You've been getting mixed answers from people and then you come here. Good luck.
What size and weight bales? How many and how often do you plan to move them? Have you thought about a bale trailer or a pickup bed attachment?
There is more to it than horsepower. The load and weight rating for tractor front end. Hydraulic gpm and psi output. There is loader size and load lift rating. The highest rated loader won't do you a bit of good if the bales pulls your back tires off the ground. No tricycle front wheels. Are you going to use a 3 point rear fork?
I had a 460 with a manure bucket. Wouldn't hardly pick up the 1500# bales they make around here. Best I could do sometimes is get the bucket under it, wrap a chain around it, and then back around. I've pulled them into the corral with my pickup too.
The best loader tractor is a skid steer provided it has the lift capacity for your size bales. Can't plow with it. Look for a 560 or bigger tractor with the right loader.
Then you have to consider that what may work when it is warm and dry may just get buried to its axles in the corral come winter and muddy ground. For winter hay moving, you better get a gasser unless you live in Florida cause you will spend all your spare time trying to start it and warm it up.
Where do you get your hay? The guy that bales our field can do any size we want, 700# to 1500#. Now that I have a 2606 industrial with an IH 3000 loader than can toy around with those big bales, I just want the big ones now. I've had occasion to bury it in a muddy corral moving those bigguns. Then it sits until a hard freeze.
As an emergency standby, I line up a few bales at the other gate. It's not easy but 2 of us can wedge between them and start one rolling into the corral. When I set them by the gate, I try to rotate them if they started to flat spot on one side. If the weather may turn bad for a while, I'll line up 3 or 4 bales spaced along the barn and put some horse panels around them. Then move the panels as one is needed.
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