coondle
Bronze Member
I have a NH 570 baler that under certain conditions cannot bale a straight bale. In parts of Western Australia we grow cereal oats to cut and bale for livestock feed. Our rainfall is too low to grow sufficient grasses to bale what we call meadow hay.
Several years ago I had only 115mm rain or about 4 1/2 inches of rain in the growing season and as a result straw strength was very low. To compound the issue our conditions when the hay is ready for baling are very dry so much so baling can often only be done at night when humidity is high and hay moisture content rises to 10% and above and is below 18%.
In the conditions of low straw strength I cannot bale straight bales and in the lower moisture levels say 13% and below the bales are such a
banana shape that they fall apart on trying to pick them up even by hand and impossible in a bale bundler.
The bales are underpacked on the left side and overpacked on the right (Knife side).
I have ensured that there is slippage on the pickup drive belt to prevent overfeeding (one cause of bananas) and ensured feed rates are low with lowering ground speed to be only baling about 100 bales per hour (450/hr at 25kg is no problem with good straw strength).
I have ensured rotor to rotor and rotor to packer fork and packer fork to plunger timing is such that there is minimal opportunity for spring back out of the chamber.
I have ensured that the packer fork is adjusted to maximise the hay in the left side of the bale.
I have adjusted the bale wedge arrangement to try and skew the bale the other way. (Little difference).
I have installed a left hand feeder wedge and a grass hay feeder kit to the baler. Each of these helped marginally.
In desperation I fitted another blade to the rotor set delivering hay to the packer fork. This modification helped substantially but did not solve the problem.
Examination of the bales shows that there is a portion of hay in every stroke (each biscuit or slice) that only sits under the right string so leaving the left side under packed with hay. The offending short packed portion shows up under the string away from the knot end meaning that the hay in the rear of the cross-transfer area (between pickup and baling chamber) is not being carried into the bale chamber by the packer forks.
I have owned the machine since new (2006) but the problem only arises to be an issue in some seasons although there are some short straws under the right string even in the best seasons. I have tried a lot of other adjustments but these made no difference so returned those trials to standard settings.
I have had the dealers out and representatives of New Holland (while I was away) but to no avail. Another farmer in a nearby district bought their machine in a low strength year about 2008 and returned the machine and parked it in the dealers.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to cure this problem other than buying a different brand of machine.
Any feedback from others experiencing this problem and any help/solutions would be appreciated
Several years ago I had only 115mm rain or about 4 1/2 inches of rain in the growing season and as a result straw strength was very low. To compound the issue our conditions when the hay is ready for baling are very dry so much so baling can often only be done at night when humidity is high and hay moisture content rises to 10% and above and is below 18%.
In the conditions of low straw strength I cannot bale straight bales and in the lower moisture levels say 13% and below the bales are such a
banana shape that they fall apart on trying to pick them up even by hand and impossible in a bale bundler.
The bales are underpacked on the left side and overpacked on the right (Knife side).
I have ensured that there is slippage on the pickup drive belt to prevent overfeeding (one cause of bananas) and ensured feed rates are low with lowering ground speed to be only baling about 100 bales per hour (450/hr at 25kg is no problem with good straw strength).
I have ensured rotor to rotor and rotor to packer fork and packer fork to plunger timing is such that there is minimal opportunity for spring back out of the chamber.
I have ensured that the packer fork is adjusted to maximise the hay in the left side of the bale.
I have adjusted the bale wedge arrangement to try and skew the bale the other way. (Little difference).
I have installed a left hand feeder wedge and a grass hay feeder kit to the baler. Each of these helped marginally.
In desperation I fitted another blade to the rotor set delivering hay to the packer fork. This modification helped substantially but did not solve the problem.
Examination of the bales shows that there is a portion of hay in every stroke (each biscuit or slice) that only sits under the right string so leaving the left side under packed with hay. The offending short packed portion shows up under the string away from the knot end meaning that the hay in the rear of the cross-transfer area (between pickup and baling chamber) is not being carried into the bale chamber by the packer forks.
I have owned the machine since new (2006) but the problem only arises to be an issue in some seasons although there are some short straws under the right string even in the best seasons. I have tried a lot of other adjustments but these made no difference so returned those trials to standard settings.
I have had the dealers out and representatives of New Holland (while I was away) but to no avail. Another farmer in a nearby district bought their machine in a low strength year about 2008 and returned the machine and parked it in the dealers.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to cure this problem other than buying a different brand of machine.
Any feedback from others experiencing this problem and any help/solutions would be appreciated