Messy Ferguson Haying

[lacamo]

Decided to go round and got a MF 1734 (= Hesston 530 3x4). It makes great bales - tight and well formed. However, when I'm done, there's lots of grass left on the ground which should have been baled. My windrows are tall, narrow and clean and the grass is dry. I set the pickup to the lowest setting, the working speed is slow and I'm careful to evenly fill the chamber by moving from side to side after 10 seconds or so as described in the manual. Anyone have any suggestions to bale cleaner with one of these units?

 

[Don-Wi]

I don't think there would be much else a guy could do, just make sure all the teeth are in the pickup.

If it's a really fine stemmed or short grass, most balers just can't pick it all up. Espescially if it's been run down a little with a tire.

Donovan from Wisconsin

 

[lacamo]

The last field I did, the grass was actually quite long & dense. Yesterday, someone who's used one of these balers for a long time, told me NOT to zigzag because the pickup is so narrow that it will be evened out by itself. Maybe I was just pushing too much grass away from the pickup while trying to avoid ugly egged-shaped bales...

 

[BobH in NH]

I just used a Hesston 5530 for the first time last weekend. Had same complaints as you. Pickup is only 1m (39") wide and zig-zagging left hay on the outside edges of the pickup. Also issues truing to follow the windrow around the corners. By the time I was almost finished the fields I was getting much better. My daughter had baled for her husband with this for the past 8 or 9 years, and her advice was that I would get used to it. Only other issue I had was cutting the twine.

I was in the process of switching to a Ford 532 with ejector, but after getting this I will definitely stay with round.