During winter months, when straw supplies and prices will be at a premium following wet spells over the harvest season, anything that helps minimise consumption while maintaining a comfortable, absorbent bed will be welcome.

Specialist machinery is the solution, enabling straw to be dispensed from bales in a way that not only reduces time and effort, but also meets the need for economy with quality.

See more: Bale unrollers – options and prices

Farmers Weekly has previously reviewed turbine-type bale shredder-spreaders such as the Teagle Tomahawk, which shred and blow straw into cattle yards.

This time, we take a look at equipment that does away with the “blower” and instead features a tined rotor or two, and leaves the straw whole.

There are pros and cons for both types; turbine machines are mostly mounted on a tractor’s rear hitch – though there are versions for use on a wheeled loader or telehandler – and rely on pto power for the shredding rotor and blower.

Bedding spreaders, on the other hand, are purpose-built for use on a loader and draw hydraulic power.

They do not throw the material as far as a blower, so have to enter the largest sheds and yards, but are reckoned to create significantly less dust because of the gentler dispensing mechanism.

That, emphasise manufacturers, should minimise the risk of respiratory and eye infection issues as animals enjoy the sensation of fresh bedding landing on their backs.

Most often, the benefits of straw spreaders are highlighted versus manual bedding – up to 50% straw saving, up to 75% labour saving, workers kept away from dust.

But pitting a spreader against a chopper-spreader produced some machine-versus-machine figures for a Harper Adams University (HAU) student.

Peter Bowyer’s study was designed to investigate whether the type of straw spreader used to bed up heifers in HAU’s dairy unit affected bedding characteristics, as well as the run time of the host tractor or loader.

The shed was bedded with fresh straw three times a week during the six-week study, which concluded that the machines’ different ways of working did influence both bedding quality and bed longevity.

An average 59.45cm bed depth was recorded with straw dispensed by the plain spreader (a Spread-a-Bale) and was observed to form “a significantly fluffier bed, well suited to nesting” that was deeper and longer-lasting.

There were also differences in speed of operation, with loading and spreading time for one big square bale being 57% quicker with the spreader at less than a minute versus almost three-and-a-half minutes for the other machine – though it is clearly no slouch compared with hand spreading.

And the spreader, with its lower power requirement and 74% speedier dispensing time, used 75% less fuel to load and discharge a single bale.

Hustler

Lamma Hall 18, stand 320

Agri-Linc is the newly appointed distributor of Hustler’s range of bale handling and feeding equipment from New Zealand.

This line-up includes the dual-purpose Hurricane LX104 bale feeder/bedder, which has much the same structure as the company’s Chainless bale unroller, but with additional elements that turn it into a bedding machine.

A tractor linkage- or loader-mounted headstock carries the machine sideways, making it suitable for discharging from a central passage.

Releasing a latch enables the headstock to be withdrawn from the rest of the structure to reveal a pair of spiking tines that can be used to place bales on the low-friction bed without having to call on a separate loader.

An auto-connecting drive coupling makes it easy to bring the two sections together again.

A chain-and-slat conveyor feeds bales to twin horizontal rotors that – as on the Chainless feeder – gently peel away the layers or flakes.

However, the Hurricane has a third, faster-turning rotor with both static blades and swinging flails to hurl the material further.

With the additional rotor lifted clear, silage or hay is directed outdoors to the ground or indoors along a feed barrier.

But in its working position, the rotor propels bedding straw over a 7-10m distance, depending upon its condition.

The machine handles a single round bale or a square bale up to 2.4m long once an extension platform has been added to the basic tilting feed deck.

As for prices, the Hurricane is £12,950 in tractor-mounted guise, and £13,445 with a loader/telehandler coupling. A square bale platform extension adds £900.

Lucas-G

Lamma Hall 6, stand 336

The Lucas-G UBI Jet is based on the French manufacturer’s tractor loader or telehandler-mounted UBI Swivelling round bale unroller, with the added element of a flexible tine rotor spreading assembly.

Tilting the machine to one side and extending an L-shaped hydraulic arm enables self loading, while the turntable body means it can work to the left or right, or to the rear when mounted on a tractor, distributing straw up to 5m or so.

Retracting teeth on the conveyor help prevent material being carried around under the machine, and the spreading tine assembly is retracted out of the way hydraulically when the unroller is being used to feed out along a barrier.

The UBI Jet is priced at £9,495, and there is a spinning disc version that spreads up to 6m to the rear.

Lucas-G also produces the Distor Pic, a bedding straw spreader for 3t minimum lift capacity telehandlers, that has a detachable headstock exposing two spikes for retrieving and loading bales.

Operating in a longitudinal position spreading ahead, the Distor Pic has capacity for a single round bale up to 1.2m diameter or one big square bale up to 2m long (90cm x 90cm cross section) or 2.5m (1.2m x 1.2m).

Its bale teasing and spreading mechanism comprises of two interlocking vertical rotors carrying discs, with around the perimeter a number of circular knives that can be repositioned as they wear, short tines that rip at the bale, and underside vanes to create airflow.

There are also bale-retaining “combs”, designed to prevent too much straw being pulled through at once, and side flaps with manual or electric actuator adjustment to regulate the spreading width between 1.8m and 6m.

A slat conveyor with electrically adjusted variable speed moves bales to the rotors.

Distor Pic spreaders are priced £14,000 with 90cm-tall spreading rotors and £16,000 with 120cm versions – Lucas-G also builds tractor-mounted and trailed versions.

