need quick help with square baler

[WTA]

I have to bale tomorrow night about 40 acres, I hope, of alfalfa. So far I've been lucky with the rain and since we're irrigated the alfalfa got really tall this time. We did get some rain in the middle of the month too.


Anyway, Here in West Texas it is HOT and DRY. We do all our baling at nightto get some dew on it and help it pack better and get an acceptable weight on the bale. If I do it durring the day like normal folk I can't get a bale over 40 pounds to save my life. Not without blowing the strings on every other one.

I'm using 170 pound poly twine which is the strongest I can find around here.

My customers want bales weighing 50 to 65 pounds. That's not a problem at night but the window for doing it is only about 4 maybe up to 6 hours before the dew makes the moisture level too high.
That sucks when it's a 40 acre part of a center pivot that takes about 12 hours to bale when it's thin and a whole lot more when it looks like it does now.


Is there any way to make the bales heavier baling durring the day? Also to keep the leaves on. That's another problem with baling alfalfa durring the day here. I always make sure the windrow is dry thouroughly and the stems are under 10% moisture all the way through the windrow. It gives me some room for moisture from the dew before I have to worry about mold. Durring baling, I watch my meter and stop when I start seeing 20% bales coming out. I've never had any mold doing it this way. It just doesn't give me many hours in the night to do it.

My baler is a hesston 4570 in perfect condition. It has the hydraulic tension on the back, two resistor wedges installed and the adjustable resistors moved in.

What I'm looking for is a way to keep good bale weights and stay in the field longer running it. Any advice????


I'll take ya'll some pictures when we are out tomorrow night. I think everyone will get a kick out of our baling rig.
I put the big slide in camper in the back of my truck and my wife and kid go with me for as long as it takes when its someone elses field. I take turns driving with my kid so we don't have to shut down the tractor much and when we are off the tractor we can at least relax in comfort.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Make longer bales

 

[WTA]

I can't. I'm using a new holland bale stacker and it's set as wide as it can go.

I can't remember the length of them offhand but they are the same as everyone else makes.

 

[chh]

You might go back and bale for a couple of hours after sunrise as the dew starts to burn off. That might give you another 2 or 3 hours if it isn't too windy.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I can't. I'm using a new holland bale stacker and it's set as wide as it can go.

I can't remember the length of them offhand but they are the same as everyone else makes.

I thought you had a stackwagon. What about adding moisture to the hay as it enters the throat of the baler while you bale? Something similar to a hay preservative setup but where you lightly mist water onto the hay. I have seen it before but don't remember where now (I am thinking it was on AgTalk).

 

[zzvyb6]

You beat me to it Robert! A proprionic acid setup would do the job. Just add water and maybe a little vinegar to add some flavor. I'm surprised that you are breaking twine when getting only 40# bales. If I'm not careful, I can produce 120 pounders: same length, with my 14T JD and 130# plastic. Where is the twine breaking? Could be the twine tension coming out of the spool box is too great or the feed rate is so high that the plunger velocity is ripping the cord? Try slowing down ground speed. Any problems with twine getting sheared by the needle eyes? Or are the needles misthreaded? Hay restriction is the conventional method to get heavier bales. Peak twine loads are actually lower because the bale formation velocity is lower for a highly compressed charge. (the bale being formed moves at a lower incremental velocity). If the bale explodes when it leaves the main bale case, you could try to extend the bale carrying length with an add-on bale chute. This generally gives you another bale as a buffer before it drops off.

 

[Dill]

What about raking it into heavier windrows? Double or triple?

 

[kenstrac]

I don't know if the same baler I had a 4600 in line and if the springs on the dogs were broken or the bale retarders were worn it would do that baling vetch and like ZZVY says the chute was very short on the 4600 I had removed the thrower once because of bearing failure and had a very hard time with the bales breaking

 

[WTA]

Well today I took off the twine arms and cleaned some burrs off them with crocus cloth. I also backed off on the twine holder adjustment a couple turns on the side that was breaking. I guess I got it fixed. We just ran 100 55 -60 pounders through it in my field without a problem. My hay was reading low on the moisture level, about 8-10% but it's still got a good bit of stems that are not all the way dry yet. The field I'll be doing tonight is a lot dryer. Hopefully it will work fine out there too. I'm going to start a little earlier tonight and stop when it gets up to about 20%. I should be able to finish up now in the morning if I don't get it all tonight.

I just talked to my wife about the preservative applicator. I want the automatic agco one but the dealer told me 4700 bucks. My wife would rather I finish our new master bedroom and bath. Still need sheetrock, windows, and all the junk for the bathroom. I only started on it last week.

I do have a stack wagon. It's a 1002 NH. I need to replace the cross conveyor chain on it and the drive pully this time. It's always something with that thing.

 

[zzvyb6]

Get a 15 gallon garden sprayer from TSC and hook it up to spritz into the feeder fork area. That's all an acid attachment is / does. Give it 12v and presto...