Krone round balers

[floridahay]

A friend of mine is looking at small round balers. Does anyone have any experience with the Krone fixed chamber balers? We have not had a dealer in our area until the last couple of years so no one nearby has one. The dealer say that everyone that has bought one likes them really well, what else would you expect him to say! Thanks for any opinions or experiences!

 

[dgl24087]

I have a relative who has one, from what I understand, he has no complaints with it.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Ask the dealer for the names of a few of the farmers who bought one and call them up and ask for their input. But Krone does have a great reputation and everyone I know who has one loves them. I would not be afraid of buying one if it meets your needs and price range.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

We sell them. I can also vouch that its good stuff.

 

[Renze]

It seems in North America folks dont really like "soft core" or fixed chamber balers and everybody is using variable belt balers.

In Europe the fixed roller chamber baler is rules the market, and a lot of 120x130 cm round bales are being plastic wrapped all over Europe.

Straw is pressed in square, either small or big, because of the better utilisation of the loading space on highway trucks, when the straw is transported from the grain belts in France and Germany to other dairy areas.

 

[HayDR]

Renze,
80% of hay harvested in Europe is harvested as Haylage and 20% as dry hay. In the USA 85% is harvested as dry hay and only 15% is harvested as haylage. It will be hard to find a 5' wide baler in Europe. Almost all are 4' wide in Europe. In the USA 6x5 balers are 40-50% on the total round baler market. The USA and European round baler markets are very different. This is why you do not see many Claas or Krone balers here in the states. They are both fine balers but primarily designed for haylage.

 

[Renze]

In the netherlands, the amount of dry hay being round baled will be lower than the numbers you mention, maybe less than 1% of bales. It is only the hay that comes from grass seed, which is being baled and sold off to bull raisers. People that use dry hay are usually hobbyists that use small square bales. There are way too many retired farmers selling the grass from the few hectare they keep around the house. You can buy fine horse feed (cow feed grown a bit tall so it has the same nutrients, just a bit more fiber) for 100 Euro per hectare. All this grass is wrapped in square or round bales because of ease of transportation, and because it is so easy to sell just a couple to another farmer who comes a month short in winter feed, instead of a silage heap at a time being opened.

 

[Renze]

In the netherlands, the amount of dry hay being round baled will be lower than the numbers you mention, maybe less than 1% of bales. It is only the hay that comes from grass seed, which is being baled and sold off to bull raisers. People that use dry hay are usually hobbyists that use small square bales. There are way too many retired farmers selling the grass from the few hectare they keep around the house. You can buy fine horse feed (cow feed grown a bit tall so it has the same nutrients, just a bit more fiber) for 100 Euro per hectare. All this grass is wrapped in square or round bales because of ease of transportation, and because it is so easy to sell just a couple to another farmer who comes a month short in winter feed, instead of a silage heap at a time being opened.

 

[ozzie tractor]

i have a krone VP1500mc round baler used for contracting, it does around 4000 bales a year, about 60% haylage and 40% hay. excellent machine, high through put (about 60 bales an hour on the back of a kubota M125x) very reliable, just keep where the net enters the chamber clean after every use, otherwise net binds in chute.

 

[ozzie tractor]

oh sorry, the VP1500mc is a 4'x5' round baler, no belts but chains and slats instead, (very handy if u pick up a forign object, dosent damage a belt), it is variable chamber and has the multi cutter system, this is great in haylage, but it also increases the desity a bit more, not that it really needs it, for hay you have to back the density off as it is.