HANDLING hundreds of small bales of straw is no longer a laborious time-consuming job for Callington oaten hay, barley and pea straw specialist producers Colin, Nathan and Brett Wegener.
The family produces about 35,000 bales of mulching and bedding straw annually, much of which until this year had to be manhandled as many as three times before being carted off the farm.
For this year's production, the Wegeners invested in a Canadian-developed Super Bale Baron bale accumulator machine that operates behind their traditional small baler and literally packs and stacks 21 small bales into one compressed-and-tied large bale before discharging it onto the ground.
Nathan Wegener says the Bale Baron has virtually given the family a hands-free handling system for its entire 35,000 straw bale production business.
"It has allowed us to get the baled straw into storage quicker and this is important in retaining the quality, particularly with the barley and oaten straw bales which are predominately used as bedding material," he said.
"It has reduced our labour time and cost, and because of the reduced handling and pickup trips to the various paddocks, it has also cut our fuel costs."
He says the machine, believed to be one of only two Bale Barons in South Australia, looks like a big and complicated machine, but is fairly straightforward and simple to use.
"It is feature-packed with a number of built-in safety provisions including a Smart/solve computer control system that constantly monitors and warns the operator of any problems," he said. "And it is equipped with a central lube block that services the machine's 16 grease points consistently and automatically.
"We have also added a couple of cameras to the combined baler and Bale Baron unit with a monitor in the tractor cabin to give the operator an overall view of what is happening behind him.
"The Bale Baron is fully hydraulic-powered and in our case we take the power direct from the SUV outlets of our 112-kilowatt John Deere 6920 FWA tractor."
The machine is directly hitched to the rear of the baling machine, from which the small bales are fed to a receiving chute on the big bale-forming Bale Baron.
"From this chute they are fed onto a revolving turn-table that mechanically rotates the bales 90 degrees and lifts each batch of three small bales at a time that are then forced into a ram loader-packing chamber," Nathan said.
"This process is repeated seven times until all 21 bales are compressed ready for tying.
"The Bale Baron is equipped with Hesston plastic twine-knotters and is equipped an audible alarm in the rare case of a missed tie-function.
"The knotters are fed from a 16-ball twine box.
"As the process is continues and the next 21 small bales pack are being formed, the preceding big bale is slowly forced against the rear doors of the machine and on to a discharge roller ramp and placed gently on the ground.
"From this point the big pack of small straw bales is ready to be picked up with our fork-equipped front-end loader for carting to one of our on-farm undercover storage sheds."
The small bales are formed from the windrows left by the family's John Deere 9670 STS combine which, for pea harvesting, a dedicated rigid front with pea-plucker is used.
"For baling the straw directly behind the harvester we simply bypass the straw-chopper by swinging it out of the way," Nathan said. This year the family will produce 25,000 bales of pea straw, 5000 bales of barley straw, and 5000 bales of oaten hay, which will be reduced by the Bale Baron to about 1700 big-pack bales.
Demand for Wegener straw comes from far and wide, reaching as far as Melbourne for bedding straw. It is particularly popular in the Adelaide Hills for mulching straw.
"The Bale Baron represented a fairly big investment for us, but after only one season's work, we can appreciate the extra efficiencies and savings it has afforded us," Nathan said.
The Wegeners bought their Bale Baron from State distributor G&J East, Strathalbyn, after seeing an advertisement in the Stock Journal Ag-Trader pages and checking-out further on the internet, as well as at a demonstration day held nearby.
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