A bale handle?

[flying belgian]

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand I wish I'd thought of it myself. Million dollar idea. On the other hand, I want to make fun of the wusses that would use such a device.

View attachment 5709
For the imagination-challenged, it's a handle for carrying small square bales. You slip the strings over the hooks and then lift with the big plastic handle so the strings don't cut into your tender widdle fingees.

Doesn't seem like such a bad idea but I don't know how you would keep up with a baler that is pounding out 100 bales an hour and you have to carry them to back of 16 ft. rack, take that thing off the bale and hook it on to the next.

 

[DoubleR]

You're talking about these I presume? We called them bale hooks here.

View attachment 5713

That bale handle might be handy if you had two, one for each hand.

Would be helpful if you had to carry bales any distance I suppose, two at a time gets you done quicker.

I don't know though, you could just grab a bale in each hand by the strings and go.

So yeah, on proper reflection, it's probably just a nice, shiny, gimmick that really isn't all that useful to anyone used to handling bales of hay.

The farm stores all carry a modern versions of the hay hooks like in your picture. I handle about a thousand small square bales a year and use one all the time. Growing up we used them all the time behind the baler on the wagon. Being a old guy now I use one just to get the job done as easy as possible when loading and unloading and stacking.

 

[tom upton]

I doubt the person that invented that bale handle actually handled many bales? Unless the strings were too loose you would be forever just getting it under the strings. Back in the Allis roto baler days once we were old enough to use it responsibly we were given a hay hook to handle hay either building load or in the mow. Dad used a pitch fork such as Daniel described. I can still see him loading 2 rows of hay himself jumping over the tounge to get from one side to the other. I remember thinking I would like to load, but little did I know I should have stuck with driving! Using the pitch fork on those round bales initialy took some getting used to, but once you got the hang of it the overall effort to load a wagon was actually less than using a hook, AND you could build a much higher load. That being said with square bales if loading from the ground I would think a short handled pitch fork would work well, but we have always baled onto the wagon so just grab a string.

 

[dhermesc]

Bale Hooks were a reality for me and I still have my favorite hanging in plain sight in my garage. The two I show are good and desirable because they allow solid placement and good release. The round handle one is the favored, the oval handled is next. I do not use a "D" handled Hook they can get turned upward and or bounce up and fail to hook they also do not release with clean action. The plastic "device" shown is just too weird. JimView attachment 5769View attachment 5770

That looks more like a meat hook than a bale hook.

I never could use a bale hook worth a &^%#. We had string tied bales you picked up off the ground to load. The baler was always moving to fast to have a wagon hooked to the back of it. Between the steep slopes and the rough ground you'd bounce half the hay off the wagon before you ever had a full load.

Still pick them off the ground because the load has to be stacked well enough to go miles down the road to the hay buyers. Or my son uses the accumulator and stacks them on the truck and gooseneck trailers. The bigger trailers work well for that.

 

[olddavid]

That looks more like a meat hook than a bale hook.

I never could use a bale hook worth a &^%#. We had string tied bales you picked up off the ground to load. The baler was always moving to fast to have a wagon hooked to the back of it. Between the steep slopes and the rough ground you'd bounce half the hay off the wagon before you ever had a full load.

Still pick them off the ground because the load has to be stacked well enough to go miles down the road to the hay buyers. Or my son uses the accumulator and stacks them on the truck and gooseneck trailers. The bigger trailers work well for that.

I hear you about hauling hay on steep slopes. My brothers and I used a wide tread trailer so not too big of a problem putting the hay on one side first with one man throwing the hay. Hauled hay for one of Dad's work friends with very steep hills and stacking the hay on one side (the downhill side) didn't work so well. We almost turned his narrow tread trailer on its' side.

 

[miangus]

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand I wish I'd thought of it myself. Million dollar idea. On the other hand, I want to make fun of the wusses that would use such a device.

View attachment 5709
For the imagination-challenged, it's a handle for carrying small square bales. You slip the strings over the hooks and then lift with the big plastic handle so the strings don't cut into your tender widdle fingees.

