Today's experience with my new McHale 995LM small, square wrapper

[shanehobson]

I've just bought a McHale 995LM small bale wrapper. I had the option of a small Chinese wrapper (which was designed for small rounds), but decided on the McHale because I want to wrap small squares and be trouble free.

I'm live in Waikato, New Zealand.
Our hay season typically runs Dec-Mar each year.
Silage making starts in October and runs through to March.

I ran the wrapper for the first time today and put 45 bales through it.

Learnings from today went like this :
Using a slasher mower (what Americans would call a bush hog) when your disc mower is broken is a bad idea. Cuts grass fast but makes the baler struggle picking up through the long grass not cut by the slasher because the tractor wheels had flattened it down.

The bale length setting on my International B47 changes when putting greenish grass through (for haylage) compared to dried hay. We messed around for a while to get the bale length right.
The bale length needs to be spot on to fit into the wrapper properly. Too long or too short and you risk the bale falling out of the wrapper while still being wrapped.

Bale length needs to be consistent and bales need to be square, not banana shaped.

The wrapper was originally set for about 40 RPM and perhaps every 5th bale was being thrown out.
I slowed this to 30 RPM and this greatly improved reliability.
I was even able to wrap poorly formed bales reliably by slowing RPM down to 25.

Green bales are heavy. Probably 30kg (60 lbs). Plan to hire some fit, strong teenagers to do the hard work or you'll be feeling it later that night.

Wrapping bales involves a lot of waiting for the wrapper. You'll find yourself watching the wrapper for perhaps 30-45 seconds (I didn't time it) each cycle.

Think about work flow.
Is it better to tow the wrapper around the field, load bales where the baler has dropped them, wrap then drop back onto the ground to pick up later (picking up wrapped bales is even harder work), or load from the wrapper direct to your trailer.
Or are you better off to bring all the bales back to your barn, load off the trailer into the wrapper, then off the wrapper direct into your storage pile.

It's noisy. My wrapper is powered by a little Honda engine (so it can be towed around behind my ute (ute = small truck / SUV with flat deck) without needing a tractor for hydraulic flow.
With the noise from the petrol engine running and the sound of plastic film being stretched, it's quite a noisy operation. Earmuffs are a good idea and they also stop your ears being sun burnt (strange that it may sound, the sun here is much more destructive than in most other parts of the world, you can get sun burnt here very quickly).

Think carefully about charge rates.
I got roughly 25 bales from a roll of film. I have't bought film yet, but I'm guessing at nearly $US67 per roll. So nearly $US2.70 per bale for plastic wrap.
My work rate picking up bales next to the wrapper and putting wrapped bales onto a trailer was about 25 bales per hour.
I'd be aiming to earn $US50 per hour to cover my labour, machinery running cost and capital invested ($US6700 for the wrapper).
It looks like I need to be charging about $US5 per bale, assuming I'm not hiring labour to help me.
Lifting 30kg for a day is going to be no fun, so I'll likely lose interest in that and go for a model where I hire the wrapper to the customer and let them deal with the labour.

Many hay jobs around here might be only 50 - 100 bales.
Say a charge rate of $US4 per bale, I'm making just over $US1 per bale.
If I dry hire the wrapper, then I'm going to spend perhaps an hour for each job delivering the wrapper, teaching the customer how to operate and then going back 2 hours later to collect it.
I'm probably better off just staying there and working with the customer to wrap their bales. Less hard work for me (shared with the customer) and I'm operating the wrapper, not the customer, so I know it's not being abused.

There's some food for thought.
Looking forward to others experiences using small bale wrappers.

 

[redman135]

Where in waikato are you? I am in the raglan area
Re your bale length variability,
1) Make sure the nylon? bush on the bale length arm on the spiked wheel is not perished as it goes hard over time and slips giving different length bales. Had that problem on an Inter' B47 and 440.
2) Another cause of variable length bales is a lumpy row. Some tedders like a haybob make lumpy rows and uneven length bales
3)Wrap , surprising as it may seem a roll of wrap is delicate. AVOID End Damage. This can cause a full roll to be scrapped. Cuts and nicks in the end can cause repeated wrap breaks as the wrap goes through the rollers. Very frustrating. Also a bad "bruise" on the end will also cause repeated wrap break.One of the first mistakes a rookie helper will make is to set the roll down off verticle and "bruise" the contact point. Best practice is to put the rolls down on their flat if not being loaded immediately.
Good Luck.

