Cutting the moldy bottom off hay bales - anyone else?

[barbender]

 Brad, one of my daughters works at a local riding stable, she started out taking care of Vanners. Brushing and braiding hair, there was plenty to do! They are beautiful animals!

 

[gspren]

If the large rectangular bales are constructed like the small ones you can pull the thing apart in waffers. If so I would try a wafer about 16" if you are using a 20" bar, pull it off and put a ratchet strap near the cut and give it a try. Won't take long to try and then adjust depending on how it goes. Pulling a wafer off also gives a better idea how deep the mold goes.

Added: Wear a dust mask!

[Brad_bb]

Well all the fretting was for naught.  My regular chain, I switched the bar oil out for soybean oil that we use to lube the manure spreader chain.  This was a 3x4x8' bale that was packed pretty densely.  I was cutting across the grain.  We ratchet strapped the bale with two straps, then cut the 4 strings and moved them out of the way.  We held the bale up with the hay spear tynes on the skid steer.  I made sure that I wouldn't hit the tynes with my saw.  I had about 12 inches, but only needed to cut off 4-5 inches.  It cut like Butta!  It did not clog up my clutch like I feared.  Now I didn't try a rip cut, but if I do I'll post a video here too.
Chainsaw Bale cutting

[SwampDonkey]

Here's a fellow that had to cut 6" off of bales used in straw bale construction. They did 400 bales in 6 hrs.

Resizing Straw Bales to Fit with a Portable Sawmill

[DWyatt]

Your video reminded me of shearing sheep, watching the whole piece come off neatly.