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Educate me on round balers

M

mountaindog

Member
I am thinking of changing to a round baler. I have been baling with a John Deere square baler for years now doing about 15 acres on my farm. I am getting tired of trying to get 4 - 5 days of nice weather in a row to get the grass dry enough to bale. Not to mention handling all those square bales. I see others using round balers and baling their hay pretty green.
Few questions, Can I bale hay greener (wetter) with a round baler?
What makes/models would be good for a small operation like mine to start out with. What should I be looking for in respect to condition when I'm looking at used balers?
Thank You
 

i will recommend getting a rd baler that has a variable bale chamber so one has the option of baling a bale of any size between 3'-6' in diameter. Check condition of belts,drive chains & sprockets. I'm partial to JD rd balers built after the mid 80's as I've baled well over 150,000 bales with a JD in 31 yrs as a custom hay baler operator. I think one can't bale/store hay at a higher % moisture in rd bales vs sq bales unless one wants to wrap rd bales in solid plastic to create baleage.
 

If you are trying to make dry hay, then no you can't bale it any greener. In fact, IMO round bales need to be drier than squares since any moisture in the bale is going to be more likely to mold since it can't escape as easily. If you're doing silage bales, then yeah, you can bale and wrap it green. Different thing than dry hay though.
 
We need a little more info. What size bale would you prefer and what size tractor do you have as well as are you ok with twine or do you want net wrap and what is your price range? I had a Deere 335 which made a 4x4 bale. In dry hay we pulled it with as little as 40hp but liked to run a 70 hp on it the most. In hi moisture hay it would get a buildup on the drive roll that needed removed every 20 or so bales. They made a scrapper kit but I did not have one. We baled thousands of bales with no problems. The reason we sold it was we wanted net wrap,wider pickup and a knives. Tom
 
They are correct. If you are trying to make good
hay, it still has to be just as dry. Round balers
are more forgiving, in that if you bale it too
green, you don't have to lift every way too heavy
bale by hand. Round balers will bale greener hay
than a square baler, but that doesn't mean it will
keep well. It will still mold.
 
Round balers come in two styles, solid core and soft
core. Soft core balers have a fixed chamber, and
require a bit more hp to make a good bale that will
hold its shape.
Solid core balers have a variable chamber, it rolls
the hay tight from the center or start of the baling
process. The chamber expands as the bales grows.
The solid balers requires some what less hp tractor.
You could easy make 4x4 solid core bales on level
ground with a 50 hp tractor. If your ground is hilly,
you will need more hp because climbing hills while
making a bale takes more power. If you want to
make bales bigger than 4x4 you may want a larger
tractor in the 75-100 hp size , just so the weight of
the bale inside the baler doesn?t push the tractor
around.
As others have stated , hay still needs to be dry to
make dry mould free hay. You can buy inoculate
/preservative to apply to the hay while baling, and
bale at a bit higher moisture level, something
around 22-24% moisture would be the upper limit.
Dry hay needs to be near to 14-18% moisture to
save mould free.
You can bale wet hay35-40% moisture if you wrap
or bag the bales to restrict oxygen exposure,
allowing the bale to ferment into silage..
 
I switch to a round baler years ago. I picked up a NH850 chain baler pretty cheap and it has done me well for over a decade now. But you do need a bigger tractor for a round baler. Manual for the NH850 calls for 55HP to 75HP and I use an Oliver S88 which is 55HP. As for hay dry that does not matter which you have it still has to be dry. Now as for you saying you have to wait that many days I do not understand. I cut hay one day then let it sit one day then rake it let it sit for a few hours and then bale but the temps here have been in the 90s. I also of bale a few squares most years and the same holds true as for cutting and waiting
 
A couple of other considerations. If you are going to sell the bales or move them on the roads, most people like 4ft
bales which they can stack 2 wide on a trailer and be legal. If you are going to move and store and feed them only on
your property (like I do) you can use the bigger 5 or 6 ft bales which mean many fewer trips to the storage shed or to
feed.

I store all my bales inside and them feed them to horses so I like a soft core bale.

By the way, something the 4 ft bale sellers don't want you to know...a 5.5 x 6 round bale has 142 square ft of hay.
and a 4x4 bale has 50 square ft of hay. If they are the same density (unlikely) the big bale has almost 3 times as
much hay. Meaning many fewer trips to the feed lot and storage shed.
 
In terms of dryness, your hay has to be DRIER than is required for square baling before it will 'keep' in a round bale - maybe one or two days
longer drying in the swath. Round bales are beggars for heating (and therefore moulding) if the hay is not completely dry. You can, of
course, bale it a bit green and plastic wrap the bales to make 'haylage', must loved by the equine community. Forty years of haymaking in
less than perfect weather conditions has taught me a lot! Jim
 
Wow, Allot to catch up on. My tractor is a JD 2130, 65 HP Diesel.
We mainly bale to feed our small cattle herd and a dozen sheep and a few goats. I only sell hay when I see that I will have plenty on hand to get me through the winter. I am partial to John Deere equipment. As for budget I would like to stay in the 3-4K range.
 
