Tight Bales In Dry Hay

Part Time Pete

Well-known Member
The guy that buys my hay likes a 32" 50lb. bale. I have a NH 316, and that's usually not a problem, except when I get in really dry hay. Even with the tension wound all the way down, I have trouble getting a heavy enough bale. All the hay dogs are good, and I've got four wedges in the chamber. I wonder if adding two more would help.
Than
 
I have 6 on my NH 268, three on each side. So you could go for more than you have. Look and see if there are mounting holes already drilled for them. That said, you may not see that much improvement. I cannot make bales that hard, without serious issues with knotting failure. You may have to tell him to lighten up your expectations a bit.
 
Build bigger windrows. More hay going in, less tension needed. We bale bale wiyh an in-line baler with hyd tension and leave the pressure set right at 55 lbs and still get a good 50 lb bale. later in the season we just build bigger windrows as the hay gets drier. YMMV
 
We try for 32 inch long bales bales too. We have given up on selling a 40 or 50 lb bale as the moisture content ultimately drives the weight - assuming the bale is tight. We now sell "tight 32 inch long bales" and don't mention weight.

One of our baling windows this past spring was ultra low humidity coupled with a constant breeze. That and use of a mower conditioner and a tedder, we had nice colored hay, but VERY dry. On our JD348, we have a moisture meter that constantly reads the hay as it goes down the bale chute. The meter was reading 10-11% moisture all day.

Another thing our JD348 has is adjustable side doors to add resistance and with it tighter bales. We had the doors just about all the way in. The bales were tight, but light. I'd say they were 35ish lbs. Not much else we could have done to make them heavier.

Except.....

As the evening came and the humidity started to rise, the bales got heavy and extra tight quickly. Opened the side doors and eased up on the tension cranks to keep from having crazy heavy bales.

IMHO - a third set of bale case wedge would accomplish the same thing as our side chute doors - only you can't back them out as the day wears on. Baling later in the day/evening will bring up the weight too. If your bales are otherwise snapping tight, but light, you might explain to the customer moisture driven weight.

One thing about the side doors, I read somewhere, maybe my JD manual or another baler's manual, you can damage the bale chute (probably warp the sides) with to much side tension. Be careful with your 3rd set of wedges.

316 IMHO is a GREAT baler!

Good luck,
Bill
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Dry hay is hard to get heavy enough. You need some moisture.Bale in early mornings or late evenings with some dew. Rakeing 2 or 3 windrows helps as the baler is full.Extra wedges help some,but a bit of moisture is the key.
 
(quoted from post at 23:17:17 07/31/16) We try for 32 inch long bales bales too. We have given up on selling a 40 or 50 lb bale as the moisture content ultimately drives the weight - assuming the bale is tight. We now sell "tight 32 inch long bales" and don't mention weight.


One thing about the side doors, I read somewhere, maybe my JD manual or another baler's manual, you can damage the bale chute (probably warp the sides) with to much side tension.
316 IMHO is a GREAT baler!

Good luck,
Bill

I've baled with the side doors all the way in on my 347 for yrs without damaging the bale case and make 60# bales. Why make 32'' long bales? 36'' long bales stack better.
 

2X what Arlen said. I did a small custom job July fourth weekend. We are extremely dry here, with less than an inch of rain since first of May, so the hay is thin and light. I had a lot of trouble with light bales, so after one wagon I stopped and doubled the windrows. It helped a lot.
 
32 inch bales stack nicely end to end and not put you over width if on the road. We try to make a 40lb bale and 32 inches seems to get us
there. Tight bales stack. I see no difference when stacking 30, 32 or 36 inch bales as we get all of those lengths when set at 32 inches
average length. If anything a 32 inch bale gives some breathing room for the bales, which I consider a plus.

We've started stacking on edge, cut side up, this year and really like it. Whenever possible, we leave the hay on our wagons, under shelter for
stacking another day and/or selling off the wagon. In as much as on edge stacking gives a 14 inch wide surface, we are thinking about making
a 28 inch long bale for on edge stack/pack out. We would stack on the wagon cut cut side up too - so if the load stays on the wagon, it's in the
right orientation. Our customers are horse folks and they like lighter bales, my back likes them too as I get older! We will try the 28 inch bales
if we get a second cut this year.

As to the side doors:

See the pic from the Deere 348 manual. The side wedges IMHO have the same outward push against the bale case as do the side doors.
Trying to error on the side of caution. I know this, when our late in the evening baling - bales got very heavy and extra tight from the oncoming
dew, when I released the side doors on the 348, the bale case popped, groaned, etc like a wood stove changing temperature.

YMMV

Bill
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Bill
I seriously doubt your 40# bales could have any detrimental affect on a sq baler bale chamber. I think JD engineers were referring to bales weighing twice your bale weights. It's been a long time since I PDI'd & delivered NEW JD sq balers(336/346) but I'm almost 100% sure that the inside hay resisters aka cabbage cutters came installed in new JD sq balers back then.
 
