The Southland Times:
A Lochiel man’s ingenuity has helped to work out how to get a round bale to roll over in a square cage, solving the smallholder’s problem of feeding out baleage without a tractor.
Fencer Kevin Cairns spent about a year designing a method for one person to load a 750kg bale of grass into a feeder and move it around their property without having to buy a large tractor.
After countless hours, an estimated $50,000 in time, materials and about 15 prototypes, he developed a clever solution, the Cairns Rollover Bale Feeder.
Made of galvanised steel so it is light yet strong, it can be manoeuvred over the bale and, with a rope attached to a towbar, rolled over itself to an upright position. It has no fiddly pins or bolts and relies on pivot points, with bottom skids enabling it to be towed.
The bale can be unloaded by reversing the process.
Mr Cairns said the patented invention was ideal for small lifestyle-block owners who could not afford a tractor.
“Stock love baleage and do so well on it … but it was a question of to get it to them. I thought there must be a better way.”
Photo by Jonathan Gill