The skid steer bale spear generally relates to agricultural implements and more specifically to a spear upon a frame that connects to a skid steer loader.
Farmers and growers raise crops of various kinds including hay, alfalfa, and cotton, among others that are baled for storage, handling, and transportation. The bales usually bind the dried crops, such as hay, into a stackable form such as a rectangle or a round cylinder. Bales are generally made by a machine towed, or propelled, by the farmer, or grower, at the time of harvesting the crop, such as hay in the summer. The hay, once baled, becomes feed for livestock. The hay bales can then be loaded and transported for various uses and to many locations.
Round bales have seen increasing usage over the years. The round bales are formed as hay, or other crop, is collected in windrows and then rolled into a cylinder with flat ends by machine. The cylinders are then spaced along the path of travel of a baling machine, often towed behind a tractor. A farmer can leave the bales in place until needed or the farmer can move the bales. Bales can be collected and stored for the farmer's own use or sold to other users of the bales. However, a round bale can weigh upwards of 1500 pounds.
Generally bales are moved using forklifts, cranes, and other material handling equipment. Such equipment though has proven expensive to members of the farming community and less suited to rugged conditions encountered in the fields. Farmers seek to utilize equipment adept on fields and rugged locales in new ways. Such equipment includes the skid steer loader, often called a Bobcat®. Farmers use skid steer loaders for a whole host of activities limited only by the attachments available. Generally skid steer loaders have a chassis with a roll cage to protect the farmer. Upon the chassis, the farmer sits in the seat with the engine and the fuel tank behind the farmer. The wheels, or sometimes treads, are beside the seat and the hydraulic arms extend from the chassis near the engine, along side the roll cage, and in front of the roll cage. In usage, the farmer sits in the skid steer loader to operate it and watches the hydraulic arms lift and manipulate load in front of the farmer. Over the years, various manufacturers have made devices that attach to the arms of a skid steer loader. The devices include post hole diggers, hydraulic picks and hammers, hydraulic saws, fork lifts, lift baskets, buckets, snowplows, rotary brushes, and a whole host of others. The various devices attach to the arms using a common plate and hooks across the arms and nearby hydraulic fitting. The common plate and hooks are now known as the Universal Skid Steer Quick Attach.
Though skid steer loaders are adept and versatile equipment on farms, farmers and ranchers still use tractors for various tasks. Tractors and skid steer loaders have bucket attachments upon the front. The bucket generally scoops up material and lifts it to a higher height, often for dumping into a pile or onto a truck. As a lifting attachment, buckets can also move bales placed inside them by farm hands. Buckets attach to the arms of tractor using pins following the tractor manufacturer's layout of the arms and arrangement of connectors. With many tractor manufacturers selling tractors, variations in connections have occurred. Device manufacturers thus make versions of the same device suitable for connection to different makes of tractor. In recent years however, farm tractor and front loader manufacturers reached agreement on how devices would connect to the lifting arms of tractors. Recognizing the success of the Universal Skid Steer Quick Attach with skid steer loaders, the farm tractor and front loader manufacturers adopted that attachment means as a standard for the products of their industries. Manufacturers can now make devices that fit both tractors and skid steer loaders without individual models for brands.