# Bales per minute. A beat to death topic.



## sethd11 (Jan 1, 2012)

So I was baling grass hay the other day and I was hitting some pretty high numbers an hour. I am using the NH 5070 hay liner w/ Kuhns 18 bale accumulator. I was making half way decent bales 3rd cutting. 38-43 bales every 3 minutes. Brought up the idea in my head of everyone elses record hay bales per hour. It was like I couldn't break a shear pin. Anyways let me know what you guys can do and with what equipment!


----------



## sethd11 (Jan 1, 2012)

A video of said endeavor


----------



## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

How many bales per minute?


----------



## JayTN (Jul 12, 2015)

Looks like you were moving on pretty good. I really don't do many squares anymore, so I really don't push it. But I do around 25 to 30 Bermuda 5x5 1/2 round bales an hour with my 1875 Gehl twine tie roller. That's probably not many compared to some of the newer balers but it's plenty an hour for me. Plus the less I push my equipment, the longer it will last.


----------



## sethd11 (Jan 1, 2012)

I guess about 10-14. The bales didn't even look that bad surprisingly. I always don3 minutes because I have a manual acid applicator so that's how I calculate tonnage and such


----------



## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

sethd11 said:


> I guess about 10-14. The bales didn't even look that bad surprisingly. I always don3 minutes because I have a manual acid applicator so that's how I calculate tonnage and such


Ah. I wasn't sure if the 3 minutes was a typo or not. Don't see that as a unit of measure every day!

I'm not even sure what my best is. I'm usually just happy to get finished.


----------



## sethd11 (Jan 1, 2012)

Always do that because I tKe that x20 and get bale an hour


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Been a long time since done squares, can do a thousand pound round bale a minute in good conditions, that includes wrapping and ejecting, thats roughly a 50b small square every 3 seconds.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

8350HiTech said:


> I'm usually just happy to get finished.


Yep, I baled my last round bale of hay tonight of the year, took over ten days to get the last of it dry, have 50 acres I was planning on a frost cut, gonna clean the mower, tedder and rake up and park em deep in the barn so I don't get stupid with that last 50.

Has been an absolute horrible year for making hay, even when it finally quit raining it still wasn't good haymaking weather, insanely heavy dews at night most of the summer and lots of humidity. Had some perfectly clear days and still had some alfalfa that took five days to dry, heavy dew at night and high humidity during the day, would get down to the mid 20's on moisture and just stay there, finally baled it, treated it then placed each bale on a pallet and let it sit for a month.


----------



## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

The last field I squared baled was for a neighbor. Odd shaped field. End up with 10 triangle shaped pieces. Averaged 100 bales an hour. She wondered why it cost so much to bale it. I said its a time factor when you spend more time turning than baling.

Plus the fact her sister's boyfriend got their old haybine running and cut half the field. Wow. What a lumpy mess. One of the worst cutting jobs I have seen. Those lumps dont dry. I dont have a tedder. Did the best I could with my rotary rake. I told her I would not have charged much more if I cut and baled the whole thing instead of dealing with that lumpy mesd.


----------



## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

About 400 an hour with no breakdowns.....


----------



## Osman1 (Nov 30, 2014)

I am running an 1840 Massey making 38" bales. No breakdown, decent windrows I average 400-450 bale per hour bales are pretty clean cut and consistent I have ran 550+ through the baler but bales look rougher and usually vary in length


----------



## Blue Duck (Jun 4, 2009)

400-450 an hour is the most I ever do and that's if I am in big hurry. If I go any faster the bale length is not consistent enough for the bale wagon. The first time my wife ran the baler for me I told her to run the tractor in gear B-3, unfortunately she thought I said D-3. I am not sure how many bales it was making per minute but there were only three flakes per bale. Luckily she knew something was not right and called me after the first twenty bales.


----------



## Wethay (Jul 17, 2015)

I have John Deere 336 and fifty hp in front of it, a Steffen's accumulator behind. I put 250 40"bales through it on a somewhat square piece. A couple of technical difficulties, trying to get the last piece baled before the dew hit, with out the hour and a half drive for new shear pins and wait until tomorrow to bale so I was using under sized bolts. I thought I was doing good. Well good enough I guess.


----------



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

mlappin said:


> Yep,
> 
> .....
> 
> ...


Smart move--did that myself--put it away so I wouldn't be tempted.

My production was about 50% of past years---S-T-I-N-K-S!!!!!!!!

Welcome to my world--Usual low humidity is 60%, but the past couple of weeks have been excellent for drying corn and beans. Corn is coming in at 15%, waiting to start beans--probably next week.

Ralph


----------



## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

mlappin said:


> Been a long time since done squares, can do a thousand pound round bale a minute in good conditions, that includes wrapping and ejecting, thats roughly a 50b small square every 3 seconds.


60 1000# rd bales per hr is a very IMPRESSIVE amount of hay baled !! :huh: I've never keep a record of sq bales per hour but I'm always very glad when the last sq bale of that field comes out of the baler.