You might be miner ahead to buy a tedder. I had a Allis Chalmers from the early 1950's. Not the best but it
worked. I am now looking for 1 of the newer Kuhn type tedders.
 
you can pick up a new holland 851 chain baler for around a thousand bucks. good old balers and will bale anything . for a few acres dont need anything fancy. your tractor will run it also. thats what i use.
no you dont want to bale wetter, as it will mold. these are soft core so the hay dont get packed as tight. greeness deepens on weather it gets rained on. no rain and it will be green plus dry. dryness is the most important. plus depends what you are cutting hay with... mower and you can rake in one day, haybine 2-3 days all depending on hay type and thickness. swather well that takes a week to dry heavy hay.
 
Ok, got another question. Can you control when the bale is ejected from the baler or does it kick them out automatically? I have one field that has a pretty good slope and I'm thinking a bale could take off rolling down the hill and through the fence.
 
I had 3 rollers over the years. 1 Hesston and 2 JDs. The first one, a JD 530 rolled a 5x6 (1600# max) and had a console that mounted in
the cab whereby you could monitor the activity. When I retired I sold it and bought a JD 375 which rolls a 5x4 (775# max). Both must have
been open throat as I could roll up to anything and they would gobble it up. The Hesston would just sit there and stare at it trying to make
up it's mind if it wanted to eat it or not.

Both were used and probably sat out in the weather for years. Both had dents in the front sheetmetal where POs had not kept the chains
oiled and they broke loose and dented the front....no biggie, when purchased had good chains which I lube before every job. From time to
time a bearing would go out on a roller. I changed bearings working alone, not that much of a problem. Basically trouble free machines
that do a good roll. Green is all you see around these parts....must do the job!
 
(quoted from post at 06:32:28 06/13/18) Ok, got another question. Can you control when the bale is ejected from the baler or does it kick them out automatically? I have one field that has a pretty good slope and I'm thinking a bale could take off rolling down the hill and through the fence.
Click to expand...

On JD rd baler bale can be wrapped/ejected at any size between 3' & 6' set to wrap automatically or controlled by operator. Bale ejection is controlled by operator.
 

Once the bale has reached the proper size it's time to wrap the twine or net around it, some twine wrap balers do that automatically, others will sound a alarm on the monitor for the operator to activate the wrapping process.

We bale on some sloping ground here in Ky were run away bales can be a problem, most times if I'm concerned about the bale rolling off I'll back the baler around sideways to the slope before ejecting the bale, in some cases I've pulled out of the windrow and drove to flatter ground to eject the bale and than drove back to the windrow.
Bale ejection is done using the tractors hydraulic remotes controlled by the operator.

For your size tractor I'd look at balers that make 4x4 or 4x5 bales, anything bigger will need a larger tractor.
Get a brand that has local dealer support for your area.
I recommend you stay with one of the four major brands JD, NH, Hesston, Vermeer.
I've only owned NH, and Hesston brands.
NH 630-640 series are good old balers, if you look at the older NH bar balers make sure it has auto-wrap, personally I wouldn't want one with manual tie.
I rolled many bales pulling a NH640 with a 52 hp 4000 Ford tractor.
Hesston 530-540 series are also good, 5540 series where good balers but hay had to be perfect or it would wrap around the starter roll and lock up the baler, I've had to cut hay off of that roll to many times.
As for JD and Vermeer maybe someone will chime in on models they would recommend.
 

As for waiting so long for hay to dry I recommend you look at getting a tedder, they pick the hay up off the ground and fluff it allowing air to dry the hay.

MIL's farm is flat and stays wet, last year we would ted hay each morning and give it a couple hours to dry, then we would rake and bale, we had dry hay dust coming from the baler and water running off the tires, none of the hay was moldy went it was feed.
That's how must difference a tedder makes.
 
I had the same problem a few years back. Even raking it twice it too at least 4 days to dry, hot humid usually here in central KY.
I bought a 2 basket tedder cut one day ted the next morning bale that afternoon or the next day.
 
you can stop and tie the bale at any size u please. then you must open the rear door and touch the pto to kick out the bale. with these old balers you have to back up a bit for each bale, because you need to move forward to close the door. new balers have a ramp they roll down and backing up is not nessesary.
 
Round balers can bale hay a little greener with no problems. dryer hay is harder to bale.
I have used Vermeer and New Holland belt balers. The New Holland is easier to run, makes a better Bale and has less problems.
 
I picked up a John Deere 375 today in very good condition. Its a one owner machine originally purchased from a local John Deere dealer. Somebody had mentioned about there should be three steps in the belts. I can definitely see the three steps. The outside two belts are in need of new connecting pins but other than that it looks great.
It was late till I got it home so couldn't try it out but I have 11 acres laying on the ground ready to be baled tomorrow.
 
My JD 375 bales both without batting an eye. Just finished 2 turns and pop, SS............And the leaves stayed intact...another benefit of the "GMO" crop.
 
