Fast bales

Thats a grand job for fair fields at least. I suppose tractor would be top heavy for high ground. You would be almighty busy with a normal loader to keep up never mind having to draw to a trailer.
Crane alone with reverse drive. Would it be north of 30k ?
 
How plausible would it be to simply automate a Hiiab?
Could be used on a flatbed, which could then be used for anything.
And if the Hiiab was man enough, could stack bales too!?

Drive up to bale with a grab similar to a block grab.... press button and the Hiiab takes the bale up and drops it in plae.

Technologically pretty trivial in this day and age. A bale is a pretty simple thing for a computer to see in a field, and a robotic arm is a simple thing to control.

A combination of isobus and auto steer would allow the driver to simply point roughly towards the next bale then the computer slows and steers to get the hiab close before the grab picks it up then let the driver take control as soon as the bale is off the ground

Although if you go that far you may as well fire up a drone to plot the tractors route around the bales too.

You could have the hiab on the linkage and a robotic tractor driving round the field loading trailers and dropping them at the gate.

The technology exists to do all this today. The question is when does the tech get cheap enough to outweigh the availability/cost of labour
 
Be better off with a bean can handler,then stand them all on the thicker part of wrap.
I've used a standard bale lifter a few times. Soft hands with a rotator would give you more flexibility.
On a slightly related topic, I often thought a shear grab on a 360 would be a fast way of loading a diet feeder for someone doing a lot of it. You would be the man to tell me. 🤔
 
Technologically pretty trivial in this day and age. A bale is a pretty simple thing for a computer to see in a field, and a robotic arm is a simple thing to control.

A combination of isobus and auto steer would allow the driver to simply point roughly towards the next bale then the computer slows and steers to get the hiab close before the grab picks it up then let the driver take control as soon as the bale is off the ground

Although if you go that far you may as well fire up a drone to plot the tractors route around the bales too.

You could have the hiab on the linkage and a robotic tractor driving round the field loading trailers and dropping them at the gate.

The technology exists to do all this today. The question is when does the tech get cheap enough to outweigh the availability/cost of labour
See what your saying.
I think thatvwould be taking it to the extream rather.
Thecdriving up to and lining up would be the simple bit I recon.
It's the actual stacking I'd like automated.
 
I've used a standard bale lifter a few times. Soft hands with a rotator would give you more flexibility.
On a slightly related topic, I often thought a shear grab on a 360 would be a fast way of loading a diet feeder for someone doing a lot of it. You would be the man to tell me. 🤔
Have seen it done before, never saw it in action tho. Was only a 5ft grab on a 18t machine as loader had broke so stuck brackets on quicker than parts for repair were available. Had dug the pit out on an angle and you could just about walk up the face. Never heard if he'd carried on using it once loader was fixed
 
Technologically pretty trivial in this day and age. A bale is a pretty simple thing for a computer to see in a field, and a robotic arm is a simple thing to control.

A combination of isobus and auto steer would allow the driver to simply point roughly towards the next bale then the computer slows and steers to get the hiab close before the grab picks it up then let the driver take control as soon as the bale is off the ground

Although if you go that far you may as well fire up a drone to plot the tractors route around the bales too.

You could have the hiab on the linkage and a robotic tractor driving round the field loading trailers and dropping them at the gate.

The technology exists to do all this today. The question is when does the tech get cheap enough to outweigh the availability/cost of labour
You could get the baler to send the gps coordinates of the bales to the trailer!
 
I can see if all going horribly wrong when the trailer decides to try and cross a drain or hedge to grab a bale in the next field, or takes the fence out of it grabbing one from the next paddock😂
 
No different to any 16yr old driving for contractors now so😀

only the technology wouldn't be on snapchat and would only need to be told once.

it might all seem far fetched, but this type of stuff is very much coming.

Although obviously when skynet becomes self aware it's not going to make bales, it'll be pit all the way :lol: (with self propelled wagons, and the mugs of humans can cover it)
 
all this technology....who will pay a few ££ more per bale for it?

A point in time will come where the question will be "all these people, who will pay a few ££ more per bale for it"

The nature of agriculture in the UK and Ireland means we will be some of the last places in the western world to adopt such tech due to our landscape and high rural populations but in other parts of the world unless something changes the tech will take over because the staff won't be there and the flat plains and thousand acre fields will make it simpler for the machines.


My father came from only 26 acres, they didnt have any staff on a farm that size but they still needed casual labour at times when the kids were small. how many 100 acre farms 70 years ago didnt have full time staff?

50 years from now computers will have replaced tractor drivers the same way that tractors replaced horses.
 
I've used a standard bale lifter a few times. Soft hands with a rotator would give you more flexibility.
On a slightly related topic, I often thought a shear grab on a 360 would be a fast way of loading a diet feeder for someone doing a lot of it. You would be the man to tell me. 🤔
It would be ok with a narrow clamp that you could reach the whole face in an ark,you’d then park the feeder behind and swing round to fill it.

Wouldn’t work for me because I’m using silage out of 3 pits in each mix and I’m not a fan of using a machine for 5/10 minutes,I like to use one for the whole job,keeps engine wear minimal,the other thing is I avoid going on concrete with the 360 it doesn’t half wear it.
 
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