Round Bale Size - What do people have their set at?

[lightninboy]

Yeah, I have a Case IH RBX563 and obviously the linkage to the size adjuster could be adjusted, because I should be able to gain six inches.

 

[Renze]

In Europe, all round bale silage is made with fixed chamber (soft core) balers: Mostly Welger and Krone balers, with a 130cm (51 inch) diameter.
Bigger round balers were used in straw sometimes, but most straw comes in big squares.
In Finland they bale silage after 6 hours of sun on the mower swath (no tedding and raking) and they weigh up to a ton each. In Holland the silage is much drier, about 350 to 500kg for a round bale.

 

[Bird]

When I was working for a neighbor cutting and baling hay; both his own and for other people, he had a Gehl baler that made 5' wide bales and an older 85 hp Oliver tractor. By far the majority of what we did was 5 x 5 bales, but we did some 5 x 6 for some customers who wanted them; charged them a couple of dollars more per bale. I'm not sure of exactly what either of them weighed, but I can tell you that the 5 x 6 bales were considerably heavier. He did not want bales that big for his own use.

 

[lightninboy]

If you use your baler to make its maximum bale size, you are more likely to strain its bearings and stretch its belts. And a big bale can be harder on a loader. So I guess I can live with a smaller-than-maximum-size bale even if it means more bales to haul. And the bale density isn't set very high either.

Actually, this philosophy I use on my Case IH/New Holland baler is somewhat opposite of the philosophy used on the Vermeer I had before. But I am getting older and getting tired of unnecessary mechanic work and bales which are hard to feed.