Agricultural bale accumulator with bale turning mechanism

An agricultural bale accumulator comprising:

• a substantially planar load bed for accumulating thereon a plurality of bales with said bales being received successively one after another in a first direction on said load bed;
• bale-turning means for turning each bale through substantially 90 degrees around its longitudinal axis upon receipt on the load bed, wherein each bale remains on said load bed but is reoriented 90 degrees from its initial position;
• bale-transfer means operable to displace said bales after receipt and reorientation on the load bed, across said load bed in a second direction transverse to the first direction and to position said bales in a side-by-side relationship on said load bed thus forming a parcel thereof;
• and
• bale-discharge means operable to discharge said parcel of bales accumulated on the load bed to the ground.