Looks like a good idea if you need to carry that bale into the pen area. We always just forced the strings to the center and carried the bale with one hand. At my age I have graduated to a plastic sled. As a kid I used to drag bales out to feed my small herd with a hay hook. I had a bull that would help by pushing from behind, a little unnerving. The cows would start to feed on the bale after I cut it open. He would hurry back to the barn to push the next one. I feed all big rounds today, I can't even flip the feeder rings by hand anymore, I use a tractor.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

I doubt the person that invented that bale handle actually handled many bales? Unless the strings were too loose you would be forever just getting it under the strings. Back in the Allis roto baler days once we were old enough to use it responsibly we were given a hay hook to handle hay either building load or in the mow. Dad used a pitch fork such as Daniel described. I can still see him loading 2 rows of hay himself jumping over the tounge to get from one side to the other. I remember thinking I would like to load, but little did I know I should have stuck with driving! Using the pitch fork on those round bales initialy took some getting used to, but once you got the hang of it the overall effort to load a wagon was actually less than using a hook, AND you could build a much higher load. That being said with square bales if loading from the ground I would think a short handled pitch fork would work well, but we have always baled onto the wagon so just grab a string.

Clearly it's not for someone who handles any quantity of small squares. It's more for someone with a horse that needs a couple of bales per week.

For someone like that though, it seems like the "inconvenience" of handling a couple of bales here and there would not be enough to compel you to spend $19.99 on a gadget like this.

 

[Brian G. NY]

Bale Hooks were a reality for me and I still have my favorite hanging in plain sight in my garage. The two I show are good and desirable because they allow solid placement and good release. The round handle one is the favored, the oval handled is next. I do not use a "D" handled Hook they can get turned upward and or bounce up and fail to hook they also do not release with clean action. The plastic "device" shown is just too weird. JimView attachment 5769View attachment 5770

 

[dkattau]

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand I wish I'd thought of it myself. Million dollar idea. On the other hand, I want to make fun of the wusses that would use such a device.

View attachment 5709
For the imagination-challenged, it's a handle for carrying small square bales. You slip the strings over the hooks and then lift with the big plastic handle so the strings don't cut into your tender widdle fingees.

You might stop to consider that some folks may have arthritis in their hands.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

You might stop to consider that some folks may have arthritis in their hands.

My Dad had arthritis in his hands. He used a hay hook to dig bales out of the hay mow, and dragged them around the barn by the strings with gloves on his hands. I'm certain he would have laughed at this gadget.

 

[mrslesq]

A lot the the bales I bucked as a kid, were wire tied. You needed bale hooks, or darn good gloves, or you could really tear you hands up.

We baled with a JD 116w wire tie baler when I was growing up and the first few years I farmed. We used gloves, I had never saw a bale hook until later in my life. The baler chute slid the bales unto the hay rack unless the field was rough and bounced them off.

 

[dkattau]

My Dad had arthritis in his hands. He used a hay hook to dig bales out of the hay mow, and dragged them around the barn by the strings with gloves on his hands. I'm certain he would have laughed at this gadget.

There’s more than one kind of arthritis, and it affects everyone differently. Not everyone is perfect like some of the experts here.

 

[Janicholson]

There’s more than one kind of arthritis, and it affects everyone differently. Not everyone is perfect like some of the experts here.

Granted arthritic hands, no issue. When pulling the strings together to get to the plastic the effort might be as much as wearing leather gloves to begin with. Jim

 

[EFV]

That looks more like a meat hook than a bale hook.

I never could use a bale hook worth a &^%#. We had string tied bales you picked up off the ground to load. The baler was always moving to fast to have a wagon hooked to the back of it. Between the steep slopes and the rough ground you'd bounce half the hay off the wagon before you ever had a full load.

Still pick them off the ground because the load has to be stacked well enough to go miles down the road to the hay buyers. Or my son uses the accumulator and stacks them on the truck and gooseneck trailers. The bigger trailers work well for that.

Nope, that's a hay hook. If you remake the handle so the hook is offset so that you have one finger on on side and three on
the other it makes using them easier for bale placement and release. The small square market called for wire bales when I was younger.
Use of hooks was necessary,straw bales were 55lb and up and decent alfalfa even more.