HayTalk - Hay & Forage Community Forums, Blog, Photos, and News > Hay Talk > Machinery

[oliver550]

We started bailing 3 seasons ago on 15 acres using a New Holland 311 baler and have had the same problems every year with our bailer. We are unsure if it something to do with the preparation before bailing or if it’s something that is wrong with the bailer or operator. Our bales seam to be coming out with inconsistent lengths and weight. This maybe a different problem but the strings are not equally tight,(one tighter then the other) so the end result is loose bails that brake when handled by hand, bails that look like bananas, bales that wont stack due to different lengths and bails that are very hard to transport and stack. We have a hydraulic bale tensioner and the gauge reads 100 psi. That’s what the manual said it should be. Kinda in a rut please help if you can.

[okhillbilly]

I had a lot of problems similar (bannana bales and lop sided). I figured out that the more even the windrows are and the speed of baling helps alot on these problems. Thinner windrows pick up speed to fill the bale chamber and heavy windrows or area's slow the ground speed of your tractor. Try to feed the baler a consistant amount of hay and keep the baler running at top speed. My sister's bad about running the baler off idle and it takes forever for the plunger to move the bale tie wheel and the bales come out 4 feet long and no material in them. Hope this helps some. I know there is a knack to getting them even.

[nwfarmer]

I had a similar problem with my old MF 124. The teeth on the bale length arm slipped. Little bales, big bales etc. Replaced the little round knurled knob that the arm rode on. Plus a banana bale can be cause by a chamber blade being dull.

[oliver550]

Thanks a bunch for all your help I will try out your suggestions. Any help at this point is very much appreciated.

[Rodney R]

As was mentioned the metering wheel can cause uneven sized bales, and I'm sure that the feeding mechanism needs some sort of adjustment. I am not familiar with that model and how things work, but your book should help a lot. On the hydraulic tension.... Most newer balers don't even have actual numbers on the pressure gauge - they have a green, yellow and red zone. I normally set them to run about in the same area on the gauge, but I would think that it's really a matter of how tight you want the bales, not really what the book says? Either way, the tension is just taking care of things AFTER the hay has been put in the chamber wrong. Looks at the size of the rolls, the feeder mechanism, and the rpm's of the tractor. A lot of times things can be adjusted by either running the tractor faster or slower, and chaging the ground speed.

Rodney

[mlappin]

I've always found on light hay that sometimes the bale length would vary as well. My suggestion would be to try doubling or even tripling up your rows so your feeding hay across the whole width of your pickup and see if that solves the problem. If the bales are still odd shaped, I know on our older baler you could adjust how far the teeth would push the hay into the chamber.

[downtownjr]

Hi 550

The guys are hitting this one...this is really a repeat of what they have already told you. Check over you baler...feeder tines, bale knives are sharp, feeding mechanism, etc. During raking keep consistent moderate sized windrows. Poor windrow formation will cause you problems. A consistent ground speed and RPMs. This could change with model and brand. My Hesston is set up for 18 strokes per bale...gives me about a 54-55 lb bale at about 17-18% moisture...OG/Brome, Timothy, little alfalfa...of course I want no more than 20% moisture and not too dry as well. No joy this year on that so far...lol. I was taught by an old farmer that it is the strokes that make a consistent bale. He taught me to set mine up for a consistent 18 strokes per bale. That gives me about 18 flakes at about three lbs per flake for my baler...the horsey folks like them no more than that..they are mostly women and teens. Now, the bale tension is set differently as the conditions change...but again I am looking to keep about 55 lb bales more less. I knock off in the evening once things get tough and bales heavy, unless a rain is coming and I have no choice. Once you get everything set you will have to find the speed that meets the conditions and crop you are baling...sometimes you may have to go down a gear for some reason from your usual, but keep the RPMs up and consistent...like one of the guys was saying...running it at idle won't work. The manuals will get you in the ballpark for ground speeds, RPMs etc, but you will have to tweek a bit depending on your conditions and crop. Good Luck.

[Hayboy1]

I think what everybody has said on this is pretty good advice, but there is one thing I haven't seen mentioned. On the back of the knotter if you are looking down, there are 2 or 3 "haydogs"(depending on baler model number). On these "haydogs" there are springs that hold them in place and help keep constant pressure on the bale before it is tied. There are also some on the bottom of the chamber as well. If the springs are broke, or the dogs just flop around you will have a lot of trouble with a consistent bale of hay. Check those out, replace and free up if necessary. I will tell you now, changing those springs sucks big time. There is a right way to put them on and a wrong way to put them on. Check with your manual or your local NH dealer to see how they go on. I will almost bet this is half if not 3/4 of your problem. Also check your bale length adjustment arm (the one that connects to the star in the middle of the chamber) for excessive wear and the roller it slides up on as well. Hope I could be of a little help, hang in there you will get it!!

[nwfarmer]

Those feed dogs and springs can be a problem. On my new 575 the top feed dog spring on the left top broke. Sometimes the break is very hard to detect because of where it is. The feed dog bounced up on top of the bale chamber. When the cam turned it hit the feed dog and cause a lot of damage when the cam shattered. NH mechanic told me those springs break fairly often. After the expensive repair I check them regularly.

[mlappin]

Great advice guys, it's been so long since I've run a square baler I forgot all about the hay dogs, but after thinking about it awhile, that was the cause of some banana bales we had at one time. Keep all of them working right and it helps for more than just bale shape, we've had tying problems as well because of broken springs on the dogs.