Rookie Operating a Small Square Baler the First Time

[Jerry/MT]

I've been haying with a NH 688 round baler for four years now and I wanted to see if I can develop a market for small squares with local horse people. I bought a used Hesston 4600, added a hydraulic cylinder for the pickup, did the maintenance checks and greased'er up, and after getting most of our hay as round bales I proceed to try my hand at small squares haymaking.

I promptly plugged up the Hesston! And I mean plugged it. I waded into a big windrow with low pto speed and high ground speed and within less than 10 ft, broke the shear bolt on the suffer fork! This happened at 8:45 pm last night so I figured I'd fix it this morning.

I used a bale hook to try to clear it from the front. No way that was going to work. Fortunately the forming chamber has an removable access panel at the rear of the baler and I removed that and found a wad stuck in the lower left hand corner. 2 1/2 hours later I got it cleared. Started up again and remembered "high pto speed, low ground speed" and we were off and baling.

Now I notice the bales are falling apart as they come off the chute. It turns out the knot connecting the twine balls got stuck in one of the needles and broke so only one knotter was tying. I fixed that and finished baling. I monkeyed with the bale density control (hydraulic) and it's making nice bales now, just a s I run out of hay to bale.

What I learned was that a small square baler is a more complicated beast than a big round baler. The pickup has a much lower capacity and you have to operate it differently that the more high capacity pickups on round balers. The knotter mechanism is also more complex than the net wrap system on the round baler. It takes a different skill set to operate and maintain a small square baler than it does a big round baler.

I thought some of you long time hay shakers would get a kick out of hearing about my rookie problems

 

[Tx Jim]

As you found out correct pto speed is much more important on a small sq baler than a rd baler. Sounds as if you had a not so good learning experience. Congratulations on getting some small sq bales completed.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Well it sounds as if you are getting the hang of it! Square balers have their own personality. The new holland that we used didn't like to be over greased or it gave us all kinds of headaches with the knotters. Don't ask me why we just lightly greased it once we figured out the problem. If you hear a banging noise when the plunger hits, you are feeding to much hay!

 

[BeeferMan]

Funny, my experience is just the opposite. Now I have an older round baler, Case 8420, which is manual just about everything. You don't just let that bale, you need to pay attention and *make* a bale. For squares we're using a bullet proof NH 311, with that you just cruise around the field drinking your water or snapping selfies - it does everything without a problem or complaint, lol. Maybe if I had a newer round baler I'd think that doing rounds was easier?

 

[Farmer495]

Run at 540 RPM. Adjust travel speed to keep baler at capacity, that could be between 2 MPH and 5 MPH for me and a low capacity MF #9

Spice balls of twine and trim the knots (use square knot)

You can normally unplug by shutting tractor off and turning baler flywheel backwards....

 

[powerscol]

Now that you have it adjusted it should be fine. In running my 4550 I have found the windrow size is what is critical. Mine is also sensitive to the brands of twine. If you find one that works stick with it. The other thing to verify is the timing. They do get out of adjustment over time (years)

 

[BertZegers]

I was helping my son with first time baling straw. The baler plugged up right away because the tractor was moving to fast, in low lowest gear. We went to get a tractor wit a lower speed and it worked fine. The combine made to big windrows for the little old baler.