will a 336 baler with 30 kicker handle a 20 foot windrow?

rockyridgefarm

Well-known Member
I recently bought a 20 foot windrower to cut my small grains. It's bigger than I wanted, but the price was too good to pass. I was wondering if my 336 baler is gonna handle a 20 foot windrow of oat straw after it comes out the back of a 9500 combine. Will the kicker get back in time before the next bale gets there? I'll be pulling it with a 4430.
 
(quoted from post at 13:12:26 07/07/15) I recently bought a 20 foot windrower to cut my small grains. It's bigger than I wanted, but the price was too good to pass. I was wondering if my 336 baler is gonna handle a 20 foot windrow of oat straw after it comes out the back of a 9500 combine. Will the kicker get back in time before the next bale gets there? I'll be pulling it with a 4430.


It really depends on how much straw is actually in the 20' windrow. I tend to grow oats that are tall so I can get more straw. I have neighbors that want short oats so the wind don't knock them down. If I plant staright oats with no seeding I will increase the amount of oats that I put down, but if I plant alfelfa with my oats I will put less oats down so I don't kill the seeding. There are variables that will depend on whether your 336 will handle the 20' windrows.

I would be more concerned that if the straw is not dry or if they are weedy. I have a neighbor that will have his straw spread out so it will dry down faster and then he will rake it up and bale it. He does loose some straw, but it is dry. He also states that you can see where the big row of straw was laid out on top of the seeding the following spring and I have persoanlly noticed that this spring when he told me about that last fall.

I personally use a 336 with a 4240 and there are times I wish the combine only had a 12' or a 16' cut....
 

Ditto what Hay maker2 stated. It boils down to how many sq bales will be produced per acre. I think 336 pickup attachment isn't wide enough for 20 ft swath of straw.
 
They're pretty tall. I took this picture this morning. My daughter is 4 ft 2 in. This is my "big" field at 9 acres. The other 3 fields are 6, 4.5, and 3.5a. I planted the oats at 3 bpa as cover for alfalfa


mvphoto23897.jpg
 
I think 20' is pushing the 336. Can you take a partial swath with the windrower?

A 336 had all the wheat straw it could handle from my 13' combine!
 
Drive slow. Do you have a straw spreader for your combine.
Would allow green matter to dry and you can rake whatever width you want.
 
The tonnage just is not there even in tall oat straw. 100 bushel wheat will produce maybe 1 to 1.5 tons straw per acre depending on the variety (in my area). Quite a few times we would double a straw windrow which was 15 foot from combine for the 347. The OP will probably have to go slower than he is accustomed to but for the acreage he should be able to handle it with the 336. We baled with a 347 and there was not much that it could not handle. Two neighbors had 336's and I don't recall those throwing in the towel but rather going down a gear or two in heavy straw.
 
The other thing I would point out that around here when cutting a cover crop for a seeding the combine head would run nearly a foot off the ground to not mix the hay and straw together. Once the straw was removed or distributed back on the ground then the farmer would come in with a mower conditioner to deal with the hay crop. Different area different practice I guess.
 
I think the only problem you might have with the 336 baler is the pick-up might be too narrow to handle a 20 ft. windrow of straw. My neighbor has a JD 338 baler with the wider pick-up and with a 16 ft. windrow from a JD 6620 combine, it can barely take it all in if the straw is heavy. He bales with a JD 7220 tractor and can go slow enough to not to overload the baler. With your 4430 you will be able to go slow enough if the windrow will fit in your baler pick-up. Al
 
When we have someone bale straw behind a 9500 or equivalent, we put a deflector tin in the back of the combine to narrow up the windrow. A bent piece of tin fastened on with a couple of bolts will do. It'll
narrow things up just enough to get it in the baler pickup.

We frequently follow a 9550 with 20 ft platform in heavy wheat shaved at ground level. Oats is a lot less stuff, even those pictured. You'll go slow with the baler, but it'll do it.

The deflector makes a big difference.
 
Yep. We did the same thing with an old Gleaner. Oats can look like a lot standing but then you wonder where it all went when you start looking at the wagons and the field.
 

Thanks for all the replies. I'm gonna give the 336 a shot. If it's too much for it, would a 347 or 348 have much more capacity to make it worth upgrading? I don't see many of those with kickers, can a kicker keep up?
 
(quoted from post at 07:03:33 07/08/15)
Thanks for all the replies. I'm gonna give the 336 a shot. If it's too much for it, would a 347 or 348 have much more capacity to make it worth upgrading? I don't see many of those with kickers, can a kicker keep up?

Yes 347 or 348 has more capacity than a 336. I have no experience with bale kicker as none were sold down here where I live.
 
We have a 30 ejector with our 347 and there were times in rye straw or reed canary grass we had to slow down just for the ejector to keep up.
 
We follow a 6620 with 20 foot head with our 336 in wheat- the narrow pickup is the limiting factor, as a little leaks by both sides. We have not tried to narrow the windrow as suggested, just leave the little streaks. No bale thrower (just me), but you do have to run slow due to the volume. The neighbor had sold all his straw to the local hay/straw king who rolled in with his new baler and promptly broke it. They came beggin' and took my 2355 and 336 over and cleared 30 acres that afternoon (his crew and wagons). My 1980's era rig earned a lot of compliments that day!
 

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