# New to bailing and we got problems. HELP!!!



## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## oliver550

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


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## 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


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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!!


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## oliver550

Thanks a ton for all this great info I will be putting all to good use. Thanks everyone for spending the time to help a guy out


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## combinedmf

We currently run a new BC5070, having run 575s in the past. We bale 30,000+ bales per year with an accumlator. Since we run the accumulator we have to do our absolute best to make a consistent length bale. The real key is learning to match your ground speed to the volume of hay or straw in the windrow. Generally, a slightly slower ground speed will give you a more consistent bale, both in length and shape, if you aren't trying to push the baler to its highest capacity. The consistency of your windrow is important, but you can only affect this so much. Shift often to match your ground speed to the windrow.

Your bale shape problems are likely due to the adjustment of your packer fork. The bale chamber is not being filled evenly. The 311 has a different style feeder that the 575 or 
BC5070, so I can't tell you exactly how to adjust it, but I am confident that this is your problem. Your owner's manual should explain this adjustment.

Running a baler well is an ongoing learning process. You have a good baler, just keep learning it and you will be amazed what it will do. Good luck.


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## foxhollowfarm131

I have a bit of a different issue with my NH 575 square baler that I am hoping some of you can help me with - quickly, since I am in the middle of hay season and pulling my hair out with this one.

Baler is making inconsistent bale lengths. Never had a problem with the 575 in all my years of baling on the average of 15,000 square bales per season. This year my 575 is crippling me. We have replaced one gear, cleaned thoroughly and checked for any other parts that may show wear and find nothing out of adjustment. My brother and I have combed the baler over with the manual in hand and still it will suddenly begin producing short bales. Walking beside it today, I still see nothing inhibiting the mechanism.

To be specific: It will produce 50 or so regular sized bales then spit out two-five short bales, then go back to making regular sized bales for another 30-50 or so then several short ones again. And, this vicious cycle continues as long as I attempt to bale. I cannot afford this inconsistency since we are battling the spurts of thunderstorms, as I am sure many others of you are, too. Looking for some consistent sunshine and bales! Appreciate any help on this one. Thank you! Lee


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## Will 400m

I would check the spring that holds the metering wheel arm tight to the wheel. If you walk next to the machine when it makes the short bales you will see the arm go up realy fast. That or the grooved wheel may have been worn down so much that its smooth.


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## cmd

foxhollowfarm131 said:


> I have a bit of a different issue with my NH 575 square baler that I am hoping some of you can help me with - quickly, since I am in the middle of hay season and pulling my hair out with this one.
> 
> Baler is making inconsistent bale lengths. Never had a problem with the 575 in all my years of baling on the average of 15,000 square bales per season. This year my 575 is crippling me. We have replaced one gear, cleaned thoroughly and checked for any other parts that may show wear and find nothing out of adjustment. My brother and I have combed the baler over with the manual in hand and still it will suddenly begin producing short bales. Walking beside it today, I still see nothing inhibiting the mechanism.
> 
> To be specific: It will produce 50 or so regular sized bales then spit out two-five short bales, then go back to making regular sized bales for another 30-50 or so then several short ones again. And, this vicious cycle continues as long as I attempt to bale. I cannot afford this inconsistency since we are battling the spurts of thunderstorms, as I am sure many others of you are, too. Looking for some consistent sunshine and bales! Appreciate any help on this one. Thank you! Lee


Check the latch where the metering are meets the knotter clutch. Make sure you have good positive contact there.


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## InterLake

Lots of good ideas here. Consistent feeding rate is important. Don`t be afraid to shift gears a lot. The worse time I had with uneven bale lengths was when the stop on the bale measuring arm came loose. I kept moving a short distance along the arm and tripping the knotters at different lengths.


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## tkaffenbarger

I had this same problem with a 575 and with my new BC5070. NH changed their design for the metering arm with the 570 series and it is the problem in my mind. I was having knotter problems and walked beside the baler and noticed the metering arm when tripping would bounce on the bolt and would bounce varying heights off the bolt to not at all. This changes the bale length. I remembered my wife had some old leg weights for exercise that would wrap around the leg and attach with velcro. Probably about 2 pounds. I wrapped one of them on the metering arm and just baled 600 hundred bales of 2nd cutting alfalfa. I varied the speed up and down to get from 18 SPB (strokes per bale) to 7 SPB. The bales length was almost perfect no matter what speed I drove. I believe NH needs to put a weight on the arm or make it out of heavier material so it doesn't bounce. They could also go back to their old design as it didn't have a problem.


