Explanation: The function of a round baler’s pickup is to lift the crop from a windrow in the field so that a minimum of crop is left on the ground, and feed it into the bale chamber edge to edge, compressing the material well to form firm, square-shouldered bales.
What to know before you buy Why it matters:
New Holland: The pickup of a round baler is important for two reasons. First, it must rapidly pick up the crop cleanly to save as much material as possible. Second, as the first element in the process of making dense, well-formed bales, it must fill the bale chamber’s entire width smoothly and efficiently.
Krone: The design of the pickup can have a large impact on the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the baler. This component will determine how well the baler picks up the crop from the ground and feeds it into the baler.
In addition, this is where several wear parts are located. With certain pickup designs, some of those high-wear items can be redesigned in order to decrease the amount of heat and wear they are exposed to.
Case IH: The new pickup and design offers several benefits to customers. First, the wide pickup allows the windrows to be laid out wider, which reduces drying time.
The wide pickup (WPU) and optional gathering wheels help to ensure all of the windrow is picked up and fed into the baler. Second, the rotor feeder increases feeding of the crop into the baler. This means you can make bales faster.
How much weight should this feature bring to bear on my buying decision?
Case IH: Baling hay is a process. If the hay doesn’t feed correctly, then the baler isn’t going to make quality bales. It is all about baling your crop as fast as possible. The faster you get your crops into the bale, the less your risk of rain or wind damage.
Krone: The pickup on the baler is a very important component to consider when purchasing a baler. The effectiveness of picking up the crop and feeding it into the baler will be one of the factors that will determine the overall satisfaction of the operator.
When considering a baler, think about what it will be baling and the terrain it will be on. Will it be baling dry hay, silage, etc.? How heavy is the crop? Lighter crops could merit a narrow pickup, while heavy crops will require a wide pickup.
Is the terrain smooth, rough or uneven? Gauge wheels are an important factor for proper flotation. No matter the conditions, durability and effectiveness should be top considerations when evaluating the pickup on a baler.
New Holland: The pickup should rate high among buying decision factors because of its important role in saving valuable crop that would be lost in the field and because of its ability to fill the bale chamber evenly and efficiently, leading to dense and consistent bale formation.
Clean, fast, positive crop feeding is very important to the profitable results of all round baling operations. Dense bales mean better bale shape and weathering and more stable stacking.
When more valuable crop is packed into each bale, time, money and fuel are saved along with faster crop regrowth for higher tonnages during the next cutting.For questions regarding any of these comments, contact:
Company specifications
Krone: The pickups used on Krone 4-foot-wide round balers vary in widths depending on the baler model. Krone fixed-chamber balers have pickup widths of 55 and 72 inches, while the variable chamber balers have widths of 81 and 84 inches.
Each Krone baler uses the EasyFlow pickup, which is a camless design. The lack of cam track reduces the amount of wear to the pickup drive and increases the overall pickup speed.
Gauge wheels are used to make certain the pickup has the proper amount of flotation. Each pickup is equipped with a windguard and a set of compression rods; in addition, the wide pickups have a crop roller and augers.
These features ensure smooth and even crop flow. The scraper design lifts the crop from the tine for a consistent flow into the baling chamber.
New Holland: New Holland round balers feature three types of pickups. Forward positioning ensures clear visibility and easy monitoring of crop feeding. Curved tines get short, fine crops.
- XtraSweep: Industry’s widest; 71-inch has 112 curved tines; 82-inch has 128 tines and double cam tracks; two flotation gauge wheels; full-width, dual-pivoting windguard; hydraulic lift is standard on 82-inch, optional on 71-inch.
- SuperSweep: Six-bar has more tines than most balers, spaced 2.6 inches apart; slow pickup speed ensures gentle handling; four-bar versions crowd material along chamber sides for firm bales.
- Wide pickup: Low-profile, available on two models, permits pick up of extra-wide or windblown windrows.
Case IH: There are three versions of offerings that make up the RB565 model round balers. First is the RB565 hay model with a 1.5m pickup. This unit has a six-bar pickup with 144 coil-mounted pickup tines (5 mm thickness).
The hay model does not have a stuffer or rotor to feed the crop into the bale chamber. The baler relies on the pickup tines only.
Next is the RB565 Hay WPU (wide pickup) 2.0 m version. This baler has a four-bar pickup using 128 pickup tines. The pickup on this version is wider than the bale chamber.
Because of this, the balers use a double-flight auger on each side of the pickup to help feed the crop directly into the bale chamber to make the corners (also called shoulders) of the bale square, uniform and tight.
Compared to the previous model, we made the auger a double-flight instead of a single-flight auger to help prevent plugging. This leads us to the biggest change in the 5 series to the 4 series balers – the overshot rotor. Instead of using a stuffer, we are using an overshot rotor feeding system for the RB5.
This overshot rotor has given us increased capacity of 20 percent. This means the farmer can pull the baler faster down the field. The rotor feeds the crop into the bale chamber a lot smoother than the stuffer.
The pickup was also moved back, closer to the rotor. The distance between the pickup and rotor is shorter, providing a more consistent flow of crop from the ground to the bale chamber.
The RB565 Premium has all the same features as the RB565 wide pickup except for a two-piece tine bar design. This baler has five bars with 160 rubber-mounted pickup tines (6 mm thickness) for increased durability. Benefits of a five-bar versus a four-bar are:
- Consistent feeding – Each row of tines moves a smaller section of crop from the windrow for a smooth, continuous flow.
- Forceful feeding – Smaller volume of crop on each row of tines means efficient, positive movement of crop from pickup to feeder.
- Clean sweep – More tines to get all of the crop picked up, especially in short crops. The five-bar will do a better job in corn stalks than the four-bar.
Outer tine-to-tine width is 2 meters on WPU & Premium, 1.5 m on hay (we measure our pickup tine to tine; our competitors measure flare to flare. When we say 2-meter pickup, it really is 2 meters).
Tine spacing is 2.63 mm. Pickup gauge wheel has two options – standard pickup gauge wheel or dual caster gauge wheel. Both require no tools to adjust the height. Pickup lift is manual or hydraulic. FG
For questions regarding any of these comments, contact:
