Large round bale of hay advice please - getting the hay off the roll?

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Fifty Bales of Hay

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This is my first time in using Large Round Bales of hay - please can I ask for some advice?

As I see they unwind a bit like a toilet roll, and I want to leave it stored inside and put hay out daily.

I was hoping to stand the bale up on it's end, and so it would be easy to unravel and take the hay off that way?

Alas the shed I have it in - it's not tall enough to turn it up onto it's flat end - the roll is on it's side.

Will I be able to easily get the hay off when its like this? Or is it going to be tricky as I cannot get it off the side it's sitting on? Perhaps as it gets a bit smaller I might be able to turn it.

If it's going to be difficult then it might be better to roll it outside and put it under a cover outside sat on a pallet?

What would you do please, people with experience of using these bales and pulling the hay off them.
 
Hello we use them and definitely much easier stood on the flat end and unravel round I think it will be a pain pulling bits of hay out with it on its side. I’d probably stand it on something outside and cover with tarp, good luck
 
Can you (well, two of you) push it out, stand it up and walk it back in? That’s what I’ve always done.

When you open the bale cut the string from the bottom up otherwise the opened hay flops down on you as you cut down. This direction of cut usually also makes it easier to peel the hay off the bale.
 
We store ours outside (well we usually use haylage). We store it on the flat end and cover it with a tarpaulin, or the haylage's own cover. It is far from easy to pull hay off when the bale is on its side.
 
I like to think I'm a bit of an expert at this very problem 😂. I take the hay off the top, until I get to near the middle, then I can pull the whole middle bit out, so end up with a skinny roll. Once I've used that I'm left with a flat pile of hay which is easy to use. I'm not sure that makes sense, but not sure how else to describe it! I would store outside if you can help it.
 
I mean, it’s doable. It won’t be easy though. You’ll just have to essentially claw at the top until you’ve got through a slice and it flops down.
 
I find it really difficult getting the lower parts of the bale loose after the bale's been open a while if sat on its flat end, because gravity acts and the weight of the higher up bits of hay compress the lower down bits of hay, and more so over time, and I find it really unpleasant having to pull and only get relatively little handfuls out each time from lower down the bale.

I store round bales on their curved side when in use, make sure I have a tarp or similar underneath (as well as one to cover over the top), cut strategically so the flaps of the outer wrap and outer leaf of hay fold down where I want them to, and then it's easy and light to lift hay off until the bale is finished.

It also means that when you hit the tightly wound inner cylinder of hay you can just roll it back and forth across the now flat other half of the bale to unwind it, and that's really easy and mess-saving too!

If opening a round bale in the field (with more space) you can just push and get a long line of hay for relatively little effort :) .
 
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Thank you everyone - so a mixed opinion on what way is best?

Lauraback - take it outside and cover with a tarp?

Spotherisk - that's a good suggestion to see if I can get it upright by taking outside then walking it back in on its flat end? I'd not thought about this one.

Dorsetladette - not much space to roll it about, perhaps about 3' either side to roll it? Is that enough to be able to make it work?

meleeka - are you describing doing this whilst the round bale is on its side - and it's relatively easy doing it this way (I do understand what you are saying but didn't know you could do this)

Equi - once I'm in though, would it then be okay do you think?

Purplespots - you are saying on its side is by far the best way? Why do I need a tarp to cover the top? Its in a shed so has a solid roof over it. The tarp underneath just to catch the loose hay you mean makes it easier to pick up?
 
Fifty Bales of Hay said:
Purplespots - you are saying on its side is by far the best way? Why do I need a tarp to cover the top? Its in a shed so has a solid roof over it. The tarp underneath just to catch the loose hay you mean makes it easier to pick up?
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It is for me, but we're all different :) . Maybe try it one way this time, the other way next time and see what suits you best?

If the shed is watertight and not prone to moisture in the damp months of the winter, with no birds likely to fly in or other ways for the bale to become compromised then yes, I'd stick to just one tarp underneath to keep the floor-touching areas of the bale dry and clean, and so like you say it saves wastage.
 
I just have mine on a pallet in the barn. Yes I'm describing using it whilst on its side. I do it the same way if it's stood on the flat end, just use one section then pull the middle bit out. It's very rare that I end up with it placed with enough room to unwind all the way around as I'm not strong enough to spend time manoeuvring it into the perfect spot.
 
Mine lives outside under a tarp and is quite happy.

I swear a lot. I have long, involved conversations with it (God knows what the people who's stables are in earshot think). I hate wrestling hay off round bales but it's a damn sight cheaper for two horses than squares.

