Round balers

[flying belgian]

Year ago I bought my first round baler. 648 New Holland. Net and twine. Looked real nice with 22,000 bales on it. Through winter I put all new chains and did a couple other minor repairs. Right away I couldn't get it to start a bale. Had dealer come out and he made some adjustments and got it working real good.

Worked perfect for a couple hundred bales until I got into some 6 foot tall canary grass. Wouldn't start the bale to save your soul. So I hired neighbor to bale the 18 bales with his New holland baler. His did perfect. Don't know what number he has but it is a 2024 model. So next I baled some cornstalks and it would start the bale but now it wouldn't start wrapping it. Had to fiddle with 14 of 15 bales. I'm so sick of that thing I want to get a different one. I found a Kubota with 10,000 bales. Would that work any better for me or does everyone have problems with canary grass and cornstalks?

 

[DanielW]

I can't comment directly, but the chap who trucks are cattle bought a Kubota round baler a few years ago and loves it. Does his cornstalks and silage no problem. I haven't used it myself so my comments don't count for much, but he showed me it in great detail just after he bought it and it sure seems to be a heavy and well-built unit. I stopped while I was driving home and watched him bale for a while last summer - I couldn't believe how fast he was travelling - seemed like he was baling in road gear. Prior to that, he had a Deere 435 just like us. Not sure how many bales he does, but enough to feed his 300 cattle and do a lot of custom baling & wrapping in the area. He's never been afraid to try unconventional equipment: He bought a Samasz rotary rake a few years ago too. I was pretty skeptical, but after seeing it in use and comparing it to our Kuhn and our neighbour's Pottinger, I'd say that Samasz unit is well ahead of Kuhn and Pottinger.

I'd ask a Kubota dealer about that particular model's capability to handle stalks and longer grass. I'm sure it would probably do fine, but it might depend on the model spec's and how it was ordered. Might also be worth looking into HP requirements. A lot of the newer/heavier/faster balers can really hog the HP.

As to your question about stalks and grass: Many folks certainly bale canary and stalks with no trouble. Even my ancient backup baler (an old Vermeer 504) has done stalks without issue, and those old Vermeers were renowned for starting problems. I'm sorry to hear about the problems you've had with the NH. In my opinion, New Holland haying equipment peaked in the 70's with their rolabar rakes and hayliner square balers. They've been running on nothing but their reputation since then.

 

[Destroked 450]

A majority of the time when a NH belt baler won’t start a bale it’s a belt issue, either worn belts or belt tension, there could be other issues but a belt issue is usually the primary reason
As for Kubota balers I have no working knowledge about them but they are a Vicon design, Kverneland purchased Vicon in the late 90’s and Kubota purchased Kverneland around 2011. The first Kubota disc mowers and balers I saw looked like Vicon’s that were painted Kubota orange. I like the Vicon designed 3 blade triangulated disc mower pods but have never been around one of their balers

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

20,000 bales is a lot. Lots of things worn smooth that shouldn't be. My Deere baler has a roller at the bottom of the chamber which I assume plays a critical role in starting a bale. It had about 10,000 bales on it when I bought it, and the wear on that roller was pretty evident. I'd imagine it'll be smooth as a baby's butt at 20,000 bales.

 

[495man]

I found with my 630 would more easily start a bale if I kept the revs down until it starting eating the hay, then bring revs up. Oddly short hay was more of an issue than long hay. It's old and worn, but new belts on it.

Too big, or too small, of a windrow also makes issues.

 

[flying belgian]

I'm not to concerned with starting bales as it does that fine except for that long slippery canary grass. Normally I get the canary mowed before it gets long and mature but we were so wet here we didn't get any hay cut until after July 4th. So then I concentrated on my alfalfa and alfalfa mix. It was September before I got around to the canary. My concern now is getting it to start wrapping. Maybe it will do that fine now too in hay but it sure don't in cornstalks.

 

[Ray,IN]

Kinda off-topic. I seem to remember a round baler that made small bales that a man could pick up and load. If my memory is right, what was the name of those balers?

 

[Destroked 450]

I'm not to concerned with starting bales as it does that fine except for that long slippery canary grass. Normally I get the canary mowed before it gets long and mature but we were so wet here we didn't get any hay cut until after July 4th. So then I concentrated on my alfalfa and alfalfa mix. It was September before I got around to the canary. My concern now is getting it to start wrapping. Maybe it will do that fine now too in hay but it sure don't in cornstalks.

So are your talking about the net wrap system instead of making a bale
All my balers have been string tie so I can’t help with that

 

[flying belgian]

So are your talking about the net wrap system instead of making a bale
All my balers have been string tie so I can’t help with that

I am talking about the net wrap system.

 

[A . M. Aitkins]

Kinda off-topic. I seem to remember a round baler that made small bales that a man could pick up and load. If my memory is right, what was the name of those balers?

