Round bale feeder

A round bale feeder for transporting and unwinding round bales of hay or like material, the feeder including:

• a. a wheeled frame carried on ground bearing wheels and adapted to be towed behind a vehicle,
• b. a tilting frame hinged for rotation relative to the wheeled frame about a hinge axis disposed generally normally to direction of travel of the wheeled frame, the tilting frame having front and rear ends and a loading ramp at the rear end thereof,
• c. front and rear rollers and a mid-roller positioned between the front and rear rollers, the rollers being journalled on the tilting frame for rotation about roller axes disposed parallel to the hinge axis so as to extend transversely across the tilting frame, at least one of the rollers being powered, the front and rear rollers being spaced apart longitudinally sufficiently to support a complete round bale thereon, the mid-roller being sufficiently close to one of the remaining rollers to support the bale when almost completely unwound,
• d. tilting means cooperating with the tilting frame so that actuation of the tilting means rotates the tilting frame to lower the loading ramp towards the ground to permit the bale to be loaded onto the tilting frame and to position the rollers relative to each other to permit positioning of the bale on at least two rollers.