# Best pick for a 4'x5' silage special round baler?



## Ross#7 (Jan 3, 2013)

Since we can't afford to milk cows, we are moving over into hay making.

Since the weather in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is not DRY hay friendly, we are looking for the best 4'x5' silage special round baler we can find for making balage.

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. : )

: ) Ross#7
"Why farm, when there are so many easier ways to NOT make a living?"--Ross


----------



## downtownjr (Apr 8, 2008)

Beautiful place Ross. Have heard good things about both the New Holland and the Vermeer round balers for silage. swmnhay is one of the vermeer experts.

I used a new BR7060 New Holland silage special last spring. Not mine, belonged to a friend and it work very well, no problems. Did 52 bales if I recall. Pulled it with a NH TD5050 tractor. Handled well, monitor was easy to use. No problems starting bales, no plugging. We used a tube-line system to wrap. First time and only time I had used one of those and it worked great.

When I lived in Belgium in the service a few years back, Krone machines were the predominate round baler for balage. In that climate everything was baled and wrapped.

I think contacting some companies for some demos on silage balers is a good project for this spring. Krone and McHale make balers that wrap on the go...I bet Claas does as well but would have to look that up. That would be a nice way to bale, bit think they are well over $100,000 a piece.


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I use a NH BR7060 sileage special. It replaced a 648 sileage special. The 648 gave me problems. So far so good with the BR7060, but I haven't put enough bales through it yet to render an opinion based on experience. I went with it because of price/financing/reputation/dealer support for NH in my area. 
Something tells me Vermeer might be better based on the features I see they offer.

Good luck!!


----------



## Erock813 (Jun 3, 2008)

First..do you have a market for baleage to begin with? If you want to ship any disatance,i would consider a square. With that in mind, we can talk about brand..We have ran European brands (Claas, Krone) the last 20 years. Both have thier good and bad but basically when one comes out with something new,the other sone will follow.
I do prefer the Krones slat and chain system for baleage over rollers or belts anyday. Ive had a Deere dealer as well as NH bring in belt balers. Wasnt impressed by them. The Claas we had had rollers,so there wasnt much adjustment for bale size. We also bale dry hay and straw with the Krone. Tighter bale then the rollers.
Then you have the cutting system. The number of knifes in the chamber and so forth. Only time we plugged them was when we would run a wood block threw it. Dad had a tendency to leave a block on mower and start cutting..then get to the end and find out its missing...
I would defintely go with net..throw the twine away..Takes me 10 seconds to wrap and go..I can easily do 50 bales a hour that way.
But yet i think you have to think about location of dealer too..the dealer we bought our Krone is out of business now..so i have to travel 2.5 hours. But i am still considering buying a new mower and rake from Krone.
Im sure as you read this you see that i am liking my Krone. But like every piece of equipment there is little probelms that come up.


----------



## stickney farm (Jan 17, 2011)

for baleage krone is the most popular around here. very simple and reliable balers.


----------



## HayRazer (Sep 23, 2010)

Have you looked at the Vermeer 504 PRO?

I have been using a NH BR740A (Silage Special), and was very happy with it in dry hay. Silage worked too, but not as well. I had to get out every 7 - 10 bales to clean off the rollers, etc. My local Vermeer dealer had a prototype 504 PRO that they offered to try on my crop, so we gave it a workout. I was very impressed. The baler is different than the other Vermeer models in that this one is a European design (built by Welger) and designed from the ground up for silage. I actually went and bought a used Welger rp435 that is nearly identical to the Vermeer, based on my experience with it. I'm looking forward to trying it next summer.

In the meantime, if someone wants a high bale count NH BR740A that is in field ready condition, let me know!


----------



## IAhaymakr (Jun 4, 2008)

I have a Krone multicut VarioPak, that I run when we get too busy with the big square baler. I can't say much about how it compares to other brands of silage balers because I haven't used any other brand, but it has been pretty much flawless here. It makes an extremely dense bale. Tighter than the square baler I think, and density is of course important with baleage. If I decide to replace it I will likely buy another one.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Running a BR740A silage special, haven't noticed the wrapping problems around the rollers. Maybe the stripper plates need adjusted? Have rolled both wet hay and green cornstalks. Found the best hay to make tough corns stalks feed is to completely remove the wind guard.

Problem with chain and slat systems from my experience is if your making dry hay they tend to beat the leaves off alfalfa but the NH 846 I started out with would roll up anything that was in front of it. Very aggressive but like I said, very hard on leaves.

I like the tube wrappers myself, use a lot less plastic and I would think hauling individually wrapped bales out of the field would be a pain plus the more times you handle them the more chances of puncturing the plastic.


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

We have a New Holland Br7060Silage Special with bale slice . Made 750 wet bales this year sliced everyone of them with


----------

