# New Holland Bale Slice option



## greenhorn (May 9, 2010)

Looking at balers and see a few within my range with bale slice. No one I know in my area has this, but... if I'm making rounds targeting both cattle and horse ppl, is the bale slice a bad idea? It packs more hay into the round from what I understand, but will it deter people from purchasing the rounds? or will it actually help me sell more?

As always I appreciate any replies!!!


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## Redkiwi (Oct 13, 2010)

A lot will depend on how the bales are fed out.If too many knives are used the bale wont roll out unless you are using a cradle type bale feeder.Forn the horse maarket where they take only smaller ammounts of a bale at a time it can be an advantage.
A lot depends on the length and type of grass you are baling but on most knife systems you can choose how many cutters are engaged.

Hope this helps in some way


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## Edster (Feb 23, 2010)

I have heard people say that if you are doing round wrapped bales to stay away from the slice option. The reason is that you gt mold in a regulard wrapped bale you lose a layer or two. If the bale is sliced the mold has a tendency to go all the way thru the bale. You also need to net wrap the bales then wrap them. THis will tend to drive the costs up a bit.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I won't use anything but net wrap, so that's moot far as too slice or not, they can be set so the outside 2,4 or 6 inches is not sliced. I thought about slicing dry hay before, but depending on the type of feeder used, waste will actually go up. I asked a lot of my customers if they would prefer that the dry hay was sliced and the majority said no.


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## ne_mn (Nov 25, 2010)

Usually hear of guys running baleslice for silage bales only. Denser and less air make better quality feed. The knives are not cheap to replace and dull easy with smaller rocks. Wheel rakes do pick up more rocks than a basket type rake so that is something to take into consideration.

What type of hay are you making? Pretty sure than grass type hay is harder to slice than alfalfa, clover, or sorghum type hay.

How much more does it cost to get bale slice? Will you be able to get a premium for the hay?

If you're not doing silage I dont think it is worth the extra parts.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

There is a difference between bale slice and bale chopper on the NH balers. The slicer is a sickle section bolted to the bottom roller mechanism that slices the hay as it goes past. Available on the br740 or br780 balers. THe chopper is available only on the br740 size baler and is a hydraulic driven chopper comparable to a straw chopper in a combine. Knives on the slicer are cheap and you can run 8 of them on the br780, not sure on the 740. I don't know about the chopper knives on cost. I had a br780 with the slicer option. I liked it for dry hay, if feeding long grass in a bale feeder as I had less waste. Clients did not care to have thier hay sliced though. As stated in an earlier post, the slicer can cause a disaster on balage. Any malfunction in plastic wrap, and you get a pocket of surface mold on the outer layers of the bale. On a sliced bale, the air will make its way all the way to the center of the bale because there is an open slice inside the bale, therefore a rotten bale of balage. I would suspect dry bales stored outside would also allow water to travel through the slice once it penetrated the solid outer layers of the bale. Yes the slicer does make a denser, tighter bale, but once the solid outer layer of 2 to 6 inches is penetrated, there is an open slice all the way to the core of the bale. The slicer was $3000 option on the 2006 NH BR780 baler, don't know about now. I definitely didn't use mine enough to pay for the option, and it probably hurt the dealer on resale value when I traded it in because it took him a year to sell the baler. Just my thoughts.


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