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Making round bales on hill sides

R

rick n ohio

Member
I have a hill side i would like to bale
with my Newholland 638 4x4 baler but
would be challenging keeping them from
rolling away after dumping the bale
out.any of you guys bale hillsides
 
All of my bales are in hills. What I do is drive to the top or bottom of hill while or after tying bale. If it is not to steep I will dump where it is full. I try to switch swaths and directions at time so bales are full where I want to dump them.
 
I've no experience baling round bales.
How dangerous is baling on hill?
How likely are you to flip a tractor when picking up bales?
Would it be safer making smaller round bales?
 
The biggest problem with baling on hillsides is the bale will roll down the hill when you kick it out of the baler if you don't do as described above. I've had to pull them out of woods and ditches when I thought the ground was level enough it wouldn't roll. Sometimes they will also come unrolled making one heck of a mess.
 
Always need to be aware of where the bale can take off and hit. A round bale can do a lot of damage. I have seen them flatten fences, and cave in the sides of parked vehicles. Certainly wouldnt want to have a run away bale roll onto a road way.
 
I bale some hillsides but not as steep as this one.i thought about just tying the bale then shut the baler off and drive to flat ground and dump it.i remember one time i had to shut the baler off for a mechanical problem with a bale inside and it didn't want to raise the tailgate for sone reason just like it was stuck.
 
Take it to level ground to dump it if you are on very steep hillsides that is what I do. If its ground you havent been on before be careful and watch out for indentions or mounds in the slope as I have known of top heavy balers rolling after hitting a ground hog den or something. Being in WV I have some experience. Long ago I adopted the attitude that just because someone else may have baled a hillside field doesnt mean Im going to. No shame in staying upright.
 
It is dangerous for those who do not think before acting. I try never to bale a side hill. Up and down. Side hills if too steep can cause a roll over in a millisecond. One mole hill or stone and you could be gone. I know I make a lot more corners because I go up and down than if I did side hills. My fields are all hilly. I have planed out every one as to where I go and what direction I drive to keep it safe.
 
Yea we have , My first try did not go as planned and thqat bale is still where it ended up about 1/2 -3/4 a mile away from where it was kicked out . Ya know they can really get moving ,And Oh don't get the idea that you are going to STOP IT , this could end up like a Road Runner cartoon. Ya learn how to place the bale on the side hill so it does not roll BEFORE YOU OPEN THE DOOR . We use to make hay on one field that was really steep and it took some jockeying to kick a bale out and not have to watch it roll half way to the next county.
 
Does cutting and raking hay on the contours aid safely dropping bales without a lot of driving around to find a flat location?
 
We have made hay on ground hat you flat landers would have Cardiac arrest on . One 28 acre field we use to do was a exciting experience each time , While mowing to the east you had what i called a cork screw hill and not only did it go up but also leaned to the south and got steeper leaning till ya crested it then it leaned to the north . When you made your turn at the head land the hill now was leaning down hill to the east and going back up at the same time . This would cause the haybine to shove a 13500 lb tractor sideways , also while pulling the hill it would cause the back of the tractor to crab down hill , when i put the radials on it got worse then to top it off ya had ground hog condo's not just holes CONDO's EVERYWHERE . Some were active and some not . I did my best to serve to serve eviction notices and keep the buzzards well fed.
 
Clown put one in the pond here. Geese nested on it a couple of years but it finally deteriorated out of site. gm
 
If everyone only farmed flat land we'd be real short on food I'd say.

Round baling on a hill is hardly an insurmountable task. Barely an inconvenience, in reality. Just use your head a little bit.

Usually I just kick the baler around at a 45 degree angle to the direction of travel, and dump the bale.

I did let one fly when I was in the back field all by myself just to see what would happen. Unfortunately it was a little cone shaped and the whole thing was anticlimactic. Kinda rolled in a bit of a curve and stopped.
 
Numerous good comments on one of those problems that appears to be mostly common sense but always good to ask for tips, advice. I would also add, Rick, that if your 638 has bale ramps, may be worth removing them.
 
I live in KY and most of my fields are side hills-more like long ridges and shorter hills. It would not be feasible to bale up and down them. In fact I bale one hill that is so steep the tractor will barely pull the baler back out of there with no bale in it. Most all the scenarios described by the other posters apply to me as well. My steepest hills end in hollows-really 'ravines' or woods, or both, mostly: so no bale retrieval possible. And so I am careful where I eject the bale. Where I can, I drive to the top of the ridge while tying, and then eject. I have ejected on the side of a hill(more than once) and even pointed the rear of the baler uphill and had the bale take off. The hay was flying 25' out of the bale in the air and the bale was flying! What 'sometimes' will work, is while ejecting the bale, not opening the tail gate all the way and catching it as it falls out and trying to hold it in place with the tail gate, until the bottom of the bale flattens, and takes a set. Hold it there for a few moments and it 'might' stay in place. But I have even had them roll away too. Sometimes they stay in a dip along the hill, but not always: they might flip end over end.
Just be careful-really plan ahead where to drop it. Mark.
 
After one summer of mowing gas line right a ways every thing else is farmable . Ya know your on a Steep hill when you slide a dozer off it with the tracks locked and come off it like your on snow ski's or while on a wheel tractor one tire slips and away ya go with one tire going 200 MPH forward and the other going 200 MPH backwards , was not to bad other then them diversion ditches cut across the slopes and you go airborn on a tractor . Ya know when your going up a steep hill when ya can look down into the exhaust pipe from the seat. and what goes up must come down .
 
I had one roll off a hillside I was baling and into an open ditch. It was a big bale, 1100 pounds or so and made the perfect plug in the creek. Fun to get that one out...ended up driving a long 2 inch pipe through the bale, attached a long chain on either end and rolled it out. I was just about ready to burn it!

Ben
 
thats how i got my neighbors field he was round baling it lost a bale went down hill hit a car in road i was next field baling he came over said i could have rest of field if i dared did that field till i stopped haying all my fields here in pa are hilly just have to be careful did i have rollers YES almost hit a garage another close to a garden some i didnt even see till next year mowing and saw them in edges of fields or brush rows even neighbor brought one back to field i didnt even know how it made it to his farm just try to find low spot or rut bottom of hill likeothers said jack on angle its an adventure
 
Most of my baling is on the hills just back up at a 45 angle or whatever it takes and i dont lose any time baling compared to flat land.
 
(quoted from post at 05:08:12 08/11/21) I have a hill side i would like to bale
with my Newholland 638 4x4 baler but
would be challenging keeping them from
rolling away after dumping the bale
out.any of you guys bale hillsides
Click to expand...

I bale sloping ground with a 630 all the time, bale up and down. If I am concern about runaway bale, back up and angle the baler perpendicular to the hill then eject bale.
 
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