This patent disclosure relates generally to hay farming and more particularly to farming apparatus and methods for gathering, loading, and offloading square hay bales in the field.
Handling baled hay can be a backbreaking and time consuming job. Gathering the bales, lifting them onto a truck, and then offloading them is hard work. A need exists for an apparatus and method of gathering, loading, and offloading hay bales, particularly square hay bales, that greatly reduces the manual labor, time, and dangers attendant manual hay handling techniques. It is to the provision of such an apparatus and method that the present invention is primarily directed.
Briefly described, in one example embodiment an apparatus is disclosed for use in farming and ranching to handle square hay bales quickly and easily. The apparatus combines the functions of a hay bale accumulator, grapple, loader, and offloader into a single farming apparatus that attaches to a lift vehicle, such as a skid steer or a farm tractor. The farming apparatus has a front end defining the inlets of accumulation bays that are sized to receive hay bales when the farming apparatus is moved across a field containing square hay bales that have been previously baled by a hay baling machine. When the accumulation bays are full of hay bales, the operator can activate a multi-hook grapple assembly to pierce the bales with the hooks of the assembly and thereby secure them in the bays. With the bales secured, the farming apparatus can be lifted using the lift system of the lift vehicle and placed on a truck or trailer for transportation to a storage facility. The grapple assembly is then released and the bales are loaded as a group without having been touched by a human. Certain components that define the bays can be easily removed so that the farming apparatus can be used to offload the hay bales from the truck or trailer and move them into a storage facility, such as a barn.
In another representative embodiment of the present disclosure, a farming apparatus for accumulating, grappling and lifting hay bales that includes a frame body comprising a top frame having a front end, a back end, and side edges forming a substantially horizontal plane, a back rail assembly extending downward from the back end, and at least one attachment portion on the back rail assembly for coupling the frame body to a lift vehicle. In a first or accumulating/loading configuration, the farming apparatus generally includes a pair of packing arms removably attached between the back rail assembly and the front corners of the top frame and extending downward below the side edges of the top frame, one or more center dividers removably attached between the back rail assembly and the front end of the top frame and extending downward below a center portion of the top frame, and a plurality of divider plates removably attached between the back rail assembly and the top frame between the center dividers and the packing arms to form at least four bays that open toward the front end and that are sized and shaped to receive a hay bale. The farming apparatus further includes a grapple assembly mounted to the frame body above the bays, and that is configured to rotate a plurality of grapple hooks into any hay bales accumulated within the bays, and to removably secure the hay bales to the frame body when frame body is lifted by the lifting vehicle.
In a second or offloading configuration, the farming apparatus generally includes a single packing arm that is removably attached to either side of the frame body between the back rail assembly and a front corner of the top frame, and extending downward below the side edge of the top frame. During storage of the farming apparatus in the offloading configuration, a corner support leg can be removably attached to the front corner of the top frame opposite the packing arm to maintain the top support in a horizontal orientation and prevent the support frame from twisting or warping under its own weight. In a third or alternative offloading configuration, there are no dividers or packing arms attached to the frame body.
These and other aspects, features, and advantages of the apparatus and method disclosed herein will become more apparent upon review of the detailed description set forth below taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures, which are briefly described as follows.
Referring now in more detail to the drawing figures, wherein like reference numerals indicate like parts throughout the several views,
The farming apparatus 11 of the present disclosure is generally configured to perform all the functions of handling square hay bales, including accumulating, grappling, loading and unloading square hay bales. It will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, however, that “square hay bale” is a term of art, and generally refers to rectangular-shaped bales of hay having a long axis through a length thereof, and that may be square in cross-section when viewed along a plane oriented perpendicular to the long axis (i.e. the height and width of the hay bale). However, significant variability can exist with the height of the hay bales, even as the length and the width of the bales are maintained at more or less constant values, so that the end faces of the bale are often rectangular in shape, rather than square.
A grapple assembly 30 is supported by the frame body 13 and comprises a plurality of grapple shafts 31 that extend between the side rails 16 and 17 and through the center rail 15. The grapple shafts 31 are rotatably journaled within bearings 32 in the side rails 16 and 17 and in the center rail 15 so that they are rotatable about their respective axes. A plurality of arcuate sharpened grapple hooks 33 are mounted to each grapple shaft with brackets and bolts. In the illustrated embodiments, each grapple shaft 31 has four grapple hooks 33 except for the forward most grapple shaft, which can be provided with eight grapple hooks 33.
As best illustrated in
Each divider plate 24 divides the space between a packing arm 21 or 22 and the center divider wall 23 into two accumulation bays 40 for receiving two or more square bales lengthwise within the bays as the farming apparatus 11 is moved around a field to capture and accumulate the bales. Thus, with both divider plates 24 mounted to the frame body 13, the area under the frame body is divided into four bays that open toward the front end of the frame body 13. In one aspect of the disclosure, moreover, the divider plates 24 may not extend all the way to the front end of the frame body 13, but instead can stop short by about the width of a square bale to form a forward, crossways space 41 in front of the bays 40 and under the frame body 13. In this way, each of the last two bales to enter the farming apparatus 11 can be oriented crossways within the crossways space 41, or in a direction perpendicular to the orientation of the bales that have already been captured within the accumulation bays 40.
