- Joined
- Feb 21, 2003
- Messages
- 26,315
- Location
- SE Michigan in the middle of nowhere
- Tractor
- Kubota M9000 HDCC3 M9000 HDC
You can buy the bale chamber slip shoes separately from the Delmhorst moisture meters and I believe they are available from various outlets as well and they are operated on the same principle and so long as whatever meter you purchase, if it has an external jack on it, the shoes will interface with the meter.
Only reason I have a expensive Delmhorst is, it was the ONLY RM meter available at the time I bought mine, Agtronics was not on the market. Consequently, my choices were extremely limited.
One thing to keep in mind if you decide on purchasing either a Delmhorst or an Agtronics or some other moisture meter, is the 'sampling rate' the meter employs when using an external (in bale chamber) shoe. The sampling rate, in other words how many times the meter updates the readout per minute when in use. I know the Delmhorst updates itself every second when in use and that is important as it allows you to keep track closely of the RM of the forage in the bale chamber, which is constantly changing plus the you can ser the moisture threshold to whatever you want as the high point and it will alarm (just like when in the handheld mode) when that level is reached. I don't know if the Agtronics operates the same way as I don't have one.
Also keep in mind that both the meters interface with the bale shoes via a cable so you will have an etra cable running from the tractor to the bailer itself. Don't matter if the baler is a round bailer or a small square bailer or a large square bailer, they all have bale chambers and that is where the moisture sensing shoe(s) are located at. As an aside, I run Multiple shoes in my bale chamber, one at the far end and one in the center, when I have them plugged in that is. Most times I let my experience dictate when it's time to bale.
Running hay and when to bale is all about experience and knowing when to bale and when not to bale.
Because I run mostly alfalfa, I try not to disturb the forage anymore than I have to because the more times I rake or ted it, the more leaf loss I get with alfalfa. Alfalfa is touchy in as much as leaf loss with alfalfa is a big issue and my customer wants the cut alfalfa to have as much leaf present as possible so I try not to rake or ted it as little as possible and the main reason why I use a Kuhn rotary rake instead of a side delivery rake. The Kuhn rakes a light fluffy windrow that allows air to pass through easily and it's the air that dries the forage out. I have a tedder but rarely use it, only as a last resort because if you Ted it out, you will need to rake it again and the more times you ted or rake it, the more leaf loss is incurred.
Of course, none of that applies to grass hay. You can rake and ted grass hay with no leaf loss because there aren't any leaves, just grass stalks.
What I bale, when I cut it and when I process it for bailing is critical for me plus I want the alfalfa to just be in bloom and no more. Sure I'd like to have the alfalfa go to maturity and let the plants produce their own seed to reseed the fields as certified alfalfa seed is very expensive but it don't work that way. It needs to be cut, raked and bailed before the alfalfa plants reach full maturity, so it's a game with me and the game is, can I beat mother nature and avoid a rain event, has the alfalfa reached maturity but hasn't went to seed and what is the weather window look like after I cut it before I rake and bale it. All a game actually and sometimes I win and sometimes I loose and the price per bale sold entirely depends on the tested nutrient value, especially with my customer who requires the forage is tested for nutrient value along with the actual relative moisture.
I always say 'your mileage may vary'. I know what mine is however.
I still remember many years ago when I first started running hay with a side delivery rake (I refer to as a roper rake), an old New Holland small intake bailer that would mis tie regularly and an ancient Farmall tractor pulling the rake and bailer along with borrows flat racks and a team of kids handling them and loading the barn loft. That all changed for me with new equipment and no more squares, just net wrapped round bales and climate controlled tractors. Of course none of that came cheap either. Only the tractors remain the same now. The bailer I use is fully computer controlled and nets or twines (I don't use the twine option but I do keep a couple balls of it in the twine box just in case I have an issue with the netting function), A Kuhn Rotary rake as well as a Kuhn tedder I rarely use and a New Holland center swing discbine with rubber chevron conditioning rolls, though I'm contemplating purchasing a new Kubota center pivot discbine as my NH is fully depreciated. Financially, it's always prudent to turn over equipment once it's fully depreciated and purchase new. besides, used but still late model equipment always has a high resale value.
I keep my tractors because they can run the equipment efficiently plus they are Pre 4 units so no computer driven emissions junk to worry about. 100% mechanical injection, I have no desire to fiddle with the new fangled and issue prone units whatsoever and never will. I had my friendly Kubota dealer's head tech who is a good friend of mine, turn them both up a tad anyway and it didn't impact fuel consumption at all either. Had him shim the pumps and set them both at 10 horses over stock, not that I needed to, I wanted to. One thing I'm '****' about is maintaining all my implements and tractors. I learned a long time ago that 'they never break in the barn' but they surely break down when you need them the most, so timely maintenance with me is paramount, especially with my older tractors. They get regular oil and fluid changes and I keep them clean and tidy as well. I don't like filthy tractors or implements for that matter. I even keep keep grease guns in the tool boxes (along with the owners manuals) in the tool boxes. You won't find dirty oil or filth on anything I own and use. How I play. Every time I use the round baler, it gets blown off to remove and chaff and greased prior to storage inside the barn. Nice thing about my new Kubota BV sileage special round bailer is it came with the optional pressurized automatic oiling system so I no longer have to oil any chains or moving assemblies. It does that by itself and all I really have to do is grease the PTO driveline and blow the accumulated chaff off and keep the oil tank filled.
Again, how I do it. Your mileage may vary again but I know what mine is and I address it accordingly. No more idiot cubes here and I'm glad of that actually and I sold my NH 575 high capacity square bailer a couple years ago for more than I paid for it because I took care of it and they guy who bought it had no qualms about the price either. It went with complete service records as well. I keep track of everything I do to all of it, all the time. He got a turn key small square bailer (with the moisture shoes in it) that was 100% ready to work with 0 issues. I don't miss idiot cubes at all actually.
Every operation is different, no 2 are alike. How I approach it and how you approach it will be different. In my case, I don't purchase old tired equipment though I started out with old tired equipment but graduated away from that pretty quick. Fixing junk is still fixing. Something I prefer not doing.
