Method and machine for tearing apart stacked crop material bales

In a machine for tearing apart crop material bales from a stack thereof, the combination comprising:

• a mobile chassis;
• a load bed pivotally mounted near its one end to said chassis and moveable between a generally horizontal position and a genrally upright retrieving position in which said load bed may be disposed generally against a side of said bale stack, said one end being the rear end with respect to the primary direction of travel of the machine;
• stack retaining means including a pair of stack supporting arms mounted to said load bed and extending in a generally upright relation therefrom respectively adjacent opposing corners of said one end thereof, said arms being operable for movement between respective open positions disposed outwardly from opposite lateral sides of a lower end of said stack and respective closed positions disposed in supporting engagement with said stack lower end when said load bed is disposed in its upright stack retrieving position, and a pair of stack clamping arms mounted to said load bed and extensible in a generally upright relation therefrom respectively adjacent opposing corners of said other opposite end thereof, said arms being operable for movement between respective open positions disposed outwardly from opposite lateral sides of an upper end of said stack and respective closed positions disposed in clamping engagement with said stack upper end when said load bed is disposed in its upright stack retrieving position;
• means mounted on said load bed for advancing said stack longitudinally along said load bed toward an opposite other end of said load bed opposite to its one end when said load bed is disposed in its horizontal position;
• a generally horizontally-positioned platform mounted on said chassis adjacently along said other end of said load bed when said load bed is disposed in its horizontal position, said platform capable of receiving and supporting a leading portion of said stack each time said stack advancing means advances said stack longitudinally along said load bed;
• a crop material bale shredder operatively mounted on said chassis adjacent one lateral side of said platform;
• and
• feeder means mounted to said chassis along said platform and moveable toward said shredder for feeding said leading stack portion along said platform in a transverse relation to the longitudinal extent of said load bed and into said shredder.