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Balers

B

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
22,792
Location
Big Muddy valley
i"m using a NH664 with endless belts except for the one I lost in the field tonight. :shock:
I make my bales 60 inces high and run the pressure quit high but i would have to look again to remember just what it is. I like the 60 inch size for hauling on our narrow roads and for feeding. I can handle two in the bucket loading and unloading.

What do you guys use and how big do you make your bales/

Any comments on Vermeers?
 
My trusty old 535 Deere, on it's second set of belts, replace the odd bearing, replace lots of pickup tines on this soft, rough ground. Pickup guards resemble piano keys.

Hay bales are 70" tall, grass silage 60", oats 48", pressure cranked to nearly max.
The less pieces to handle the better. :wink:
 
Years ago, 3 brothers here bought the 1st Vermeer baler this country had seen. Having baled for years with an Allis Roto-Baler, they were orgasmic to not have to do any manual labor as far as hauling, stacking, etc. They opened up all the stops and made those bales as big as they could. That winter, they broke the front end out of every loader tractor they owned, and the front end on a rental as well. They then decided a 1200# alfalfa bale and a 900-1000# prairie hay bale were plenty big enough, even if it meant a few more trips with the loader tractor.

I always thought Vermeers looked like they were made in someone's back yard. We used Hesston balers, thinking simpler was better...but a 535 JD makes damn fine looking bales.
 
loomixguy said:
Years ago, 3 brothers here bought the 1st Vermeer baler this country had seen. Having baled for years with an Allis Roto-Baler, they were orgasmic to not have to do any manual labor as far as hauling, stacking, etc. They opened up all the stops and made those bales as big as they could. That winter, they broke the front end out of every loader tractor they owned, and the front end on a rental as well. They then decided a 1200# alfalfa bale and a 900-1000# prairie hay bale were plenty big enough, even if it meant a few more trips with the loader tractor.

I always thought Vermeers looked like they were made in someone's back yard. We used Hesston balers, thinking simpler was better...but a 535 JD makes damn fine looking bales.
Click to expand...

I hear what you are saying about weight, this ground we have to go slow on regardless so just as well have less pieces and bale trailers that are built for stout. Our silage bales will weigh a ton +, the heaviest hay bales I have weighed out of this baler ave 1887 lbs. Most are in the 1500 lb range.
 
I have a 5505 M&W soft core baler 5x5 1000# I also have two 595 OMC drum baler's 5x6 bales about 1200#s soft core also. The M&W is strictly an upland hay baler as the pickup is set to low and it'll sheer all the teeth off in the lowground. The 595's the pickup is set higher plus it has a lock pin to lock it as high as it goes. I have it all dualed up for lowground.Baled 129 bales last two days between rain showers hay's running 6 bales to the acre on the fields I fertilized this year.
 
Denny said:
I have a 5505 M&W soft core baler 5x5 1000# I also have two 595 OMC drum baler's 5x6 bales about 1200#s soft core also. The M&W is strictly an upland hay baler as the pickup is set to low and it'll sheer all the teeth off in the lowground. The 595's the pickup is set higher plus it has a lock pin to lock it as high as it goes. I have it all dualed up for lowground.Baled 129 bales last two days between rain showers hay's running 6 bales to the acre on the fields I fertilized this year.
Click to expand...

Do those M&W balers have a chain with bars that follow a track around the drum?

I had a couple 4X5 Krones like that. I liked them but they were a little slow but the best bales in the country. :D
 
We have a Vermeer 605 M. It's a great baler, made double stout.
I think Mr. FH makes 66" bales with it. They weigh in the 1300#
range, cuz he doesn't want to tear up stuff hauling it in.

What else do you want to
know, BMR? It's yellow. :wink:

Oh, and he uses net wrap cuz he can bale faster using net wrap.
We have no problem feeding the hay wrapped in net wrap--like
it better, in fact.
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
Denny said:
I have a 5505 M&W soft core baler 5x5 1000# I also have two 595 OMC drum baler's 5x6 bales about 1200#s soft core also. The M&W is strictly an upland hay baler as the pickup is set to low and it'll sheer all the teeth off in the lowground. The 595's the pickup is set higher plus it has a lock pin to lock it as high as it goes. I have it all dualed up for lowground.Baled 129 bales last two days between rain showers hay's running 6 bales to the acre on the fields I fertilized this year.
Click to expand...

Do those M&W balers have a chain with bars that follow a track around the drum?

I had a couple 4X5 Krones like that. I liked them but they were a little slow but the best bales in the country. :D
Click to expand...

Same thing basically.
 
We use a 566 JD and a 530 JD. The old 530 is great because you can pull it with anything because you don't really need the monitor, just make sure you stop once it starts tying. That ole baler has made in the neighbourhood of 50,000 bales and is on it's second set of belts. I put in a pick up out of a burnt up 567 baler last year and now it can't be plugged. It just doesn't miss a beat, and makes the nicest bales in the area.
We make our dry bales in about 70" for the same reason as gcreek and our haylage bales 57" because that's what fits through the tube-o-lator.
 
