Autonomous bale mover

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Designed to handle the heavy lifting

The entire haymaking process is all about time. It’s not only important to cut, dry and bale hay at the right time and moisture level, but producers also need to haul and store bales in a timely fashion to help the next crop start right. That’s exactly what a new concept at Vermeer aims to do. Nicknamed “Balehawk,” this autonomous bale mover is designed to help producers reduce the need for labor by moving bales from where they are dropped in the field to the field’s edge or a pre-determined storage area.

*Concept machine only. Currently not available for sale.

Bale Hawk moves hay bales to predetermined location

Let Balehawk handle the heavy lifting

The machine travels around the field autonomously by a suite of onboard sensors to locate bales, pick them up and move them to a predetermined location set by the owner. Right now, the concept machine can pick up and move up to three bales at a time.

Maximize crop regrowth

Once you get your hay put up, sometimes getting the bales off the field isn’t next on the priority list. This technology helps you get your bales moved to their storage location faster, helping with field regrowth for the next cutting. 

Use your time wisely

By taking a human pass out of the process and letting the machine do the work, operators can spend more time focused on different projects on their operation, while still getting their crop off the field in a timely fashion. 

Gentle handling

Bale loading tracks on the machine gently pick up bales to minimize damage when moving. Moving the bale in this manner instead of spearing the center of the bale helps maintain density and bale shape, and minimizes oxygen exposure to maximize preservation of the crop. 

Remote access and management

Vermeer believes one of benefit of the autonomous bale mover concept is to someday allow operators to monitor the autonomous bale mover from a remote location, allowing them to be doing other jobs at other locations or take a well-deserved rest, while the machine picks up bales. 

FAQs

  • Today, it takes several steps, or human passes, in the field to make hay. If we can take one of those out, we can help free up time to help operators get other work done.

  • Once you get done baling hay, you move to other high-priority tasks on the farm. The sooner you can get your crop off the field, the sooner optimal regrowth can begin which contributes to yield potential on the next cutting.

  • There is an advantage to moving bales this way and not having to spear them. It helps keep the bale shape and density and allows less oxygen into the bale.

  • Moving bales is the least fun part – let this machine do the heavy-lifting for you.

Our team has been exploring this concept and doing testing over the last several years, both in Iowa and surrounding states. They have also done testing in multiple crop types and bale sizes.

This is the first autonomous proof-of-concept machine from Vermeer Forage Solutions. We have been collaborating with industry-leading experts to adopt the latest autonomous technologies into this design.

Today, the proof-of-concept can carry three bales at a time, before needing to deliver to a pre-determined location.

This will completely depend on:

  • Crop and number of bales in the field

  • Bale storage location

  • Shape and size of the field

  • Obstacles in the field

The operator will program a location, row direction and length of row for the machine to unload the bales.

Bale Hawk forms row of hay bales autonomously