DIY tool speeds baling and saves fuel

All over the UK farmers and farm
contractors will be making millions of bales of straw and hay this year. Over the past three decades the bales, and the balers that make them, have become much bigger. The so-called 'conventional baler' which makes something that can be lifted and moved by hand, has been eclipsed by the 'round' or the 'big square' baler, which makes a package that no-one can lift leading to wasted time and fuel.

Now though, thanks to an ingenious farmer, there is an innovation to reverse these problems.

Here’s the problem. These millions of bales take time and fuel to create, an army of people driving tractors up and down countless fields. Making this job less costly is of clear benefit to the farmer involved - less fuel means less carbon and it means greater efficiency too.

Two things make the baler driver cuss - the lumpy swath and the bale that is in the way of the tractor. Lumps are formed when the combine comes to a halt before the straw that's inside has been discharged out the back, and at other times when one swath is dropped on top of another. The baler has to slow right down to digest the lump, and often the driver will stop, get out and spread the lump out to prevent it jamming the works. Once that happens you can have 30 minutes of hard work pulling out handfuls. 

The obstructing bale occurs simply through bad luck. The driver bales the outside of the field first so he can turn without damaging the crop. There's little or no control where the bale will be deposited, so one can be right at the end of a swath. When the centre of the field is being baled, this rogue is in the way and has to be moved. This was easy with the handy conventional, possible with the round, which can be rolled, but impossible with the modern big square, which can weigh as much as a ton. So he tries to push it with the tractor front wheels, or ends up leaving a patch of straw unbaled - where it gets in the way of the cultivator or plough.

The solution to all this came ten years ago when an ingenious farmer from Devon showed Practical Farm Ideas a front mounted machine he made which solves both problems. The roller flattens and spreads the swath, and in doing so makes it possible for the driver to bale in a gear, or even two, higher than normal. He's taking less time, using less fuel. Lumps are partially levelled out, so there are fewer instances when he has to get off and spread, and fewer blockages. The machine also has a frame that's at the right height to push a bale out of the way, so now he doesn't have a problem with the rogues on the headlands. 

It's a simple machine, which most farmers can make for themselves in their workshops.  Look out for tractors with them fitted this season - and thank the inventive farmer who decided to share his idea with other farmers through the pages of Practical Farm Ideas.

Mike Donovan is an agricultural economist with a degree from Reading University in Agricultural Economics, who publishes Practical Farm Ideas.

Have you invented a nifty tool to save time, energy or the planet? We’d love to know. Get in touch – write a blog for us, comment on this blog, send us details of what you’re doing on your farm: farming@forumforthefuture.org