Homemade Round bale Feeder

Here is a recent project. I had a terrible year for hay, equiptment issues, weather, work schedule, etc.
So I have been buying some 4x4 wrapped rounds for my two steers & peeling the hay off & feeding it out morning & night, with a bit of waste. I decided to try making a cradle style feeder that would hold the bale off the ground & be easy for them to clean up. It's been in use for just a week & has reduced workload & some waste so far. The workmanship is a bit crude but, it was kinda fun.

Looks real good!
I only see the bucket on your tractor. Do you use that or a bale spear to lift them up into the new rack?

Looks good to me!!!

Nice looking bulls you have there!!!!!!!

Doc said:

Nice looking bulls you have there!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

Yep, they seem to be giving it a nod of approval... Good moooove.

Thanks guys!
I used 1-1/2" EMT and rolled the basket with a Harbor Freight tubing roller. I coated the welds with cold galvanized spray before they cooled, as it was below freezing on most of the days I worked on it. I've only loaded it twice with the bale on it's side against the bucket, held by a ratchet strap. I have three hooks on the top of the bucket and I use them alot. It's a little scary with that weight up high, I should have put something on the 3pt. Last night I went to TSC and bought the tire valve fill adapter and 50 gals of ww fluid. Now that's todays project.

Not sure if this is an option but I'll toss it out.

When you need to refill, lay your rack on it's side and roll the bale in. Then using the chains/bucket, stand the whole thing up.

Good idea BC. You might have to use a couple of the screw in type of stakes to hold the cradle in place, but sure seems like it would work, or at least worth a try.

Not a bad idea BC. I got some tire ballast loaded today, I'll see if it is more stable. If not, going to try your idea.

update: the 50 gals of ww fluid made a big difference. I felt it was a situation of, "if that is good, more is better", so next trip to TSC they had some ww fluid still in full cases & bought 2, 31 gals in each tire total. The 12 more gals made the load feel rock solid. I upgraded the FEL lift cylinders some years ago to a larger size & put on the Bradco backhoe subframe which is 1" steel which seemed to keep things neutral weight/balance wise. Lately I have been skidding some trees using the hooks on the FEL & things were a little tippy so, along with the round bales I needed to do something. I have read some of the post here about filling tires & the info was much appreciated. Thanks to all who contribute here.