They were called Allis Chalmers Roto Balers

 

[caterpillar guy]

I know that is one of the things I like about our New Idea baler with that open throat anything that will go in will feed and bale. Just make sure it goes in the middle to start then it will feed anything in there and the bigger the windrow so much the better. The 4x4 bales will take triple windrows of 2nd and 3rd cutting hay. Short hay will sometimes have some fall through the pickup if it is a light windrow . Alfalfa ,canary grass,or even just regular old grass will flow fine. even get a stick or 2 in along the fencerow.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Kinda off-topic. I seem to remember a round baler that made small bales that a man could pick up and load. If my memory is right, what was the name of those balers?

There are also modern round balers made in Eastern European countries that make small bales like that too. 3pt mounted on compact tractors.

You can only go a few feet before you have to stop and wrap, so you spend a lot of time standing on the clutch pedal. The large round balers are bad enough in that respect. I can see why the rotobaler was only around for a few years.

 

[Destroked 450]

They were called Allis Chalmers Roto Balers

We had one back in the 60’s, it was an older orange roof model
Best tractor for a Roto Baler was a WD Allis with its snap over hand clutch

 

[Tx Jim]

There are also modern round balers made in Eastern European countries that make small bales like that too. 3pt mounted on compact tractors.

You can only go a few feet before you have to stop and wrap, so you spend a lot of time standing on the clutch pedal. The large round balers are bad enough in that respect. I can see why the rotobaler was only around for a few years.

After custom rd baling since 1987 with JD round balers & having baled way over 100,000 rd bales making 950-1000# rd bales I can't envision the ""FUN"" of stopping/starting for every 40#-60# rd bale of hay

 

[Ray,IN]

They were called Allis Chalmers Roto Balers

I found Solis 30-60# round balers: https://solisworld.com/wp-content/uploads/Brouchers/implements/leaflet-Round-Baler.pdf
I can remember in the 1950's loading those small round bales on a wagon with stanchions on each end, to keep them there.

 

[Texasmark]

Year ago I bought my first round baler. 648 New Holland. Net and twine. Looked real nice with 22,000 bales on it. Through winter I put all new chains and did a couple other minor repairs. Right away I couldn't get it to start a bale. Had dealer come out and he made some adjustments and got it working real good.

Worked perfect for a couple hundred bales until I got into some 6 foot tall canary grass. Wouldn't start the bale to save your soul. So I hired neighbor to bale the 18 bales with his New holland baler. His did perfect. Don't know what number he has but it is a 2024 model. So next I baled some cornstalks and it would start the bale but now it wouldn't start wrapping it. Had to fiddle with 14 of 15 bales. I'm so sick of that thing I want to get a different one. I found a Kubota with 10,000 bales. Would that work any better for me or does everyone have problems with canary grass and cornstalks?

I would say those crops would be problematic period. My JD baler had (I removed it as I didn't need it) a set of forks (probably 6 evenly spaced across the 5' opening, about 4' long) above the entrance chute that was specifically for rough, large/long dimension crops to (guide) proceed to the rollers/belts easily and not get hung up in the baler.

 

[paul]

Corn stalks are difficult for many balers.

Swamp grass I baled a lot with the Vermeer 605F, it was difficult some days. On that model you needed good firm teeth none missing on the pickup and the rubber flaps on that front external roller needed to be sharp new firm, not worn down and folded over. Those 2 items were -critical- to baling difficult crops with it.

The newer 2013 Vermeer I got last year baled up the over mature tall grass very well this year. I was pleased.

20,000 bales is a lot. I’ve always heard good things about NH balers, I would think yours might be worn or out of kilter still with that age to it? Perhaps you have something worn down like I mention on the old Vermeer, something that doesn’t look bad from a distance but is critical and worn?

Paul

 

[Tx Jim]

Corn stalks are difficult for many balers.
20,000 bales is a lot. I’ve always heard good things about NH balers, I would think yours might be worn or out of kilter still with that age to it? Perhaps you have something worn down like I mention on the old Vermeer, something that doesn’t look bad from a distance but is critical and worn?

Paul

I put 30,000 bales on each of the JD 467 rd balers that I owned.

 

[casecollectorsc]

My New Holland BR 750 bales anything from grass to straw to corn stalks with never a problem. Neighbor has a New Holland 644...same thing.

 

[Texasmark]

My New Holland BR 750 bales anything from grass to straw to corn stalks with never a problem. Neighbor has a New Holland 644...same thing.

Local hay guy buys JD tractors and NH baling equipment. I have different colored tractors and cuttrers and a JD baler and rake and are happy with both. My last experience with a NH swather was two things: Switching from road to field positioning was iffy at best, and you couldn't get to the grease zerks to grease the drive shaft....so I took my cutting torch and cut a hole in the sheet metal so that I could get to it.