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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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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