In the embodiment of the farming apparatus 11 shown in
In one aspect, the group of ten hay bales having the mixed or alternating alignment between the individual hay bales can then be loaded onto a truck or trailer. When the overall alignment of adjacent groups of hay bales are alternated, such as when adjacent groups or alternating rows of hay bales groups are loaded onto the trailer from opposite sides, the individual hay bales and groups of hay bales can become “interlocked” together in a preferred loading configuration that better holds the groups of hay bales together, resists tipping, and minimizes the strapping that is needed to secure the load of hay for transport.
It can also be seen in
A hydraulic cylinder 37 is secured at its back end to the back rail assembly 18 of the farming apparatus 11, and its extendable and retractable shaft is connected at its end to the actuator bar 36. Accordingly, when the shaft of the hydraulic cylinder is extended, the grapple shafts 31 are caused to rotate forwardly, which in turn rotates the grapple hooks 33 around and down into the bays and space below the frame 13. Of course, if hay bales have been accumulated in these regions, the grapple hooks pierce the hay bales and hold them in place, so that the farming apparatus 11 with hay bales grappled thereto can be lifted by the lift vehicle, such as a skid steer or tractor, to which the farming apparatus 11 is mounted. When the hydraulic cylinder 37 is retracted, the grapple hooks 33 are rotated upwardly and rearwardly to release the hay bales below.
With reference to
Illustrated in
As will be discussed in more detail below, the packing arms, the center divider wall, and the divider plates are removably attached to the frame body 13, and all but one of the packing arms 22 is typically removed when converting the farming apparatus 11 to a second or offloading configuration, as shown in
As shown in
Once the accumulation bays 40 of the farming apparatus 11 are filled with hay bales 40, the frame body 13 of the farming apparatus 11 is lowered atop the accumulated hay bales 80. The operator then engages the hydraulic system of the skid steer or tractor to extend the hydraulic cylinder 37 of the grapple assembly 30. This causes the grapple hooks 33 to be rotated forward and downwardly so that they pierce and hook into the bales 80 below. This secures the bales 80 firmly in place within the bays 40 of the farming apparatus 11. With the hay bales thus secured, the operator lifts the farming apparatus 11 with the group 82 of hay bales 80 secured therein, as shown in
In one alternative method, the operator can sequentially drive the farming apparatus 11 over each individual hay bale 80 to position or align the hay bale with one of the bay 40, lower the frame body 13 and engage hay bale 80 with the grappling system 30 to secure the hay bale to the farming apparatus 11, and then lift the frame body 13 to carry the secured hay bales 80 to the location of the next hay bale on the field. The steps of aligning, lowering, securing and lifting can be performed for one or more hay bales, so that the hay bales are not continuously pushed over the ground surface in a manner that can cause them to loose material or break apart.
When the farming apparatus 11 has collected the desired number of hay bales 80, the operator can then drive the skid steer 50 to the location of a truck or trailer 56 on which the bales are to be loaded. As illustrated in
There also is a need to be able to offload hay bales from the trailer for storage in a hay loft or hay barn awaiting use as feed. To facilitates such offloading, the farming apparatus 11 of the present invention can be converted to a second or offloading configuration with only a few easy changes, which are illustrated in
Now in its offloading configuration, the farming apparatus 11 can be lifted atop hay bales on a trailer, lowered over a group 82 of hay bales 80, and the grapple hooks 33 extended to hook into and secure the hay bales to the farming apparatus 11. The packing arm 22 extending below one side of the frame body 23 can be used to push the group of hay bales closer together prior to extending the grapple hooks 33. As shown in
Another representative embodiment of the farming apparatus 111 that has been expanded to include two center divider walls 123 and three divider plates 124 between the packing arms 121 and 122 is shown in
Similar to the smaller embodiment of the farming apparatus described above, the expanded farming apparatus 111 includes the frame body 113 made up of a front rail 114, two center rails 115, and side rails 116 and 117 forming a substantially horizontal plane, and a back rail or rear support assembly 118 that extends downward from the horizontal plane. The back rail assembly 118 can also include an attachment portion 119 for coupling the frame body 113 to a lift vehicle. The center rails 115 extend through the center portion of the frame body 113 between the front rail 114 and the back rail assembly 118. Cross plates 127 and 128 extend between the side rails 116 and 117 and the center rails 115 to complete the frame body 113.
A grapple assembly 130 is also supported by the frame body 113 of the farming apparatus 111, and comprises a plurality of grapple shafts 31 that extend between the side rails 116 and 117 and through the center rails 115. The grapple shafts 131 are rotatably journaled within bearings 132 in the side rails 116 and 117 and in the center rails 115 so that they are rotatable about their respective axes. A plurality of arcuate sharpened grapple hooks 133 are mounted to each grapple shaft 131 with brackets and bolts. In the illustrated embodiments, each grapple shaft 131 has six grapple hooks 133 except for the forward most grapple shaft, which can be provided with twelve grapple hooks 133.
As can be seen in
It may be appreciated by one of skill in the art that smaller embodiment 11 of the farming apparatus shown in
It will thus be seen that the single hay handling apparatus of the present disclosure performs all of the required functions of hay gathering, including accumulating and arranging the bales, transporting the bales, loading the bales on a trailer, and offloading the bales from the trailer. This is all done without the operator having to wrangle with or lift the individual bales himself, and can be done for extended periods of time by a single operator.
The invention has been described herein within the context of a preferred and exemplary embodiment considered by the examiner to represent the best mode of carrying out the invention. However, a wide variety of additions, deletions, and modifications, both subtle and gross, might well be made to the illustrated embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention embodied therein.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/621,730, filed Apr. 9, 2012, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety herein, and for all purposes.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61621730 | Apr 2012 | US |