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The Hay Bale Booster

Faced with a shortage of men to properly stack hay bales on his Mountain View, Alberta farm, in the 1940s Max Bradshaw decided to combine a hale bale pickup, loader and stacker into one. He wanted the device to be simple and efficient, requiring only two or three persons to operate it. In addition, the machine had to be patent record for this inventionlight and mobile enough to handle the rough terrain of his field. 

Research and development has modernized the province's agri-food sector, an industry worth billions of dollars worldwide.The final design of the Bradshaw Bale Booster had several interesting features. The bale pickup used blunt teeth to hold the hay bale in place while it was transported across the conveyor belts. The invention used hydraulic lifts to adjust the position of the front section and allow for varying heights when making hay bale stacks. The machine could be fitted on any tractor or pickup truck, forming an inverted V-shape over the vehicle, with the tractor or truck providing power for the conveyor belts. Perhaps the most innovative feature of the bale loader was its reversible loader. Bradshaw designed the baler to run in both directions, allowing for automatic loading, unloading, and easy, efficient bale transportation and bale stacking.

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