Baling. Bale sizes and density

As it is common, today we will introduce another typical summer task is the baling of cereal straw. We have been harvesting in July and just now it is time to collect the remains of that crop. In our village, there are several companies in charge of performing this task: Rosado Bros., Los Culatas and Tomás. All of them are dedicated to the packing of straw (both dry straw and for silage). This time we visited the Rosado Bros. because they had changed their tractor and we were interested in seeing how the Fendt 824 is able to work with the giant New Holland BigBaler 890. Cereal straw can have different use cases, but in our case it is intended in livestock.

For a few years now, these companies that pack our fields have offered us a truck to take the grain to the village at harvest time as a compensatory measure for keeping the straw that they then market. If a farmer wants to take the grain with his trailer, the price of the straw is about 7 euros/ha.

The first factor to be considered in a big baler is the size of the bale. For the New Holland BigBaler 890, the baler size is 80 cm wide and 90 cm high. The length is usually between 100 cm and 260 cm. Another example would be the BigBaler 1290 Plus, the measurements are 120 cm wide and 90 cm high, also with a bale length of up to 260 cm. 

On the other hand, the main factor in this type of big balers is density, which is essential for excellence in large scale baling. New Holland (one of the leading baler manufacturers) has the new BigBaler 1290 High Density which produces up to 22% denser bales than standard conventional balers. This is a very important aspect for the, packing, handling, storage and transportation (PHST) of bales, since in the same space (warehouses, trucks, etc) you can have more kilograms of straw. 

For the BigBaler 890, working on cereal straw for a bale length of 245 cm the number of plates should be between 35 and 45 (better to be closer to 45 than 35 to have more density). If we forget the length of the bale, the plates once compressed that allow the maximum density have a width from 5 cm to 7 cm. Plates that are too thick result in a greater difference in the width of the packages and a lower density. 

As you know when you want to work at high speed or when there is a lot of straw, the prechamber fills up quickly and then a lot of straw goes up into the compression chamber and very large plates come out. This is a factor that the operator must take into account in order to obtain an optimal density according to the type of straw being baled. 

As a conclusion, at the time of carrying out the bailing task it is important to consider the size of the bales along with their density in order to provide the best results not only for doing the task but also for the end user of the bales. 

Versión en español.