# Teach me all about NH crop cutter balers.



## chevytaHOE5674 (Mar 14, 2015)

Ok I currently have a NH 648 SS baler with bale slice that is getting long in the tooth and is about time to make it the backup baler. Looking at some BR7070 and RB460 balers and there lot of crop cutters for sale it seems. How much power does it take to run the cutter in high moisture crops? Can the knives/cutter be removed to bale "normal" uncut hay? How is knife maintenance? Thanks


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I might have been misinformed, but I've been told that the crop cutter is hard on dry alfalfa, tends to knock a lot of leaves off if it starts to get a little on the dry side. Service manager at our local dealership seemed to think the crop cutter reduces capacity in dry hay.


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## chevytaHOE5674 (Mar 14, 2015)

No alfalfa grown here so that isn't a concern.

I too have heard that the rotor reduces capacity.

From what I understand the knives can be pulled out hydraulically, with the knives removed is the capacity increased?


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

Rotor doesn’t retract, the knives do.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

In some balers the rotor is the cat's meow. I have heard that is not the case in New Holland. I would not buy a new Holland with a rotor , even though yes you can retract the knives.. if you use Bale slice and you like it then you should just find another New Holland with the bail slice option. ALL OUR Baylor's had Bale slice. We always stayed away from the crop cutter


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## chevytaHOE5674 (Mar 14, 2015)

From what I've gathered NH didn't offer bale slice in a 4x6 baler.


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## Northeast PA hay and beef (Jan 29, 2017)

So we have a nh rb450 with crop cutter. Have only run about 1200 bales through, but really like it. 
Yes the knives do retract hydraulically. I've seen no problems with the rotor, will take in the heaviest windrows our rake can make. And also windrows so high they catch on the bottom of the tractor, it eats it up, even crossing over windrows.
We run ours with our nh t6070, running all 15 knives i notice it draws more power with dry hay. I don't really notice it working harder at all doing baleage. We use only 7 knives when we bale our sorghum sudan grass, even with really heavy windrows it doesn't really slow down. 
The drop floor is a really great feature also. I have yet to get out of the tractor to unplug the pick up.

Over all I've been really happy with ours.


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## Northeast PA hay and beef (Jan 29, 2017)

We have the hardened knives on it, they have cut around 800 bales and are just now starting to need sharpening. Haven't had any break. Barely notice knives are cutting with high moisture crop.


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## chevytaHOE5674 (Mar 14, 2015)

Thank you for that. I notice the power draw with the bale slice more in dry hay than in high moisture crops as well. With the knives retracted the baler shouldn't draw anymore power than a standard baler I would assume.


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## Widairy (Jan 1, 2016)

I have never ran one. I was/am looking at them. Have a friend that ran a 7060 for a few years. He hated the rotor. Claimed it killed the capacity of the baler.


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## Northeast PA hay and beef (Jan 29, 2017)

We had a 7060 that we traded in on this one, but it wasn't a cropcutter, which is why traded it. So i don't know if the rotor ran that hard, but it would eat hay. The 450 could definitely out bale our 7060 even with all the knives in.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Northeast PA hay and beef said:


> So we have a nh rb450 with crop cutter. Have only run about 1200 bales through, but really like it.
> Yes the knives do retract hydraulically. I've seen no problems with the rotor, will take in the heaviest windrows our rake can make. And also windrows so high they catch on the bottom of the tractor, it eats it up, even crossing over windrows.
> We run ours with our nh t6070, running all 15 knives i notice it draws more power with dry hay. I don't really notice it working harder at all doing baleage. We use only 7 knives when we bale our sorghum sudan grass, even with really heavy windrows it doesn't really slow down.
> The drop floor is a really great feature also. I have yet to get out of the tractor to unplug the pick up.
> ...


It is good to hear from someone who actually has a crop cutter baler . What is the Drop Floor Feature used for ??


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## Northeast PA hay and beef (Jan 29, 2017)

So ive only used the drop floor a handful of times, but it is used to unplug the baler from the cab. If you hit an extremely large slug of hay, or the couple times ive used it in dry hay a couple of broken sqaure bales in a pile, and the pick up plugs. The slip clutch will go off.

You shut off the pto, retract the knives and the lower the drop floor. It is the actual floor beneath the rotors, which force the hay up to the bale and over the knives. Once floor is lowered, it opens up the throat of the baler to at least twice the normal opening size. You turn on pto and slug of hay passes into baler with low rpms. The put floor and knives back up hydralically and you're back to baling. Have yet to need to let out a partial bale to unplug the baler, like we used to have to if we plugged others baling sorghum.


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## chevytaHOE5674 (Mar 14, 2015)

I don't think they offered the drop floor until the RB series balers. Haven't found one of them in my budget yet. Lol

Been trying to find a crop cutter baler locally to see run but so far have been unsuccessful.


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