An apparatus and method for breaking down compressed bales of may or similar materials. The apparatus utilizes a canted bed mounted on wheels for movement as a trailer and a single blade knife spans the width of the bed between two cantilever mounted levers. The knife is activated by a pair of hydraulic cylinders to cut the bale into slices of widths controlled by an operator who advances the bales under the knife by controlling movement of a bale pusher actuated by a third hydraulic cylinder, with all three cylinders exchanging hydraulic oil under pressure with an external source, such as a farm tractor, through a control box. In operation bales are loaded into the lower end of the canted bed, advanced for cutting in the plane of the knife stroke by the hydraulic powered bale pusher, sliced transversely to the compressed layers by the hydraulic powered knife and discharged from a chute at the elevated end of the canted bed.