How to bale corn stalks???

[reid5365]

How would I go about baling corn stalks??? Does it depend on the way they come out of the combine? Or do i just go into the field with the round baler and go???

 

[RobMD]

Corn cut low gets raked up with very large wheel rakes around here.. 30 foot swath into one row, then bale it. If the chaff has too many long sticks of corn in it, it would tend to jam up the feed on some round balers. Some square balers won't push this stuff into the chute, gets plugged up behind the auger.

What you really don't want is long sticks of corn poking out everywhere, you'll plug up for certain. I know guys who have lightly rotary mowed over the field to get some stalks ground up. Too much mowing and you have stuff too small to bale.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I did it a couple of years ago, will not do it again. Pain in the backside! Shredded the stalks, raked with inline wheel rake and rolled. Talk about dusty and hard on the baler too. Not to mention the nerves. Won't do it again unless I absolutly have too or when that hot place freezes over.

 

[Hay Dr]

No one else is close to the Vermeer Corn stalk Special

 

[JM in Merit]

Did it one year when we were real short of hay. After they combine field we ran wheel rake then baler right behind the rake. It went better than I figured it would but not as good as we would liked it too.
good luck

 

[paul]

Some only follow the combine path, collect the husks & all.

Some rake the stalks as they are, pull off some leaves & husks & get a leafy bale.

I find both of those terribly hard on the equipment.

Some shred or chop the stalks with a cornstalk chopper - it's a flail machine. Then rake (we make very thin windrows...) and bale. Don't want to chop too fine, just cut it off.

It's not the easiest thing in the world, and it takes a good baler. My old one I struggle to make a dozen bales or so a year.

It's become pretty common around here, see thousands of stalk bales made these days.

--->Paul

 

[paul]

Most folks bale with a round baler, or a big jumbo square baler. It is hard on the baler.

Some folks will make a few 100 small square bales of cornstalks. It again is very hard on the baler, & you need good pickup teeth. Small squares are more rare tho.

--->Paul

 

[Sparktrician]

Last year we baled about 500 bales of cornstalks...not much fun, but we needed the feed. This year i made about 55 bales, just enough for bedding, plus I had some left from last year. We use a MC rotary sythe, run opposite the direction of harvest equip., this way you cut ALL the stalks off at the ground. We use a NH 256 rakes hooked in tandem, and make two rounds to one windrow. Then bale with the JD 4440 and NH BR740A round baler. Your ground speed is crawling compared to hay, and it helps to bale at night, or when stalks are wet with dew or moisture, but not saturated (after heavy rain) Smaller windrows bale easier than big ones...GOOD LUCK...

 

[Lee in Iowa]

If you are going to bale with the MF that is like a 605 F Vermeer you will want to talk to a Vermeer dealer and get different outside pickup bands and teeth for cornstalks or you will have a lot of trouble. Lee

 

[Hay Dr]

I was there in Pella Iowa and saw the New Vermeer 605 Super M Corn Stalk special bale at 13 mph. That not possible in every field but it does show the massive capacity of the New Vermeer Corn Stalk baler. You can just get more work done with a Vermeer.

 

[Tx Jim]

Hay DR,
Why does one need a Corn Stalk Special baler to bale corn stalks? I just shred with a 15 ft batwing mower,rake with a 14 wheel v-rake and bale with my JD 467 baler. No problems. Some big farmers hook rake behind batwing mower and cut/rake in one pass.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Jim, I don't think Hay Dr meant to say that the Vermeer is the only way to go, he was saying it's the fastest!

 

[Tx Jim]

DiyDave,
I was just curious why one would want to go to the expense of owning a Vermeer Corn Stalk Special just to bale corn stalks. How many rd bales of corn stalks are baled every year in the north. We only bale them and Maize stalks in a drought here in Texas

 

[Hay Dr]

The typical corn stalk custom operator charges $20 a bale now. The standard Vermeer Super M baler will bale corn stalks but the corn stalk special is designed for the custom operator that wants to bale at 13 mph and produce more in a shorter period of time. There are currently two plants on line that are purchasing corn stalks for their biomass production of ethanol. There are many more plants that will be purchasing corn stalks so this will become a growth segment in hay balers. If you can produce bales at 10 miles per hour while the competition can only do it at 4 miles per hour then who will produce more?

 

[Tx Jim]

Hay Dr,
What's unique to the Corn Stalk baler? BTW I can bale corn stalks a lot faster than 4 mph with my JD baler !!!!!!!!!