Jämförelse av fyra rundbalspressars packningsförmåga som funktion av grödans torrsubstanshalt
To succeed, and make money at your animal production you need to feed your animals with
high quality fodder. Other condition to succeed is that you keep your production costs at a minimum. To be able to produce baled silage at a low cost it?s very important that the bales have a high density. Density is measured in kg dry matter (DM) per cubic meter.
The purpose with this report was to learn more about making silage in round bales and to how much the bale density varies between different brands of round balers. I also wanted to se how much the DM contents in the grass affected the bale density.
In this study I have compared four different brands of round balers. The different round balers are Claas 255, Welger RP235, Taarup Bale In One and NewHolland 658. The Newholland
baler is a flex chamber baler and the other three are fix chamber balers. The difference
between the different types of balers is that the flex chamber is made of belts that keep
pressure on the material from the moment you start making a new bale. The chamber in the
fix chamber balers are made of steel rollers that doesn?t put pressure on the bale until the bale chamber is full.
The test with the Welger RP235 where made by me on a farm in Halland. The other tests
where made a in the year 2002 by other students. The Claas 255 and NewHolland 658 were
tested in Västergötland and the Taarup baler where tested in Närke. All the bales in the tests where weighed and some of the grass in the bales where collected to test the DM contents. When I calculated the density of the bales I used the volume of the press chamber, the nominal volume and not the real volume.
When I analysed the test results and compared them with each other I could see that in the first cut the NewHolland baler made bales with the highest density followed by Claas and the baler who made bales with the lowest density was the Welger baler. And in the second cut the bales with the highest density were made by the NewHolland baler at DM contents over 50 % and with less than 50 % DM the Claas baler made the bales with the highest density. The Taarup baler made the bales with the lowest density at all levels of DM contents.
To compare the results of the tests may be a bit misleading because they where performed at different locations and at different cut seasons. Because of that the maturity and fibre contents of the crops varied a lot and that affects the balers? ability to make bales with high density. And since the NewHolland baler is a flex chamber baler it?s hard to measure the nominal volume of the press chamber, so it would probably be better to use the real volume of the bales to get a fair picture of the balers ability to make bales with high density.
My conclusions of this report:
? The comparison of the tests between the different round balers shows big differences
of the bales density. In the first cut the NewHolland baler made bales with the highest
density followed by Claas and the baler who made bales with the lowest density was
the Welger baler. And in the second cut the bales with the highest density were made
by the NewHolland baler at DM contents over 50 % and with less than 50 % DM the
Claas baler made the bales with the highest density. The Taarup baler made the bales
with the lowest density at all levels of DM
? The density in the bales increases when the DM levels increases in the material. All
the balers show the same results, and my results are consistent with results from older
tests.
? It is possible to lower the usage of stretch film and net per kilo DM, if you let the
material dry to levels of 50 % DM before baling it.
? When you buy a new round baler or choose contractor it is important to choose a baler
that makes bales with high density, because it may save you a lot of money.