found stacking on scrap car tyres is also effective. However you stack, rat bait is advisable.