Yea - agreed, 40 lb bales probably won't damage the bale case - unless they are maybe 16ish inches long..... :)

My 348 has the cabbage cutter restrictors, but if you look at the manual pic, that's not what they are speaking of, it is a triangular wedge
downstream of it.
 
Thanks all. I'll try adding a couple more wedges, and maybe double up the windrows.
I agree Bill - I like my 316. I picked it up for $2,500, put another $500 in to it, and it's been a great baler ever since.
Pete
 
Bill,If you're getting that much variation in length,you're going too fast/overfeeding it. It will eat a lot of hay.Slow down,count strokes per bale.Keep them reasonably the same. that means shifting up and down,and a bit of throttle action too.Back when I used a NH 282/283/425 I would aim for 20 spb. At 15 downshift.At 25 shift up.A bit of throttle action in the middle helps.Your bales will all be the same.However,my inline doesnt seem to care howmany strokes. It always makes the same bale....
 

Back in mid June when we still had moisture, I was making these 9 flake bales. And yes, they varied in length.
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I am certainly no expert as I have only hayed for two years now and I use a round baler in grass hay. However baling overly dry hay is a real problem for round bales also. For several years I had problems with custom hay shakers baling our hay and having the bales come apart as soon as I cut the strings or removed the net. I asked around and got a whole bunch of opinions about the problem. Finally I asked some guys who have lived here all their life and they told me these custom guys, especially when they are doing small jobs, bale the hay too dry because of the convenience to them. Further these guys said to eliminate the problem, bale early in the day or in the late evening when the humidity is higher. You see our daytime humidity is in 10% - 15% range-great for drying but not for baling. Since I got tired of pitching hay off the lane and over the fence all winter, I decided to bale our own hay and bought an outfit. I took their advice and have not had a problem since. Using a Delmhorst probe our bales are in the 15-18% range when baled and they feed great and so not fall apart when I open them. For what ever it"s worth, that"s my experience with overly dry hay.
 
Actually our bale length is fairly consistent, but when we encounter a variance in the windrow, we'll get some length change. Most of our 36 inch bales came from wrestling with our trip arm problems we had earlier this year with our new to us JD348. I think we are past that now. The New Holland 68's bales are very consistent in length.

We shoot for 15 flakes to a bale and that's perfect for the 68's capacity, for the 348, I doubt the stackers could keep up, so more flakes to the bale with it. We have found more flakes gives a better shaped bale and the horse folks really like how higher flake bales feed out - which was why we wanted a 93ish stroke baler; more flakes vs necessarily higher capacity. The headroom with a 93 stroke machine is nice and the tractor driver can just plow through whatever is in front of the baler.

Speaking of inlines.....

I tried to buy one a couple of years ago. The MF dealer had a 1835 on the lot (92 stroke machine). It had been setting for probably over a year. I called the sales guy on a Friday afternoon, he gave me a price and said, let me call back on Monday, we might have a better deal. Monday, they sold the baler to someone else - probably the sales guy's brother-in-law.....

I like he concept and simplicity of the inlines. Around here, they are as scarce as a Hyott-Clagwell tractor. I've got this newer/low hour JD, so I doubt I'll ever buy another baler. Would like to see an inline baler in action one of these days.

Bill
 
(quoted from post at 10:20:11 08/01/16) Actually our bale length is fairly consistent, but when we encounter a variance in the windrow, we'll get some length change. Most of our 36 inch bales came from wrestling with our trip arm problems we had earlier this year with our new to us JD348. I think we are past that now. The New Holland 68's bales are very consistent in length.

We shoot for 15 flakes to a bale and that's perfect for the 68's capacity, for the 348, I doubt the stackers could keep up, so more flakes to the bale with it. We have found more flakes gives a better shaped bale and the horse folks really like how higher flake bales feed out - which was why we wanted a 93ish stroke baler; more flakes vs necessarily higher capacity. The headroom with a 93 stroke machine is nice and the tractor driver can just plow through whatever is in front of the baler.

Speaking of inlines.....

I tried to buy one a couple of years ago. The MF dealer had a 1835 on the lot (92 stroke machine). It had been setting for probably over a year. I called the sales guy on a Friday afternoon, he gave me a price and said, let me call back on Monday, we might have a better deal. Monday, they sold the baler to someone else - probably the sales guy's brother-in-law.....

I like he concept and simplicity of the inlines. Around here, they are as scarce as a Hyott-Clagwell tractor. I've got this newer/low hour JD, so I doubt I'll ever buy another baler. Would like to see an inline baler in action one of these days.

Bill

Bill, I think you meant a Hoyts-Clagswell :D
 

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