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Hybrid baler does the job
Customer: George Morrell, G E Morrell & Son, Lingerfield, near Knaresborough, North Yorkshire
Machine: 568 Multi-Crop fixed chamber round baler with 2m MaxiCut pick-up
Dealer: Ripon Farm Services, Dallamires Lane, Ripon
North Yorkshire contractor George Morrell was one of the first to start round bale silaging in the area, in the late 1970s, and he has been through several roller baler models since that time.
He has always preferred to use roller rather than belt balers for silage, and following a successful trial he decided to use John Deere’s new hybrid 568 Multi-Crop round baler for the 2007 season, fitted with a standard 2m MaxiCut pick-up.
The 568 is suitable for those who wish to bale silage and hay with a fixed chamber baler, but also want good performance in straw. The front part of the bale chamber retains the proven design of seven robust rollers, but the rear door now replaces the rollers with a slatted conveyor, which provides improved bale rotation in slick materials such as straw.
Mr Morrell completed over 6700 bales with the machine this year, the biggest percentage of which were in silage, and including about 1000 hay bales. This covered 15 customers over a 10 mile radius between Ripon, Boroughbridge and Skipton.
"When I tested the machine, it proved straight away it could do the job," he says. "I started off baling some straw on a really hot day, and then did some grass, which was enough to convince me that the slat design worked very well. Others who tried it at the same time said it would bale where other machines wouldn’t, in short hay and chopped up straw as well as silage.
"One of the biggest problems with roller balers is at the start of the process, if the conditions aren’t right you can end up with a soft, fluffy centre. Also, in good weather when straw gets brittle, it turns to chaff at the end of the process and again this doesn’t produce a good, firm bale.
"However, the new 568 has done everything with basically no problems. The slats in the rear door don’t slip, and give more grip on the bale than the rollers, which keeps the bale revolving at the end of the process. This also means you get proper coverage form the netwrap, which we use on all our bales.
"With its medium output this is more of a farmer’s baler, but it works well for us, like all the John Deere balers we’ve used in the past – it produces good bales in different ground conditions and crops, and the bales are also a good shape for plastic wrapping."
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