Cuttin up a round bale.

[Greenehillbilly]

Howdy, My neighbor gave me 4 large old round bales that I want to cut up into pieces and feed into my chipper shredder. I have seen old hay saws but don't have access to one. What is the best way to chop these up?

Thanks!

 

[Nancy Howell]

I"ve never chopped one up. But they will unroll in large chunks which may be easier to handle and feed into the chopper.

 

[andyt(pa)]

we use electric chainsaw, probably not best solution but works for us.

 

[Allan in NE]

Stand 'em on end. The pitchfork won't hurt ya a bit.

Allan

 

[Anonymous-0]

I use a sawzall with a 3 foot blade. Seems to work well.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Chainsaw. Put the bale on end and cut it radially like an orange. If it has plastic twine, get rid of it first.

 

[Leland]

chain saw will work the best ,this way you can custom cut it to feed into your hopper of sherdder

 

[Greenehillbilly]

(quoted from post at 14:03:17 04/01/08) chain saw will work the best ,this way you can custom cut it to feed into your hopper of sherdder

Thanks Guys, I was thinking chainsaw but wouldn't have thought to stand it on end.

Lotsa knowledge on this board. About anything a fella wants to know he can find out here.

Randy

 

[Bruce Hopf]

I've heard of guys using an old two man cross cut saw, for cutting up round bales.
Bruce

 

[Anonymous-0]

I'm curious. Where in the world do ya find a 3 ft. Sawzall blade?

 

[Anonymous-0]

if you use a chain saw, cut with the top of the bar, otherwise the hay will wrap on the sprocket and stall the saw.

 

[Dairy Farmer in WI]

well if your just gonna throw it into a shredder...do you hav acces to a good powerful tractor with a good chopper with a hay head? i chopped some weedy bales up for bedding with a JD 4020 and JD 3940 chopper. all i did was figured out which way the bale was rolled up and unrolled it and used a pitchfork to unroll it.

otherwise i say use a chainsaw or a crosscut saw
DF in WI

 

[johndeereman]

i use a chain saw i filed the rakers off an older chain cuts through it faster than i can drop the saw i cut them right down the middle

 

[Sid]

"Where in the world do ya find a 3 ft. Sawzall blade?" I'd like to know that as well. I am getting tired of having to by four foot ones and cutting them down to size.

 

[fixerupper]

Are they grass or alfalfa? I cut a bunch of round bales up with a chainsaw about twenty years ago, and from what I remember the grass bales wanted to wrap up on the saw drive sprocket, but the alfalfa bales didn't give any trouble. I finally had to replace the crankshaft seal in the saw because of the wrapping from the grass.

I stood the bales on end, quartered them and then pitched them through an old sileage chopper and fed it to the stock cows. I called it my poor man's tub grinder. Jim