Spread-a-Bale

Lamma Hall 20, stand 490

Originated by former dairy farmer Michael Hughes, the Spread-a-Bale business is now a full-time operation with production and assembly at a factory in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, and exports to numerous countries.

The range itself is no less prolific, with versions for spreading straw every which way to suit different building sizes and layouts, and the species that need a comfortable bed to rest on.

Buyers can choose between fan-shaped and linear spread patterns by opting for two vertical rotors or one horizontal, in-line or side-mounting, and the new Side Throw deflector head that equips an in-line model to dispense left or right.

A baffle option that enables any Spread-a-Bale to dispense shredded straw downwards into a mixer wagon is also available, and all versions can be had with a painted or galvanised finish.

Size-wise, the £15,250 Micro at one end of the scale is designed for 1-2t lift capacity loaders, throwing straw ahead from a single horizontal tine rotor, or to the left or right with the Side Throw option, which takes the price up to £16,950.

Weighing in at 595kg, it handles round bales up to 1.5m diameter and needs a 55-litre/min hydraulic oil supply for the rotor drive motor.

At the other end of the spectrum, the £19,950 Maxi XL has space for two round bales or a rectangular bale up to 2.7m in length, thanks to a body that is 30cm longer than the Midi and regular Maxi models.

It weighs just over 1t, so needs a decent-size loader of at least 3t capacity, as much for stability as anything, and there is an optional side-mounting frame for spreading to one side rather than straight ahead.

The £990 HD option brings a 75% increase in rotor drive torque to pull apart the extra-dense wafers formed by the latest generation of ultra-high-density balers.

A twin vertical rotor installation is the sole setup for all Maxi variants, producing a fan-shaped distribution pattern 6-9m long and wide, governed by adjustable side baffles.

The Mini and Midi models can be had with either the twin vertical or single horizontal rotor design, the latter dispensing straw in a linear pattern 1.2m wide and up to 15m distant, and said to be well suited to applications such as strawing pig arks.

Straw Spreader

Having shown a prototype at the Royal Welsh Show in 2023, Tom Robinson and his Straw Spreader business now has the simply-named Multi in production.

The £22,000 machine is designed to shred and spread bedding straw up to 9m distant and also dispense silage and hay, being capable of handling the biggest square bales – as well as rounds – from a relatively compact and versatile loader-mounted outfit.

The bale cradle is set at a rearward angle relative to the chain-and-slat conveyor in the bottom that is inclined forwards at a lesser angle, so big Hesston and similar bales bend into the shape of a banana as they are processed.

That keeps the variable-speed conveyor bed as short as possible, which in turn minimises the overall length of the machine and positions its mass as close to the loader as possible.

A single hydraulically driven horizontal rotor carrying four rows of long, tapered tines does the teasing and spreading, and it is height-adjustable, along with the deflector hood above it, to suit different bale types and sizes, and the throw required.

And since the main structure of the machine is mounted on a kingpin, it can be swivelled into position to dispense bedding straw to either side, as well as forwards.

The Multi is attached to a loader via a detachable headstock with an automatic coupling for the hydraulic oil supply to the conveyor and rotor motors; wi-fi control eliminates any physical electrical connections.

Unlatching and withdrawing the headstock from the machine reveals a pair of bale spikes that make this a self-loading, one-person, one-loader implement.

Warthog Machinery

With a pretty different format to other straw bedding machines, the Straw Spreader from Dave Addicott’s Warthog Machinery engineering firm is dedicated to dispensing material in deep litter yards from any size big square bale up to 2.5m long.

It has two large diameter spinners fitted with short teasing blades positioned at the near end of a heavy-duty galvanised steel frame, and is self-loading by sliding the frame under a bale either on the floor or in a stack.

Square bales scooped up in this way are secured by a chain across the open end of the frame and taken into a cattle yard on a tractor loader, telehandler or the like.

There, the hydraulically-driven spinners are powered up, and the whole machine is angled upwards using the loader’s crowd ram to bring the bale slices onto the rotating plates.

Straw is then gently dispensed to left and right to lay a 3m-wide swath as the host loader is driven backwards.

With just two hydraulic motors to power and no other moving parts, the Straw Spreader is a simple implement and, at 850kg, a relatively light machine to carry, even though it projects some 3.1m forwards from the loader backplate.

The manufacturer says it needs a tractor of at least 100hp or a telehandler or wheeled loader to operate, with hydraulic flow of 70-litre/min to drive the spreading disc motors.

It’s priced at £8,750.

Wessex International

Lamma Hall 20, stand 790

Crossfire is the name given by Wessex to the bedding module option for its BFR-180 bale unroller.

It includes an enclosed speed-adjustable undershot tine rotor capable of sending straw 6-10m into a pen.

Mounted on a loader, the Crossfire shoots to the left and does not interfere with the machine’s low-level bale unrolling function, placing forage against a feed barrier to the opposite direction.

Nor does it prevent the Sidewinder conveyor extension from being fitted to lift forage into a trough.

The base machine has an integral headstock for mounting on a tractor linkage, tractor loader, or telehandler, and this can be separated from the main structure to load it using a pair of bale spikes.

As a straw bedding machine, the BFR-180 Crossfire weighs in at 1,050kg – or 1,280kg with the Sidewinder extension as well – and needs a 50-litre/min oil flow from the host vehicle.

Its list price is £14,550.