# Baler rpm



## jturbo10 (Feb 28, 2011)

I've been baling small square bales for years so I have a pretty good handle on how to make and good bale in most hay and weather conditions. Just added a New Holland BR 7060 round baler to the fleet as some of my horse hay customers want to buy some round bales. I have had some discussions with round baler operators who have indicated they don't run the baler at the 540 rpm dictated by most balers I have used. I don't always run 540 rpm on the square baler but it is with 20-40 rpm's of that speed. For all you round baler experts, what is a good rule of thumb to use for various hay and weather conditions? I don't have a horsepower issue as my baler tractors are mostly around 140-150 hp and the spare tractor is around 80 hp. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Second question is: I've set my baler pressure at around 1200 psi.....what is the rule of thumb for different pressure settings. Thanks and wishing everyone a prosperous and safe hay season in 2017. Looks like I may have some leftover hay for the first ever unless we have a brutal late winter and consumption goes up dramatically...not necessarily a bad thing but I like to have everything sold by the end of Feb so we can travel in the coach.


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## Trotwood2955 (Sep 4, 2012)

I run my 7060 at 540 rpm pretty much in all situations. If baling really dry crops occasionally may need to drop the rpms just a bit until the core is formed. But I've only had to do this a couple times. Mainly keep it at 540.

On the pressure I am going off memory without looking at the manual or gauge but I think I keep mine set around 2000 psi for dry hay, or whatever is close to max pressure. Sometimes for baleage I'll back off some, but usually just decrease bale diameter to keep the bale weight where I want it.

One thing to keep in mind is most of my bales are for my cows so I want dense bales and as few to handle as possible. For selling hay you may want to keep the pressure down some just to have more to sell (if you sell by the bale not by the ton, which is the case in my area), at least I've heard some mention doing this. I would think you would still want to keep enough pressure on them to have a nice looking bale.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I vary a bit from time to time, depending on crop dryness and winrow size. If the baler is not putting a lot of hay into the throat, I always increase the ground speed and lower the rpm of the baler. Say in the case of cleaning up the field after square baling. If the windrows are sporadic, being some thin and some normal sized, I will run in say C2 at 540 (or thereabouts) but if I have a windrow that has about 1/2 as much hay, I may up shift to C4 and decrease the rpm. Running the baler at full rpm while stuffing minimal hay into the throat makes for some ugly bales. If the hay is extremely dry I may play with the rpm to keep the bales looking nice and not throwing hay out of the top. The trick is to stuff the right amount of hay per revolutions, after you play with it a while, you'll see what I'm talking about.....
Like trotwood, I have mine set at 2k, I may increase the pressure this year to 2.2k and reduce bale diameter. Like trotwood stated, with low pressure comes sloppy looking bales that don't retain shape after stacking....
The BR7060 is a good machine....


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

1200 is fairly low. I think I started at 1000? For break in. Now at least 1500-2000. I cannot recall. Higher seems better bale imho. At least here with what I am doing. More hay per bale is less bales to move and feed.

Understandably this will not be the same for all situations.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

It depends:

I start a bale at about 350 RPM, then roll up over about 100' to 480-500 RPM. I find this seems to give the best core on my NH BR780A.

For resale hay, I want my bales to weigh 1000 lbs so I can track tonnage. I find that about 12-1500 lbs pressure seems to give me this weight on a 5x5 OG bale.

I simply do not like equipment at max rating, speed, pressure, whatever....It just goes against my grain.

Ralph


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## DSLinc1017 (Sep 27, 2009)

I'm running a 7060SS as well, I've got the pressure at max. I stack my hay 5 high, keeping them tight helps keep the form, as I'm only tying with string no net. It also helps in transport having a tight bale.
I have a few horse customers that pick up hay in a pick up then roll them into place to feed out. If they aren't tight they have something to complain about.
Like others here have said, I try to keep it near 540, Perhaps a bit under some times on the hilly fields, as going down speeds up. 
If it's really light wind rows I will knock it down but never under 500. The baler seems to work to hard any slower. 
My round baler seems to make the best bales with big big fluffy wind rows, running at 540, and traveling at a high rate of speed.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

I usually run just below 540 and adjust my ground speed to the crop. When I run full size bales, I set my monitor one size down at 58 instead of 60. My density is just a few hundred off full. I adjust accordingly I back belts off in high heat.


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## jturbo10 (Feb 28, 2011)

Thanks for the great inputs as they all make great operating sense and will give me some confidence in how I'm setting up my baler. I also started my core bales at 350 -400 rpms and slower speed and then speed and throttle up. I also set my bale size at 58 and that seems to work great. I'm sure I'll have a few more questions when hay season starts.


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

If you have a 540 rpm round baler and you get into tough hay keep the rpm right up at 540. There is a lot more stress on the drive line if you are not up at rated speed and if you hit a wet slug things tend to break in a hurry.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

I operate my rd baler at 450 pto rpm's at full hyd pressure. This pto speed saves a little fuel and bales sides are tight. Key to making tight sided bales is a good wide,even windrow.


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

Don't over think things. Your pressure is right in the middle of the practical range. Round balers aren't that picky about pto speed. I will run a little below pto most of the time for economy reasons. If I am baling alfalfa that is too dry I will cut the pto speed down and hold ground speed up in an effort to minimize leaf loss. There is no need to make a throttled down core start unless you are baling short fin slippery material like rotary combine straw but there is no harm in it either. Just be aware that a BR series baler is a bit more vulnerable to plugging during core formation. In really heavy windrows it is a good practice to maintain pto speed but shift down a gear until the monitor comes off '30'.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

RPM - varies

Ground speed varies

Why

Windrows sometimes vary

I try to make, wrap, eject and start baling again every two minutes (with the right conditions 5x5 bale, about 17 seconds to clutch in to clutch out in ideal conditions). Depending upon the hay, I try to run my baler at probably 80% capacity (what it will swallow without plugging). As has been mentioned lighter hay, faster ground speed, lower RPMs; heavy windrows, 540 RPM, slower ground speed.

If you are raking for a square baler, it better be a high capacity or the round baler will be 'chasing' hay, if you are baling same windrows. IMHO

Just as with square bales, experience will be important (and you need to get off the tractor and physically check some bales every so often). With my 5x5 I feed each side the baler, I usually have already moved over to the other side BEFORE the monitor tells me to do so (but it was not always this way).

Larry


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