|
I've been away from 'em a while, but we had the same questions when round balers were first becoming popular. We used John Deere round balers for years before we switched to large square bales. After the switch, we tried making baleage (wrapping the round bales in plastic to make a silage-type product) and got a Claas baler with Roto-Cut and net wrap. The experiences with those balers were completely opposite. The JD balers with their variable chamber/belt configuration made very tight, solid bales with more crop packed in. The bales could sit on the edge for a long time, and wouldn't lose their shape. We stacked them on end (flopped onto their flat side) and covered them with tarps, put 'em in barns, or in a pole building. Come winter, they could still be easily rolled off a truck or trailer when we delivered them. The Claas baler was a fixed chamber design, with heavy steel rolls making up the chamber. The Roto-Cut consisted of some serrated blades that could be raised and lowered through the bottom of the feeder, and a rotating shaft with tines or fingers (I guess you'd call them that) that pushed the crop through the cutters and into the chamber. The crop tumbles around in the fixed chamber until it finally gets enough in there to start rolling, resulting in that soft core bale. It was especially soft when the Roto-Cut was used. Either way (cut or uncut) the bales would start to squat right after they left the baler. By the time it came to deliver the bales, they were like big sacks of loose hay (even the uncut, unwrapped bales) that couldn't be rolled easily, if at all. At that point, they had to be unloaded by machine, or (in our case) dumped off a truck with a hoist. I've heard some guys claim the soft core bales may cure better if there were some tough spots in the hay when it was baled. Maybe less chance of hot spots or moldy patches. I can't say for sure myself. Given our experience, I'd want the solid bale if we were going round again. The net wrap on the Claas baler was nicer than the twine we had on the JD balers. The net wraps the bale much faster than twine. Our dairy customers liked that the net wrap stayed together during removal, so they didn't have to worry about stray lengths of twine in their hay/straw. You may have to weigh the cost of the net vs. that convenience. We rented a New Holland belt round baler once for a couple days when our own baler was down (brand new, off the lot) and found it lacking. It made nice bales, but it seemed to be a bit light in construction. The drive shear pin was tiny, and about two dozen broke by the time we'd done about 10 acres of dry hay. Sorry, I don't recall the model. Maybe it just needed to wear some more paint off the parts and get loosened up a bit. We weren't impressed, even though NH hay equipment has been used on the farm for years. I'd suggest John Deere, or maybe New Holland. We did like our JD round balers (had a 430 and a 435)quite a bit. If there's a standard or optional bale kicker involved -- a spring-assisted mechanism that kicks back after the gate is opened, so you don't have to pull ahead to clear the bale before closing the gate again -- be careful. If you have hilly ground, you may not want the bale kicker, or might at least want the option of disabling it. We had a kicker with the 435, and round bales can really get moving when they're kicked out on a slope.
|