We made about 60 bales today. Baler worked flawlessly. should have bought a round baler years ago. So the only issue I have is with the twine wrap. Apparently there is nothing to tie the twine to the bale. The hydraulic arm wraps the twine around the bale but looks like I have to hand tie every bale before I try to pick them up tomorrow.....ask me how I know :roll: Or am I missing something?
 

That's all any of them do, they just wrap twine around the bale several times and that's it, the ends are not tied.
Although the ends are loose the twine won't get loose and fall off.
 
Maybe I'm not putting enough string around the bale?? I run the bar twice each direction before I cut it off. Is that enough?
 

Sorry, I don't know how JD's wrap system works.
My NH has auto-wrap, I set the number of wraps by moving a belt to the proper pulleys and it automatically wraps the bale the same each time at the bale size I've selected.

Maybe someone that knows JD balers will chime in and help you figure it out.
 
(quoted from post at 08:10:52 06/17/18) Maybe I'm not putting enough string around the bale?? I run the bar twice each direction before I cut it off. Is that enough?
Click to expand...

I personally don't like the manual controlled twine wrapping on the smaller JD rd balers. Typically one should move twine arm to RH(passenger) side of baler then count off a few seconds for desired number of wraps on the edge of bale then start twine arms back across bale stopping arms intermittently to space twine the bringing arms in contact with knife mechanism.

My JD 467 is auto wrapping with either twine or net. Set it & forget it unless an alarm sounds off.
 
I have a Deere 375, too. New to me this season, just like yours. I love it!

When wrapping the twine, do this:

To prepare the baler to "eat" hay, run the twine arm (or arms, does it have one or two?) to "home" (for the one-arm-type, it's all the way to the right hand side of the baler as you're looking back at it from the tractor seat).

When the bale is "full" and ready to twine wrap, stop the tractor (but keep the PTO running full speed), back up about 6 or 8 feet, and move the twine arm from "home" all the way across the bale to the other side. It should "grab" and start feeding twine about half way across. Keep going without stopping to the far side (left side of the baler as you're looking back at it from the tractor seat).

Once there, let it "run" on that end for a couple of seconds (to tie the end of the bale). Then tap the twine arm back towards "home" for what would be about 4 inches on the bale (on mine, there's a twine arm position indicator that shows where the twine arm is on the baler--it's a sideways dial on the left hand side of the bottom front on the baler). Once you nudge it a bit, let it sit there for 2 or 3 seconds, then nudge it again. Repeat until you've moved the arm back *almost* to home. Let it sit there for a couple of seconds (to tie the other end of the bale). Then run it "full speed" the rest of the way to "home." This will activate the twine knife and cut the twine, stopping the bale wrapping.

Turn off the PTO, and raise the rear gate on the baler. The bale should fall out. If not, bump the PTO a bit. In either case, once the bale is out, pull forward (not all the way into the windrow, just far enough so you can lower the gate without hitting the bale). TURN THE PTO BACK ON (this will make sure you don't pinch any belts as you're closing the rear gate) and lower the gate. Then continue with your next bale.

Does your 375 have the Bale Shape Indicators? They're a whole 'nuther beast, but they're very handy if you get them adjusted right.

I also recommend getting an after-market user manual. This site may have it, or we got ours on e B a y for not much at all.

We run ours with a Deere 2550 (65 HP, as well). It handles it perfectly.

Best of luck with your new-to-you baler. I don't think you'll be disappointed with the 375!
 
My baler has one arm. I was doing it just as you say but not pulsing at the ends allowing the string to wrap multiple times. Next time I bale I'll try that. I was also thinking maybe the tensioners on the string were not tight enough. My string seems to be very loose around the bale.
I do not have the bale shape indicators on my machine. Somewhere along the line they got removed. I didn't have a problem with that though, seemed to get the bales pretty even.
 

radara4077
May I ask why you disengage pto before ejecting the bale? I haven't disengaged pto when baling with JD rd baler in the 30+ yrs of custom baling. Leaving pto engaged while ejecting bale helps to keep loose hay from building up in belts not to mention lessens wear on pto clutch & it's operating linkages.
 

Was wondering the same thing, haven't ran a JD but have run Hesston, NH, Vermeer and never shut any of them off to eject the bale, ran a old NH bar baler that automatioly stopped the chains while ejecting the bale and restarted them when the gate closed.

I'm guessing a JD 375 doesn't have a bale kicker?
 
Used to bale with my uncle's equipment, and he always told me to shut off the PTO before ejecting the bale. Just continued that practice on my new (to me) baler.

Plus, I thought I remember reading it in the manual, but I'm not certain on that.
 
(quoted from post at 12:42:05 06/25/18) Used to bale with my uncle's equipment, and he always told me to shut off the PTO before ejecting the bale. Just continued that practice on my new (to me) baler.

Plus, I thought I remember reading it in the manual, but I'm not certain on that.
Click to expand...

Interested in what you fellers have to say about the PTO issue here...
 

IIRC when JD 1st manufactured rd baler the operators manual stated to stop pto before ejecting bale then engineers decided that leaving pto engaged while ejecting bale help clean loose hay from belts.
 
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