Costs savings thanks to a larger bale diameter

A baler-wrapper with a fixed bale chamber produces round bales of approximately 1.3 m in diameter. A baler-wrapper with a variable bale chamber can bale and wrap bales up to 1.6 m in diameter. This flexibility can be extremely useful, and a larger bale diameter can result in a lower cost per ton of forage. 

A round bale with a larger diameter: a calculation example

Take a bale of 1.3 m in diameter and 1.2 m wide that is bound with three effective layers of film, then wrapped with six layers of film. The three effective layers of film binding cost €1.27 with the KUHN TWIN-reel system. This calculation is based on standard wrapping film rolls of 1500 metres that cost €99 each. The six wrapping layers cost a total of €4.50 for film. This adds up to a total cost per bale of €5.77 for film.  

If the same calculation is made for bales with a diameter of 1.45 m, the costs for film binding are €1.38 and the six layers of film for wrapping are €5.37 per bale. This brings the total cost of binding and wrapping a bale to €6.75. This is an increase of 17% compared with the 1.3 m diameter bale. However, in this case the volume of crop in one bale is higher. A 1.3 m bale converts to 1593 litres, while a bale of 1.45 m in diameter has a volume of 1982 litres: that is 24% more crop per bale. If you calculate the costs of film per cubic metre, the result is €3.62 and € 3.41 per m3 of crop respectively. That represents a saving of 6 %. A bale of 1.6 m in diameter has a volume of no less than 2413 litres. So, the savings are even higher! In total, 13 % lower costs for film per m3. However, in practice it is more difficult to transport bales of 1.6 m and they can be quite heavy.  

Calculation example 1.45 / 1.6 m bale diameter compared with 1.3 m

Bale diameter   Bale volume  Increase in bale volume compared with 1.3 m  Film used per bale  Film costs per m3  Bale handling costs  Output 
1.3 m  1.59 m3           
1.45 m  1.98 m3  + 24%  + 17%  – 6%  – 20%  + 3% 
1.6 m  2.41 m3  + 51%  + 31%  – 13%  – 34%  + 4% 

Table 1: Calculation example difference 1.45 / 1.60 m bale diameter compared with 1.3 m bale diameter  

Save film and time  

Let’s take a farmer who produces 2000 silage bales with a diameter of 1.3 m per year as an example. If this farmer decides to produce 1.45 m diameter bales using a variable baler-wrapper, the same volume of silage will fit into approximately 1600 bales. That converts to 400 bales fewer a year.  

The total savings on film for this farmer are €688 a year.  

An additional benefit is 400 fewer bales that need to be loaded, transported and stacked, plus the baler operator can stop 400 fewer times a year to bind and eject a bale. And as less film is used, the total number of times the film must be changed on the binder and wrapper is significantly lower.  

Advantages of a larger bale diameter: 

  • Saves on net and film costs 
  • Using less net and film reduces the time spent on changing net and film 
  • Fewer stops to bind and eject bales 
  • Fewer bales to load, transport and stack 

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Tedding Grass In 2023

Tedding grass for silage is becoming more and more popular every year. By cutting grass early in the morning and tedding the crop immediately after can make wilting speed five times faster. By tedding the grass it increases dry matter and preserves the concentration of essential nutrients for high quality silage. Livestock will benefit from this when feeding during the winter period.

KUHN offer several model specifications tedders from small single rotors to large sixteen rotors. Each model has unique features suited to certain farms and crop types. All of the machines have unique KUHN features that make it the best tedder on the market.

DIGIDRIVE ROTOR DRIVE

The patented DIGIDRIVE System is made from foraged case-hardened treated steel. This allows the farmer/contractor to work a wide range of angles making the crop easier to work.

It allows for 180 degree tight compact folding during transport and entering narrow gateways. The DIGIDRIVE System is maintenance free meaning there is very little downtime during the busy silage season.

Since the launch of the DIGIDRIVE finger drive system twenty years ago, more than a million rotors have been working all around the world, tedding forage with exceptional reliability.

 

Asymmetrical Tines For Clean Pick-Up

The KUHN Tedders tine length has a massive factor in the quality of tedding. The outer finger moves into the forage earlier and this ensures a more complete tedding process. This system works very well on the areas that can be difficult to work e.g. field borders. Better tedding leads to higher quality wilting which results in high bale quality.

 

Smaller Rotors = Advantage

When you think of small you may not always think of better. In this case KUHN’s smaller rotors has many advantages:

  • Improved ground following on uneven surfaces
  • Improved overlap between two rotors
  • Rotor is more inclined meaning improved forage turning
  • Higher quality forage spreading for better and even drying

Opening round silage bales: net versus film

Which bales are faster to open: net bound bales or film bound bales? To find this out we took up the silage bale opening challenge!

Film bound bales easier and faster to open

We opened a round grass bale bound with net and one bound with film. The outcome is clear: the film bound bale could be opened way easier and faster, without loss of forage due to it staying in the net. Moreover, a film-on-film bale has only one residual product which makes waste management more efficient.

Curious how we conduced the test? Watch the video:

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