New Baler for small (light), but very tight bales of an accumulator with grapple?

[sstouder]

I've got a question, or two, for the folks out there who follow balers. My wife and I have a small grass hay (I make 18 x 14 bales) operation. Put up about 1500 small, square bales a year or so on about 50 acres of mountain hay ground. Mostly we use the hay ourselves to feed our 10 (or so) head of horses and pack mules. Sometimes, if we have a good hay year I'll sell some hay. We don't irrigate so we're dependent upon spring rain for production. I致e got a 336 JD baler and JX 65 Case/IH tractor as well as an old 350 Long I use as a rake tractor. We hand load on the trailer and stack by hand in the barn. It痴 just my wife and I and we are in our mid-60s and help (young folks who want to sweat in the hay fields under 100 degree heat) is getting almost impossible to find - go figure.. My back isn稚 what it once was and I need to do something different. I'm looking at accumulators and grapples and even considering a NH stacker, but my barn trusses are just under 12 feet and I don't think I can get a stacker that will unload inside, and again, I don't handle a lot of hay. Still considering accumulator and grapple and I'm looking at some. But considering I don't handle a lot of hay normally and the financial investment of purchasing and maintaining more equipment, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be best to consider a new baler that would make lighter, smaller, tighter bales which would be easier to handle by hand? Love my 336, but I put up really dry, grass bales (mostly brome (sp) and some timothy). And to get them tight I need to keep them up around 65 to 70 pounds. I'm wondering if there is a newer baler out there that can make 40 to 50 pound very tight bales in very dry, grass hay? I'm thinking maybe a center pick-up or... ? I've got bale skii liners in my 336 and the resistors (one plate and a bar on each side), but when I start trying to make shorter, lighter bales in dry grass hay, the bales start getting loose and I get more banana nose bales. The bales just start getting less predictable. I'd be thankful for any opinions on the matter! I'm open to any and all questions

 

[Tx Jim]

Shorter bales made with a JD 336 baler should be just a tight & square as longer bales all other things equal. To make a shorter bale are you simply moving stop(parts key 16) down on sector(parts key 17) a little bit leaving compression cranks on bale case alone?

 

[bjr]

I've not bought one yet, but I have been looking at the small square bale inline balers from AGCO. A model 1835 is what I've been studying. I don't seen many on the used market. The reviews I've read says the bales are real solid. Now I've not seen much information on the quality of flake it produces, that might be another matter. I like the idea of the baler being able to be pulled almost like a small trailer house and being able to maneuver in small tight fields. bjr

 

[flusher]

My Massey Ferguson (14x18") can be adjusted to make bales from about 30-50" in length. Weight for tight bales probably in the 40-60 lb range. Your 336 should have a similar adjustment.

And you are correct--a bale stacker like the NH series would not fit into your barn with only 12 foot clearance height wise.

Bale accumulators are pretty pricey. So a few years ago I made my own version--a combination bale squeeze and accumulator that has a skid steer quick attach plate which mates to the FEL arms on my 2008 Mahindra 5525. A nice winter welding project. Haven't had much use for it lately since we're going into the 4th year of drought around here and I don't have irrigation on my 6-acre hayfield. So all I do is mow the weeds in the hayfield and pray for rain.



Good luck

 

[flusher]

It's a Massey Ferguson 124 baler BTW.

 

[sstouder]

Shorter bales made with a JD 336 baler should be just a tight & square as longer bales all other things equal. To make a shorter bale are you simply moving stop(parts key 16) down on sector(parts key 17) a little bit leaving compression cranks on bale case alone?

TX Jim. Thanks. Yes. That's how I've tried it. It does make a shorter bale, but the shorter bales just don't seem as solid as the longer bales. Maybe it's just my perception. I haven't tried it very much. Just a couple of times and when I've done it I haven't noted the difference in material. I've got a lot of different types of grass in my fields and that seems to make a difference in how solid the bales are as well. It might be I need to experiment a bit more. Thanks.

 

[sstouder]

Thanks bjr. I'll look those up.

 

[sstouder]

My Massey Ferguson (14x18") can be adjusted to make bales from about 30-50" in length. Weight for tight bales probably in the 40-60 lb range. Your 336 should have a similar adjustment.

And you are correct--a bale stacker like the NH series would not fit into your barn with only 12 foot clearance height wise.

Bale accumulators are pretty pricey. So a few years ago I made my own version--a combination bale squeeze and accumulator that has a skid steer quick attach plate which mates to the FEL arms on my 2008 Mahindra 5525. A nice winter welding project. Haven't had much use for it lately since we're going into the 4th year of drought around here and I don't have irrigation on my 6-acre hayfield. So all I do is mow the weeds in the hayfield and pray for rain.

View attachment 386532View attachment 386533

Good luck

Flusher. That looks like a great project! Do you have a hydraulic arm mounted on it? Is that how you "squeeze" the bales to pick them up?

 

[flusher]

Flusher. That looks like a great project! Do you have a hydraulic arm mounted on it? Is that how you "squeeze" the bales to pick them up?

Bale wrangling with this gizmo is a two step process. First the accumulator device (painted red in the photos) is attached to the squeeze arms and used to round up the bales in groups of 8 (4 x 2). Then the accumulator is removed and the squeeze is used to move the 8-bale groups to a flatbed, barn or just stacking them in the hayfield until a buyer shows up. The two photos in my previous post shows the status of the project before the clamp attachments were welded onto the tops of the squeeze arms to secure the accumulator to the squeeze.

The steel, the two double-acting hydraulic cylinders, the hydraulic hoses cost about $800 total. I just plug into a pair of the hydraulic remotes on the rear of the tractor. One of these days I'll rig up a pair of front remotes.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

I think you are asking two different questions. IF you want smaller tight bales, you have to adjust the tension on the bales since it isn't pushing as much material out the back of the baler. Its also the opposite problem if you want longer bales, you have to back the tension (compression in the chamber) off if you don't want to break the strings when you pick up the bales. The other question is the accumulator/grabber question, they work better with a standard bale size specific to that piece of equipment. We use a kuhns system and it works pretty good although our bales still tend to be just a bit to short but it just requires a little adjustment on the trailer before the next row is set on. I have the 10 bale setup and both tractors that run the grabber are pretty good sized >4k lifting capacity so we don't have any issues. Unloading in a building can be tricky because the machine gets LONG inside a building when your trying to maneuver.