 

[shanehobson]

Hi Redman, thanks for the tips. I'm just over the hill in Whatawhata. I've put over 300 bales through my Welger AP71 and it consistently churns out perfect bales. But after spending the past two days driving around a 2 acre paddock to make 10 bales (not much grass) and then trying the navigate 5 tonnes of tractor & baler around a 1/2 paddock for 30 bales I've decided to stop making hay for other people in small paddocks. Instead I'll concentrate on making 1st cut wrapped bales and 2nd cut hay in the properties around me where I buy standing grass (much more profitable) and take on the occasional large, nearby contract job. The one benefit of the 10 bales per 2 acre paddock is that his neighbour came over and asked me to bale his 15 acres which usually yields 750 bales. That's much more worthwhile for the time involved. So, at the end of all that my B47 will probably go up for sale.

 

[redman135]

Yes ,the larger jobs make more profit. Also commercial farmers mostly have 12- 14ft gates, not the pokey little 10 footers of lifestylers.

 

[shanehobson]

It's been a few months now since I bought my little 995LM wrapper and I've wrapped about 1000 bales with it.
During winter maintenance I'm going to add a light pole as I found myself wrapping at 10pm in the dark and will also add a cantilevered umbrella to provide shade to the operator.
Also need to add some rear lights so that I can tow it home at night on public roads.

 

[shanehobson]

We're now into the second season with my little McHale 995LM wrapper.
Workflow - for properties where I have bought the grass, we've settled on picking up bales in the paddock, cart them back to my place, unload from trailer directly to wrapper then direct from wrapper into wrapped bale stack. This nearly eliminates wrap damage caused by rough handling.
I've added a pole which will hold either a light pole (tall steel pipe with 4 x LED flood lights on it) or a cantilevered umbrella. The umbrella broke quickly due to wind. So I need to rethink that. Perhaps a little pop up gazebo. I'm trying to provide sun & rain protection to the operator.
Haven't used the light pole on the wrapper yet because I need to sort out a power source. Currently I use an old car battery to power the wrapper computer. If I add the lights to this same battery, then it will run flat quickly and so the computer will stop.
Other options could be to buy a small petrol fuelled electric generator. But then I've got two petrol engines running which will be noisy.
Ideally I'd like to find a 12v alternator (to charge the car battery) which is driven by the hydraulic fluid.
Another option could be a small hydraulic motor with a pulley and belt to a conventional alternator.
This would solve a couple of problems, it would enable the flood lights to operator all the time and no chance of the battery going flat endangering the computer.
If you have some ideas for solving this, I'd be keen to hear from you.

 

[olPete]

We're now into the second season with my little McHale 995LM wrapper.
Workflow - for properties where I have bought the grass, we've settled on picking up bales in the paddock, cart them back to my place, unload from trailer directly to wrapper then direct from wrapper into wrapped bale stack. This nearly eliminates wrap damage caused by rough handling.
I've added a pole which will hold either a light pole (tall steel pipe with 4 x LED flood lights on it) or a cantilevered umbrella. The umbrella broke quickly due to wind. So I need to rethink that. Perhaps a little pop up gazebo. I'm trying to provide sun & rain protection to the operator.
Haven't used the light pole on the wrapper yet because I need to sort out a power source. Currently I use an old car battery to power the wrapper computer. If I add the lights to this same battery, then it will run flat quickly and so the computer will stop.
Other options could be to buy a small petrol fuelled electric generator. But then I've got two petrol engines running which will be noisy.
Ideally I'd like to find a 12v alternator (to charge the car battery) which is driven by the hydraulic fluid.
Another option could be a small hydraulic motor with a pulley and belt to a conventional alternator.
This would solve a couple of problems, it would enable the flood lights to operator all the time and no chance of the battery going flat endangering the computer.
If you have some ideas for solving this, I'd be keen to hear from you.

