Abstract: Apparatus for handling, transporting, and unrolling large cylindrical bales of hay, including a frame mountable in the box of a pickup truck or on its own wheels. Hydraulic controls and actuators are provided for pivoting a bale fork about a horizontal axis, and for spreading and drawing together a pair of arms making up the fork to grasp and release the bale axially. A lost motion mechanism is provided to permit the fork to move vertically, as a bale unrolls, although the hydraulically actuated portion of the fork remains motionless.