I use a NH 648 Bale Command Plus with net or twine. It makes up to a maximum of a 4' x5' bale.

I got sick of twine this summer because occasionally the stupid twine would start feeding in without me noticing. I hate a bale spun full of twine . . .

I have a bit of trouble starting the bale in very soft material at times like very soft second cut grass or very dry straw.

I think it was jigs who said, a couple of years ago, to take the wind guard off and the pickup plugging problem will go away. It made a big difference.
 
Gehl 1875, 6' x 5'. Baler works pretty well, but it is getting hard to find parts around here due to lack of dealers.
 
My baler is a Hesston 856A. One of the first ones out and it is 10 years old now. No major problems since the very beginning when there was a recall to install a belt guide in the tailgate. I don't know what they have changed on the new balers which look similar, but I know they have tweaked some things.

The 856A will make 6' diameter bales but I only make them 5x5. I call them 1300 lbs and the 5x5 bales are heavy enough for the equipment I have to handle them with.

Neighbor who helps me hay stacks the bales into 23 bale stacks that I move from the other place. We put the base of the 3x5 stack together with the rear bale fork and dozer. Then he finishes putting 8 bales on top of each stack with his Super M and F11 loader. The Farmall has a SpeeCo front end with 9.5-15 rubber on it and those 5x5 bales are more than enough for it.
 
I use a JD 567 Mega-Wide. I usually tie at 69 or 70 which makes for a pretty big bale in the 1500# plus. We make enough of em that the fewer I have to haul the better. I really like the baler I upgraded from a 535 a few years ago and that was a damn good baler but it was wore out as it probably had 40,000 bales ran through it. For me JD is the only way to as we have 3 implement dealers within 60 miles. Any color other than green youe are looking at 80 plus miles for parts.
 
We're fortunate. We have a Vermeer dealer right here and
he's a very good dealer. Keeps a lot of parts on hand, we
can get our net wrap from him too. He keeps up on the updates
available for the baler, and there have been some.

This baler has the big wide tires which we really like. Now
we notice the newer balers of other brands have those
big tires now too.
 
I spent about an hour discussing with a couple neighbors the ins and outs of New Holland, Vermeer, and John Deere balers. Someone will disagree strongly with this, but here goes.

New Holland- Either now or earlier, we have all run them. The 660/664/688 were real good. Then they went downhill. We all wanted one of the others to buy a new one to try first, because we all hope the BR 7090 is as good as the old ones. If they are, we will own one. One upside to them over the others is 2 twine arms over a single arm with 2 strings. I can tie a bale and have my tailgate shut in less than 35 seconds where the others take 45 or so just for the tie process. The tailgate moves faster than Vermeer but not faster than JD. The kicker is simpler. Vermeers kicker is good for hills in that it doesn't push them hard. I have seen bales roll a long way behind a JD. The downfall is the twine tie system has a lot of moving parts. Dirt, chaff, etc can build up and make it not work properly.

John Deere- I think we all agreed that they were probally the best built, toughest, more than likely the longest lasting. The problem is the $50,000 price tag, the slower tie(net wrap becomes more likely if you tie slower) and the JD dealrship around here has went through changes and we aren't sure if they are done.

Vermeers- One guy has one. He likes it just fine, but he has had a few things go wrong. 12,000 bales and he has had to put all new teeth in, broke his drive shaft($1,000) and put new belts on($2,000) I know another guy who has one that has had a couple rollers with bearings go out, so I am not completely convinced.

I guess it comes down to 2 things.
1- Like most everything, you get what you pay for.
2- Just as important, who you are comfortable dealing with.
 
Neighbor just got a new JD. It's a dandy baler. Mr. FH looked at
it and said it has a whole different pick up than the Vermeer.
He commented the Vermeer was simpler and heavier built.

Lots of JD balers here, so people like them. Mr. FH has
never run one. Didn't they used to say JD balers had the
worst pick up of all the balers?

A friend has a NH, but I'm not sure what model. It's not
very old and he's had big problems with that baler.
 
I always like the JD pickup the best because it lifts the hay the least. My feeling has been that the less you pick up the hay the more of it you'll get inside the machine. I am kind of irritated now though that the only teeth we can get for them is those ones made from square material that they seem to think are worth so much :?
 
On the cost difference between net and twine, I figured out roughly this summer that twine cost around $.33/bale and netwrap is about $.93. This is on 5' bales with net costing me $195/roll.

BUT I can make almost 1/4 more bales in a day with netwrap and so what is that worth besides the lower fuel usage with net? It takes 2 turns of the bale to put net on and up to 10 turns with twine if I'm doing 14 rounds of twine plus 2 on the edge. 14 is the least I can put on.

So that's about 20 seconds per bale less time in netwrap.

How do others find the cost comparison?
 

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