How much can you bale per hour?

[High Cotton]

I baled 20 acres in 4 hours tonight. It's was about 50 bales. I was running about 5.5mph. That just seems slow to me. What do you average, and what's your ground speed? The new tractor has a speedometer and got me to thinking.

 

[JSCATTLE]

Ive baled 65 acres in one day running 6 mph and i baled 267 bales .. that was about 10 hours.I'm afraid to go any faster .. don't want to tear up my equipment. Not a good cutting but my baler takes 14 seconds to wrap and dump so I think I could have rolled another 100

 

[dun]

That's about 2 mph faster then I can bale on my "smoothest" field

 

[Angus Cowman]

I bale between 8-9mph have been known to bale over 10 on smooth fields

I consistantly around 45-50 bales pr hr and have baled as high as 60 but that is in THICK hay and running close to 11mph and it is hard on the body and equipment but was trying to beat a rain and it was in on of the best and smoothest fields I bale

 

[High Cotton]

This was about half and half. The front half was thin and probably didn't make 10 bales and the back half made 40. It was pretty smooth field. I don't think I would run any faster unless trying to out run the weather. This is my first year at running a round baler. I have baled a few bales here and there but mostly just ran a square baler and raked.

 

[Galloways1]

15-20 bales typically on the grass hay, 20-30 on Alfalfa (smoother field) I have a 25 year old baler, so don't want to force it. Sometimes I am lucky to get 10 in some real rough ground

 

[LaneFarms]

I second what AC said. I can average 45-50 in good hay. The 2 factors that determine how many you can bale is thickness of hay and the ability to keep your but in the seat.

 

[john250]

I baled 20 acres in 4 hours tonight. It's was about 50 bales. I was running about 5.5mph. That just seems slow to me. What do you average, and what's your ground speed? The new tractor has a speedometer and got me to thinking.

I can run 5 mph on the longer straightaways, in good hay. I'm limited to how hard I want to bounce the machines. The (Vermeer) baler might go a little faster.

 

[novatech]

Top Hat could of out done you all. :lol:

 

[Angus Cowman]

I am going to bale a field tomorrow that I won't average 20-25 pr hr in because it is thing and it has a couple terraces so it is really like baling 3 fields

if the ground is so rough that I can't run atleast 8 mph then I don't want my equipment in it

on good big fields with good hay I don't think 50-60 pr hr would be out of question

 

[dun]

I am going to bale a field tomorrow that I won't average 20-25 pr hr in because it is thing and it has a couple terraces so it is really like baling 3 fields

if the ground is so rough that I can't run atleast 8 mph then I don't want my equipment in it

on good big fields with good hay I don't think 50-60 pr hr would be out of question

I don;t want mine on it either, but you work with what you have.

 

[JSCATTLE]

My fields are decent but I bale for s few people that have what I consider rough fields but the pay is good and I can't pass up the extra money.... I paid for my baler with money from bailing .

 

[kenny thomas]

I am going to bale a field tomorrow that I won't average 20-25 pr hr in because it is thing and it has a couple terraces so it is really like baling 3 fields

if the ground is so rough that I can't run atleast 8 mph then I don't want my equipment in it

on good big fields with good hay I don't think 50-60 pr hr would be out of question

Heck you don't have a road that you can drive much faster than that on out there. HAHA

 

[shaz]

Been getting about 2 bales an hour..... :lol2:

I wish that was a joke but it's not

 

[sizmic]

How can you all bale at those ground speeds? The pick up on my 567 JD runs, at best, 4 mph. I do run some alfalfas at about 4.5 mph to keep from stripping the leaves off. Meaning feeding the hay into the baler instead of letting the baler pull the windrow in. Anything over 5 mph, the pick up is playing catch up and not making as dense a bale, maybe accounting for the higher volume of bales per hour.

Also the air ride seat can't perform on "our fields" at much over 6mph.

Sizmic

 

[Angus Cowman]

How can you all bale at those ground speeds? The pick up on my 567 JD runs, at best, 4 mph. I do run some alfalfas at about 4.5 mph to keep from stripping the leaves off. Meaning feeding the hay into the baler instead of letting the baler pull the windrow in. Anything over 5 mph, the pick up is playing catch up and not making as dense a bale, maybe accounting for the higher volume of bales per hour.

Also the air ride seat can't perform on "our fields" at much over 6mph.

Sizmic

I don't have a problem running that speed all I can say is maybe your pickup isn't running fast enough
as for bale density it has never made a difference on mine as I have weighed bales from fields that I was producing 6 bales pr acre on and somethat I was baling 2 bales per acre on and there isn't a noticeable difference
if I had to run 4mph baling I would never get done
if a baler is set right it puts the same amount of pressure on a bale if you are feeding it slow or fast doesn't matter if the bale turns 100 times or 1000 your not going to get anymore pressure on that bale unless you change the setting on your baler
My NH balers will flat eat hay with the extra wide pickup
as for the seats not performing
I would say you need to quit baling pastures and start baling hayfields or else work you hayfields down smoother
I have baled at the above mentioned speeds on Jeds' Bedded crop fields with No problems just have to slow down a little on the ends

 

[sizmic]

Sorry I asked.

Sizmic

 

[Angus Cowman]

Sorry I asked.

Sizmic

No need to be sorry

 

[hillsdown]

I find that most of my time wasted is the tying of the bales, am seriously considering switching to net wrap . At least a minute a bale is spent waiting and 50 bales is 50 minutes of time that could be spent getting it done.

 

[Angus Cowman]

I find that most of my time wasted is the tying of the bales, am seriously considering switching to net wrap . At least a minute a bale is spent waiting and 50 bales is 50 minutes of time that could be spent getting it done.

You would be amazed at how much faster net is
about 8seconds or less to wrap
also the thing I take into considration is the less wear and tear on the baler
take a NH for instance
I always put 18 or 22 wraps of twine on my twine bales so that is an extra 6.5 or 8.5 revolutions per bale to tie
compared to 2.5 revolutions on net
in a yrs time on 3000 bales that is 19500 to 25,500 revolutions more and alot more wear on bearings,chains and belts
plus the added saving pr bale on fuel and wer and tear on your tractor
Net wrap does pay for itself IMO