Several new balers vie for market.

With Interest In Midsize Bales Growing

Several New Balers Vie For Market

THERE'S RENEWED interest in an old standby in the hay business -- the rectangular bale.

This time, it's a newer midsize bale that is drawing attention in the marketplace, with several lines competing for the business.

Rectangular bales have been popular for decades because of their ease of handling, storage and feeding. Lack of labor help on the farm has led producers to search for new ways to put up feed easily. While the large round baler offered some labor-saving advantages, there is growing interest in the midsize rectangular baler.

Hesston introduced the first giant rectangular baler in the late 1970s. The company developed a machine that packed as much as 1 ton into the bale chamber, tied it and kicked it out onto the field. The new bale size was 4 x 4 feet and up to 8 feet long.

The stackability of this bale made it popular with commercial hay producers and larger livestock operations in the Midwest and West. In the mid-1980s a smaller bale--3 x 3-feet on the end and weighing about half a ton--came on the scene.

The latest wrinkle in this product class is the midsize rectangular bale that weighs from 800 to 1,000 pounds. You'll find Hesston with its 4700 and 4750 models, Vicon with the MP800, Ford New Holland with the D1000 and now Case IH with the 8570.

These machines produce bales that range from 2 x 3 to 3 x 3-feet on the end; that's the dimension used to classify the machines.

Operators can control bale length varying it from 4 to 8 feet.

A conventional rectangular baler might set a grower back $16,000 -- depending on how hard he deals with you. A large round baler falls in the $18,000 range. A midsize baler such as the Ford New Holland D1000 lists for $47,000, roughly 3 times the price of a conventional model.

"We thought the D1000 would be popular among the commercial hay growers at that price range," said Brian Martin, product manager for balers, Ford New Holland. "In fact, about 70 percent of our D1000 sales are to producers who buy it for their own use."

Gerald Stair, owner of Shearer Farm, Inc., Wooster, Ohio, has had solid response to midsize balers in his Hesston line.

"We've sold machines to 80-cow dairies, to 400-cow dairies; a full range of buyers," he said. "My first buyer runs an 80-cow dairy operation and he figured buying this baler would allow him to bale without hiring an extra man. Then he did enough custom baling--without advertising--to about covers his payments the first year."

What are customers saying?

Jay Van Wert, a custom baler and commercial hay marketer from Hampton, Iowa, put up more than 3,000 bales with his D1000 in 1990. "To justify the cost of the baler we would have to put up 200 acres of hay based on 5 tons per acre production," he said.

Velere Stromer uses a Vicon MP800 baler in his business. "We make a bale that's 32-in. x 32-in. x 44-in. That's a nice little package for a farmer to handle. He can use a small skid steer loader with some pipe welded to the manure bucket to move these around. We can make bales the length the customer needs, up to 8 feet," comments the Klemme, Iowa, commercial hay producer.

The midsize bale apparently offers the labor saving advantages of a large round baler and the feed quality of a rectangular baler.

"I've worked with both the D1000 and the Vicon MP800 and both build a bale using the same process," said Stromer. "These are the gentlest balers in the world because the plunger moves very slowly."

Adds Ford's Martin: "The quality of hay from these machines is very good because of the slow-moving plunger. They retain more leaf matter than other baling methods."

A detailed report about the Vicon MP800 baler is available from the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, Canada. The study shows leaf losses lower than 2 percent.

Slow plunger speed doesn't mean low capacity. These machines can cover plenty of ground fast. In fact, some producers are having trouble loading them up fast enough.

"We ask our customers to double or triple the windrows so we can keep the machine slowed down when we bale. In double windrows we can move through the field at 5 to 7 miles an hour. We can bale 10 acres an hour with our D1000," said Van Wert.

Speed also comes from less waiting time. There is no stopping to tie the bale. The machine keeps working just like a conventional small-size baler as it moves through the field. "We tell customers to be ready to move bales when we arrive. Otherwise they won't keep up," said Van Wert.

Mark Scott, a Lucan, Ontario, hay grower and beef producer, said his Vicon MP800 can make a 750-pound bale every minute. To hit that speed, you must double windrows.

"On our own hay we don't have any trouble hitting that capacity," he said. "We'll combine 4 or 5 14-foot windrows for baling and I can get through that at about 4 miles an hour. I like to go a little slower so I can watch the equipment. When we custom bale we don't get quite that output because we can't convince our customers the baler has that capacity."

Stromer adds that bales from these machines are more efficient to handle. "They are very uniform in consistency and density," he said. "And you can stack a lot more feed inside with these bales than you can with round bales or small square bales."

Says Scott: "These bales stack just like bricks. I had 1 customer tell me he could get a third more hay into his barn with these bales. I also sell hay commercially and these bales stack very easily in a covered semi van. You can get a lot more hay on a load with these bales."

The bales themselves also feed out more easily. While much larger than conventional rectangular bales, the hay still flakes off for easy feeding. "Growers really like the way these bales feed out," said Martin from Ford New Holland.

When Stair, of Wooster, Ohio, started selling the Hesston machines in late 1989, he demonstrated it to 3 farmers. "Two of those farmers bought machines in 1990. We sold 7 balers, total, in 1990. Once a guy sees how the bales handle and how they feed, the price isn't a problem. These are easier to sell than a tractor."

New to market in 1991 is the 8570 from Case IH and the 4750 from Hesston. Both machines will be available in limited supply this season. Based on the Case IH 8580, the 8570 uses the same feeding and knotting system. Bale size is 31-in. x 34-in. with bale lengths up to 98 inches. Bales weigh in the 1,000-pound range.

First developed for and used in the South and West, these larger bales require reduced hay moisture content. "We've found that the maximum safe moisture range is 15 to 16 percent," said Bud Burrell, design manager for square balers and hay tools, Ford New Holland. "Higher than that and there is some risk of feed loss. We've baled at moisture as high as 20 percent with these machines and made good feed. It depends on the uniformity of the bale."

Scott in Ontario has found that moisture content is important. The lower the better. "We like to bale at 15 percent or lower. You're packing the crop so tightly there isn't enough oxygen flow. You'll get mold if it isn't that dry," he said.

Stromer believes a moisture monitor would be a good add-on for these balers. "The moisture monitor takes a reading in the bale chamber and there are several available," he said. "When you compress 15 percent hay on the ground into 1 of these balers the moisture content can rise as much as 3 percentage points.

"That's important because a guy could be putting up what he thinks is dry hay and it turns out he should be using a preservative," Stromer said.

Van Wert bought his baler in 1990 and said it was 1 of the wettest years on record for baling. "We had to use a preservative on a lot of farms," he said. "We found that the bacterial preservatives didn't work well with these because the bales are so dense." This reduced the oxygen available, causing hay browning in some bales. He solved the problem by using a tamed-acid preservative.

Because growers using these larger balers will find they need preservatives more often. Sharp retailers might want to keep such products on hand to serve customer needs and boost their bottom line.

PHOTO : THE FORD NEW HOLLAND D1000 baler has become popular to more than commercial hay producers. The company reports that 70 percent of D1000 sales go to owners for use on their farms.

PHOTO : THE HESSTON 4700 is a popular machine offering growers high capacity and easy feeding from its midsize bales. This size machine is gaining interest as producers try to reduce manpower needs and increase feed handling efficiency.