My husband has a more intimate relationship with it than I do. He rolls them around when we get new ones, and when he's at the yard on weekends, he stuffs enough nets so I can get to Wednesday or Thursday without dealing with it.
 
Equi said:
I mean, it’s doable. It won’t be easy though. You’ll just have to essentially claw at the top until you’ve got through a slice and it flops down.
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Our bales are stored on end under an open sided pole barn - but still, this is a good description of me feeding the horses in the dark and rain, clawing at the hay bale like a mad woman 😆
 
Fifty Bales of Hay said:
Thank you everyone - so a mixed opinion on what way is best?

Lauraback - take it outside and cover with a tarp?

Spotherisk - that's a good suggestion to see if I can get it upright by taking outside then walking it back in on its flat end? I'd not thought about this one.

Dorsetladette - not much space to roll it about, perhaps about 3' either side to roll it? Is that enough to be able to make it work?

meleeka - are you describing doing this whilst the round bale is on its side - and it's relatively easy doing it this way (I do understand what you are saying but didn't know you could do this)

Equi - once I'm in though, would it then be okay do you think?

Purplespots - you are saying on its side is by far the best way? Why do I need a tarp to cover the top? Its in a shed so has a solid roof over it. The tarp underneath just to catch the loose hay you mean makes it easier to pick up?
Click to expand...

Lengthwise you probably need the circumference of the bale to make it work effectively if that makes sense.

I'd go with @meleeka suggestion. Dig for the middle and then go from there - the second half of the bale will be much easier to work with.
 
Mine is kept outside with a bale tidy over it heavy duty one. So new bale arrives it is put on a pallet on the flat side. I take about two reals off and put in a builders bag which I store in the horse trailer to make up my nets. Then bale tidy over and lid on and away you go.
 
I have a big enough barn but prefer to open my round bales on their side anyway.

Take big layers off the top, go from ground on the right to ground on the left, so as much as you can get
Rinse and repeat for as long as possible.
Once it gets too tough to get big enough layers, your hay 'core' should be small enough to flip out and put to the side.
Then use all of the layers that the core was on.
Then unwind the core and use that up.
 
meleeka said:
I like to think I'm a bit of an expert at this very problem 😂. I take the hay off the top, until I get to near the middle, then I can pull the whole middle bit out, so end up with a skinny roll. Once I've used that I'm left with a flat pile of hay which is easy to use. I'm not sure that makes sense, but not sure how else to describe it! I would store outside if you can help it.
Click to expand...
Can we have a video on YouTube of this method please?😃
 
Could you cut the top part of the bale through to the core somehow? You'd need something sharp enough but if you could cut it even once to the core then it might make it easier and I'm guessing you could do one each side ideally so that it turns into slices essentially rather than a continuous roll?
 
I stand my round bale on the flat end inside my little hayshed, unwind the netting completely and then tie that, like a long taut rope, from front corner of hayshed, around back of bale and then to other front corner of hayshed. (So I'm using the netting as a safety rope to stop the bale collapsing backwards).
Then I pull sections off the front half of the bale. Eventually I reach the centre of the bale which I pull out. The netting tightly tied across behind it, like a belt, about halfway up it, stops it collapsing/falling backwards, so I've always got a good airgap around it to keep it healthy.
 
WOW left this for a couple of days and came back to lots of new replies!

There still seems to be a mix of "stand on it's end and unravel it" and "leave laying on it's side and take it off layer by layer" options. And then Suechoccy you do a stand on it's end but also take away half the bale without doing the circular unravelling?

As it's comfortably in there on it's side at the moment and this seems to stop the "involuntary unravelling all on its own" that these bales seem to do. I'm going to leave it on it's side, and try taking off layer by layer, dig out the middle, then do the same with the bottom half of the bale.

Thank you all for the suggestions and confidence to tackle this big round bale! It does look like there is quite a lot of hay in it, but I've no idea how much in weight or how it compares to buying small bales?
 
Squeak said:
Could you cut the top part of the bale through to the core somehow? You'd need something sharp enough but if you could cut it even once to the core then it might make it easier and I'm guessing you could do one each side ideally so that it turns into slices essentially rather than a continuous roll?
Click to expand...


This is a brilliant suggestion - but I'm trying to think of what you might use?
 
We stand ours on a pallet. I put a patio table cover over the top and then tie a rope around. Keeps it nice and dry. We also bag up in large garden waste bags that we then cover with another bag. So we are not uncovering bale everyday. We feed loose in field so bags are easy to carry.
 
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