Hi Shane
Greetings from the Catlins!
Not much of a summer today.. would rip more than your umbrella lol
Was wondering how your hydraulic pump is coupled to the little Honda motor, I'd imagine that would be the best place to run an alternator from.. if the pump has a thru shaft or even room for a Vee pulley between the two? Also, you may be able to find an old hay elevator to help with 'the grunt work' so you're only cuddling the wrapped bales and not having to haul the unwrapped ones as well. I bet they're heavy little sods, I can remember stacking sheds as a teenager and even dry ones get heavy after the first few hundred
I used to do a fair bit of baleage work a few years back and firewood over winter, was a real challenge to get a roof to stay put above the 'splitter.. we ended up getting a big plastic water tank that got blown away the day after it was delivered and pretty much carved a big gazebo thing out of it with a chainsaw. Ie cut most of the sides out leaving 3 legs and a top. Left parts of the bottom attached to the legs so we could anchor it down with rings of bluegum, it didn't shift. Not really portable but it was good around the yard.
Cheers
Pete

 

[shanehobson]

Hi Pete,
the hydraulic pump bolts up hard onto the Honda. No room to add a pulley.
I ended up buying a little generator for $100 and a 12v deep cycle battery for about $150.
According to my calculations, the deep cycle battery will run the lights for 14 hours.
I think between the two, I've got a solution. Just need to cobble it together now.

 

[olPete]

Hi Pete,
the hydraulic pump bolts up hard onto the Honda. No room to add a pulley.
I ended up buying a little generator for $100 and a 12v deep cycle battery for about $150.
According to my calculations, the deep cycle battery will run the lights for 14 hours.
I think between the two, I've got a solution. Just need to cobble it together now.

Ah that sounds like a good solution.. Bit of a shame the way things are made with a H&Safety mindset these days as opposed to an inventors' mindset. 30 years ago they would have made the engine and 10cm apart on a shaft or had a pump with a through-shaft.. but I suppose nowadays someone would catch their dreadlocks in it after removing the guard and losing the bolts and some designer would get the blame.
14 hours seems long to me these days
How's the grass growing up there. It's been mental down here we even had amazing growth in July. And calves are worth $$$$$ as a result- we have grass blowing in the wind and 2 years worth of supplements stacked up. Since takeover day in June.
Nice to have a local or two on here
Cheers
Pete

 

[AKfish]

Hi Pete,
the hydraulic pump bolts up hard onto the Honda. No room to add a pulley.
I ended up buying a little generator for $100 and a 12v deep cycle battery for about $150.
According to my calculations, the deep cycle battery will run the lights for 14 hours.
I think between the two, I've got a solution. Just need to cobble it together now.

The local Conservation District has small bale McHale wrapper that is available for rent to producers in my area. It is the pto model that requires a small (30hp) tractor to run.
I helped my neighbor wrap around 85 bales a few years ago in a test run to get a better understanding of the pros and cons of that system of putting up winter feed.
Your experience fairly well sums up what we encountered as well.
1.) Labor intensive in both time and effort required. "They're heavy little sods"!
2.) Most efficient to haul bales from field to storage location and wrap and stack. The plastic wrap is prone to holes and "stacking" is really a misnomer... The plastic makes the bales slippery and they will fall every which way! A "pile" is a more accurate description.
3.) We tried white and light green plastic. Tested each bale for moisture content prior to wrapping and recorded the % on each bale in marker on the outside of the bale. When feeding the bale later, we noted the hay condition and horse response to palatability. Smell,color, texture, spoilage - did the horses eat it or leave it?
4.) Based on our small sample size and only a single season - we determined that the light green plastic was better than white and 35%-40% moisture was an optimal wrapping moisture with best results tending towards 35%. Wetter hay is heavier and harder to work with; making it more difficult to maintain the integrity (seal) of the plastic and reducing spoilage. Higher moisture hay also appeared to create more extensive spoilage if (where) the plastic was torn. The black mold would really travel much further throughout the bale if the moisture was higher than 40%.
5.) Sharp knives on the baler would help to lessen the problem of maintaining plastic integrity and reducing spoilage. Worst bales to wrap were the ones with a bad "haircut"! Wild strands of poorly cut hay from the bale chamber would poke holes in the plastic.
6.) Pay close attention to bale tension and your bale weights when starting out. Gotta back off your "normal" tension or you'll have 100 pound bales on the ground! Check and re-check the weights and the running moisture levels!

The long and short of this novel... Is; the horses loved the haylage, baleage and after the initial exposure, would eat it before the dry hay.

BUT - it's slow work and hard work!

If the hay is very high in moisture and spoils - it turns to black mush! (I guess that it's first stage compost at that point...?)

I don't think anyone has rented the wrapper during the past 4 years here.

Finally; why not a small solar panel for charging the deep-cycle battery? Usually wrapping it's sunny "hay" weather and if you pull the battery down a bit one night the panel would bring it back up the next day.

AKfish