----------



## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

If I push push push my JD348 in a big straight field I can hit over 600 bales an hour with 33" bales but they look like garbage and break during handling. Normally about 330 bales an hour into baskets in good fields. We lose a basket an hour worth in change over.

In thin hay or poorly shaped fields its tough to get 200 bales an hour.


----------



## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

I wasn't pushing the JD 348 too hard because the Ford 5000's PTO clutch is getting a little suspect and I need to adjust the plunger and sharpen the knife, but I averaged 288 bales an hour (just shy of 5 bales a minute) on the last couple batches of first cutting for small squares. I think I could easily go over the 300 mark without much problem with good bale shape/density if I get things fixed up a little more.

When I round baled the last of the hay for the year (some late 1st cutting) I was averaging just under 10 4X5s an hour. That really impressed me since the net wrap controller is messed up and you have to stop for each bale and cut the net by hand. It's also an old Claas model 62S that is probably from the mid 1980's at best. I'm going to try and have that fixed for next year, but I don't plan on doing a lot of round baling if I can help it.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

rjmoses said:


> My production was about 50% of past years---S-T-I-N-K-S!!!!!!!!
> 
> Ralph


Same here, even as late as some of the first was and heavy as it looked when mowing/tedding/raking/baling it seemed to disappear somewhere as even that late heavy first cut was light on yield considering.

Had several times what little third cutting i got was heavier than second.

I don't have a single barn full atm. I have enough storage for 1100 bales inside, have maybe half that right now.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Tx Jim said:


> 60 1000# rd bales per hr is a very IMPRESSIVE amount of hay baled !! :huh: I've never keep a record of sq bales per hour but I'm always very glad when the last sq bale of that field comes out of the baler.


LOL, never said I could actually do 60 bales an hour though, turning around, cleaning up little wisps of hay on the ends etc cut productivity.


----------



## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

There are a ton of variables on baling.

What is the Book strokes per bale?

Bale length, & weight.

No turns involved. No dead Heading &c

My old NH 315 running at 80 strokes a minute, or at 94 strokes per minute.

Bale length by the book is 15 strokes per bale. Pushing at 11 strokes per bale, taking my time 19 strokes per bale. In practice I drop down a gear if it is 10 or 11 strokes, and gear up at 19 or 20 strokes per bale.

I like to bale at 90 strokes per minute, which has more ineritia cutting the flake. No time down to reload the tying wire or string. No stops to adjust the tension on the bale chamber.

Good large windrow so we can bale at 1 mph or so.

With everything working for me Probably 475 bales an hour. Be able to eat a sandwitch for something to do.

Do not forget a great job of raking.

Nice to have.

Never having to change gears.

A hydro drive would be wonderful to have the strokes per minute right on & not +/- 4 strokes per bale.

A scale to adjust the pressure on the chamber to for a uniform 55 lbs/Bale & always a 34" bale length.

Never will take operator skills out of hay baling.


----------



## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

mlappin said:


> LOL, never said I could actually do 60 bales an hour though, turning around, cleaning up little wisps of hay on the ends etc cut productivity.


My understanding of the English language begs to differ & I'll quote you

[/quote] can do a thousand pound round bale a minute in good conditions[/quote].

If that's not stating one can bale 60 1000# rd bales per hr I'll eat a bale of hay.


----------



## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Tx Jim said:


> My understanding of the English language begs to differ & I'll quote you


 can do a thousand pound round bale a minute in good conditions[/quote].

If that's not stating one can bale 60 1000# rd bales per hr I'll eat a bale of hay.[/quote]

Time to eat some hay. Length of time was not specified.

Howany football players can run a 4.2 40? That doesn't mean they can push close to a 3 min mile.


----------



## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

"In good conditions". No turning, good windrow.


----------



## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

deadmoose

So are you stating you bale a 1000# bale in a minute then go to the house to allow your baler to cool off?????????? :lol:

I would presume if you could bale one bale in a minute you could bale 60 bales in 60 minutes.


----------



## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

Tx Jim--it is the difference between "indicated" baling rate and "actual" baling rate. There are always the little time losses that drag the actual baling rate down. I've seen a bale a minute with a 5x6 in corn stalks--and for fun this summer pushed my 7090 to a bale every 45 seconds (including wrapping) in oat hay, just to say I did.


----------



## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

That's why I mentioned changing wagons and the time of cleaning scraps etc, just because you hit an amazing peak baling rate doesn't mean the whole job gets done fast. Sometimes slow (medium?) and steady wins the race.


----------



## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

Gearclash said:


> Tx Jim--it is the difference between "indicated" baling rate and "actual" baling rate. There are always the little time losses that drag the actual baling rate down. I've seen a bale a minute with a 5x6 in corn stalks--and for fun this summer pushed my 7090 to a bale every 45 seconds (including wrapping) in oat hay, just to say I did.


 Thanks for your clarification BUT after having baled well over 150,000 rd bales myself since the mid 80's I think I'm well aware of the difference. I agree baling a bale per minute is quite different than baling 600 rd bales in 10 hrs.

PS: If you'll read OP's 1st sentence you can determine he was inquiring about bales per hour not just ONE MINUTE.


----------

