We used to put up 600 tons of round bales to feed 400 cow/calf pairs.
Behind the tractor we pulled a machine called a haybuster which chopped the
round bale up and fed it out a shute...which could be aimed onto the ground or
into feed bunks or whatever. You wouldn't have to have a fancy tractor,
just so it had enough horse power for the pto to operate the haybuster. Then you
could drive around and shoot piles of the cut up hay into the runs, feed bunks
or whatever. The way I feed my horses now is I have the round bale
surrounded with five 12 foot panels. One of the panels has a walk thru
gate. I go in and with a pitchfork push hay under the panels...five piles for
five horses. Works great. When I first put the round bale out and take off
the strings I fork a bunch of hay onto the top of the bale so if it does rain
hard the rain runs off instead of soaking into the bale. the round bales are
either stored in a hay barn or put on wood pallets and covered with tarps. We
have a bobcat now that we use to move them around. When the bobcat breaks down
we use a chain around the bale to the hitch on the truck and drag it that
way.
