Silage Bales Unrollers

We have a bale feeder/unroller on a New Holland TL70 without front weights but it manages fine.

Initially we had a machine made in the north east of the island. We bought it direct from the manufacturer, but straightaway we were having problems with the chains coming off the sprockets when it was ran on one direction with a bale on it. When it ran the other way, it ran fine. The support from the manufacturer was awful, and the best they offered was they would look at it if we shipped it back to them, at our expense (which we did not take them up on) One of the main problems with that particular machine is the thickness of the sprocket material is not enough, and they are welded on to the shafted. We found out later that this is a known problem and not straightforward to fix.

We replaced it with a Bridgeway and are very pleased with it. It is heavier than the previous machine. It is much heavier duty construction but the TL is fine on level ground with silage bales. We feed chopped bales and it takes the hardship out of feeding.

Why don’t you get the bales chopped when baling? Baler won’t do it I assume?

What way does it handle flattened bales. Say the bottom bale when they are stacked 3 high

I have been running a hustler for the last 3 weeks so here my take on them

First bale i set on ….. cut the wrapping off on the top half as your suppose to do and then turn her over to take the rest of the wrap off… this worked a charm for the first bale but it has never work out like that since. I have figured out a new way of doing it but it is what it is.

Be prepared to get in an out of the tractor more often

Takes a few goes to get the travel speed right so that you lay out an even amount

Hydraulic top link is a must

I am taking from a 3 high stack of bales, no issue unrolling the bottom bale with a flat bottom as long as you have the side rollers to keep it on the unroller.

Haven't any wet heavy bales this year so cant comment on this but they could be an issue to get them to rolled out.

I would love to have put it on our front loader but our tractor is not big enough for this (85hp)

In general the bales have been coming out even enough when it comes near to the end of the bale it can throw out a lump but its nothing major.

I have very little graping to do bar throwing in when they have ate in front of them but I will make a pusher for the front loader to deal with this.

In terms of speed it is slightly quicker so far (getting better at it now) than the way I done it before which was using the front loader with a 2 pin spike, cut wrapping off, lift bale and use loader to shake out while reversing back until the bottom half fell off and then pulled the rest apart with loader and then graped all out even in front of barrier. The unroller will save the wear on the front axle as it isnt a good job bouncing a bale with the loader to shake it out.

The hustler is well made and bar a few grease nipples there isn't much to service or go wrong. I wont be getting rid of it thats for sure.