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## hartpd

Hi all

Pete from Oz here. I know this posted problem v old but thought Id add a bit of info.

Have a Hesston Fiatagri 8500 small sq baler, which Hesston denied existed but obtained a parts list from this site. Thankyou but product now not supported.

Had same problem with banana bales. Now I will agree that inconsistent windrow density has a big effect on bale length but should not have an impact on bale shape, same for baling ground speed. I have non irrigated lucerne (alfalfa ) so in ordinary seasons row distribution not even.

Put up with problem for a while. There was an adjustment which was factory set and manual stated that if I changed would probably mean the end of the world as we know it. The reason bales banana ( from the verb to banana ) is that one side of the bale chamber is either receiving too much or not enough hay from the row. The direction of bend indicates this . Banana will bend away from the side that is not receiving enough hay. I made adjustments to the arm which controls the amount the hay fork enter the bale chamber, made in small increments/decrements, depending on which way bale is bending. Now have no problem with banana bales.

Still haven't conquered bale length.

One other comment. I always do standard checks on baler before a baling run. However one I didn't do ( do now ) was to check that the bale needle protection operated in the case of breaking of the knotter shear pin. Expensive mistake.

Pete from Oz


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## somedevildawg

Welcome to haytalk Pete.....always glad to have farmers from "down under", always good insight.


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## Coondle

G'day Pete, good to have another from Downunder on the site.

Consistency of bale length is principally controlled by the metering wheel measuring the length and tripping the knotter.

Issues include:

1) Wear on the metering wheel. On most balers this is a small diameter wheel between 2 discs, looking like a cotton reel or sewing machine spool. This wheel has either a fine hard steel serrated surface (like a very fine file) that contacts and works the arc shaped metering arm upward. These fine serrations can become too smooth to work the metering arm without slipping. Alternatively the wheel will have small cog-like teeth that work on the metering arm. Rarely there can be wear on this wheel or the matching fine teeth on the metering arm.

If the metering wheel is worn, Suggest getting one for a NH 570/575 or a NH BC5070 or similar. it may be easier to get the whole metering wheel assembly including the star wheel and shaft plus mounts and bushes. You will need the matching metering arm and fabricate it onto the metering arm on your baler if it is not the same.

2) Wear on the metering arm quadrant. This is common on the fine version of the metering wheel and can be seen as a wear point on the quadrant particularly just before the metering wheel trips the arm into the hook. The metering arm has a short shaft protruding from both sides just before the hook on the end of the arm. The purpose of these is to cause a sudden trip of the arm when the hook is reached. These contact and ride over the discs of the cotton reel on the metering wheel. When the arm wears the shafts contact the discs on the cotton reel but because the arm is worn down the shaft gets stuck against the discs, the metering wheel continues turning and "filing" a deeper groove in the metering arm.

Solution is either build up the metering arm with weld and grind back to correct profile OR a new metering arm.

3) Some balers have a fitting like a chain link with a set screw (many NH balers) that can be set on the metering arm to control the depth that the metering arm falls back down after it has tripped.The "link" contacts the discs on the metering wheel and stops the metering arm falling further, setting the amount that the arm has to be wound back up to the trip point. This system is inherently stable because the link sits at an angle on the metering arm and has a "wedging" action when the arm falls so there is no bounce of the arm.

4) Some other balers have an adjustable stop (e.g. NH 570 and BC series balers) that the metering arm falls down and lands on. This design is prone to the metering arm bouncing and causing short bales. Solutions for this are threefold: one is to add a weight to the arm, another is to add a light spring to pull the arm down and eliminate bounce, the third is to move the adjustable stop toward the back of the baler, closer to the arc of the metering arm.

This will give you some ideas to work on apart from feeding rates.


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## Steve 78

Are you raking your hay? Had a NH 268 that made bananas on hay that was laid out flat from the mower-conditioner (3.5 to 4 foot windrow). Once we raked it straightened right out. I always figured that the tines on the side plunger were too short. Solved the problem when I bought a JD 348.


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