Cutting up round bales of hay with saw?

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This has a plastic mesh net around it. Won't keep weather out. I've seen some that are wrapped in like white plastic.
will take a photo this afternoon when I am feeding some out- ours are wrapped in duck egg green- but you can gets lots of different colours- some are even wrapped pink in support of breast cancer research.
Each bale is individually wrapped in plastic film which is cut off to be recycled and the mesh netting is under- as that goes on in the baler, then the bales are picked up and wrapped by another machine.
 
My Dad modified a sthil 064 to cut round bales, worked good. Removed most of the clutch cover except the area around bar nuts that contacted the bar (not saying I recommend this, not good if chain comes off). Welded 2 bars together so it would reach all the way across bale (he was an amazing fabricator). Then removed the top part of the cutters on the chain. Worked good if your only wanting to feed smaller amounts at a time.
For feeding a whole bale he mounted a wheel on top of a loader bucket, tip bucket forward with wheel against bale and go, unrolls bale great, as long as you have it going the right direction;).
 
just get a hay knife.o_O wait most of you guys are to young to remember.:buttkick: :laugh:. these were used back in the day when hay was brought in loose and piled in the mow. i may have to get mine out and try it on a round bale.
images
 
The round bales I get are just rolled too tight.

If you ever had to take the mesh off of the outsides- lift the entire bale with a silage grab on a tractor and drop the entire bale into a round bale feeder- you would appreciate how tight they are rolled! ;)
 
Nope, grow and feed hundreds off them a year. :surprised3:
I was feeding a dozen sheep for my girlfriend after feeding herds of cattle in Missouri.
She wanted the bale cut in half. Hay Saws gots no set to the teefs.....so I looked at the 041 Super with the 28” bar and thought (in Gene Wilder’s voice from Young Frankenstein)
IT.....COULD......VERK!!!!!!!
 
I unroll all my hay.If a round bale is frozen on the edges about 4 inches or so,I put the chain on backwards on an old 041 and cut through the frozen hay.If the bale has net wrap,just use an axe.I found out the hard way about touching net wrap with a saw chain.It will quickly make a basketball sized wadded up mess
 
I have a hay knife like you pictured. I got it to cut round bales to feed small amounts to goats. The round bales I get are just rolled too tight. The knife works at first, but then it starts to bind up. Wish it worked better.

Looks like it might be hard on the back but doable. If your knife is binding, try sharpening the knife and sanding down the sides. A belt sander with variable grits followed by a leather belt with some green jewelers’ rouge should make short work of it.









You can also go modern electric.





Save the chainsaw for firewood.
 
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