Hay Bale Stackers: The Weird and the Wonderful

Whether you’re a hobby farmer or you grow hay for a living, cutting, baling and stacking your hay will take up a considerable amount of your time. Cutting and baling at the optimal time is crucial to the quality of your hay, while proper storage of your bales is critical to avoiding damage from the elements. A hay bale stacker can take some of the pain out of the operation, by helping you to move your bales from the field and cart them away quickly for storage.

If you’re not quite as handy with the building of DIY monsters, like these guys in the video are, there are a myriad of options for hay bale stackers, which can be purchased ready-made and built-for-purpose from manufacturers and dealers. Here, we take a look at a few of your options.

The Jadan Big Bale Stacker 

Jadan’s Big Bale Stacker is a fine example of versatility and size, in one giant red beast of a machine. The machine will stack in any direction, which means that you can follow the route of your baler and work between irrigation lines if necessary. Its adjustable drawbar tongue is compatible with a variety of tractor heights, and its heavy-duty tyres make sure the ride is smooth.

The Jadan Big Bale Stacker is designed and manufactured in Australia, and will collect and stack:

• 6 3×3 big square bales
• 6 4×3 big square bales
• 4 4×4 big square bales

The Hustler Mega Soft Hands

This gentle giant can handle round or square, large or small bales. With its larger hands, it has a better grip on bales, and can stack them more closely than other balers. It also has the ability to pick up two bales at once, depending on your tractor and loader capacity. Hustler’s patented ‘equaliser bar’ helps you to keep control of the bales and place them exactly where you want them, without disturbing adjacent bales.

Available on Hustler bale handlers or bale clamps, the equaliser:

• Provides un-paralleled loading/stacking ease of use – back out of bales without moving the adjacent bale, turn whilst backing out of bales allows for use in tighter spaces
• Keeps the hands moving simultaneously, providing all the precision and safety of a fixed Equaliser bar
• Full stroke side push – for pushing bales up tighter together
• Reduced side loads on the front end loader
• Available on CXR and Compact Softhands

“A whole new level of precision baling, that’s easier to use!” according to Hustler.

Arcusin Autostack

The very easy-to-use Autostack from Arcusin is built for Aussie conditions, and almost runs itself. With no need to turn bales or adjust settings for different sized bales, this stacker will pick up right from the paddock and feed straight onto the tray. No mess, no fuss. The automatic stair drive is fitted with sensors for bale detection, picking up the bales as they lie. The floating system with single-turn pickup will stack bales neatly and tightly which makes storing them much easier. The low-pressure, wide flotation wheels and independent hydraulics are great combination for performance, even over bumpy terrain.

These are just three of your options, when it comes to stacking your bales. There are a range of different brands, and accessories which can make stacking and storing a breeze. You can check out a huge variety of bale stackers on the Machines4u marketplace here.