The definition of insanity, according to Albert Einstein, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Currently, there is an air of frustration across the agricultural contracting sector in general.
This is mainly due to the rising costs of machinery, operational costs and this, most feel, is not being properly reflected in the market as the greatest brunt of these costs are being absorbed by the contractors themselves and not being fully passed on up the line.
Round baling, as an agricultural service, is one of those jobs that seems to be in an indeterminate state, where doing more can mean less financial reward for the baler man.
Perhaps a change in the sector is needed so the most efficient contractors can progress and not be penalised for making bigger, denser bales. The current payment system of being paid so much per bale is now starting to hinder this progress.
Technology from manufacturers has certainly advanced over the years from standalone balers and combi units to nonstop balers, from twine and netting to film-on-film binding.
Baler manufacturers offer a host of features like drop floors, cover edge, camless pickups, ISOBUS, auto greasers etc, to help owners maintain their equipment and operate it optimally.
However, when you dig a little deeper there is some dissatisfaction when talking to contractors who are investing in this equipment as operating costs like diesel, parts and labour rates are also soaring, but the old payment system remains unreasonable.
For any task to be done well it has to be incentivised properly, because if you don’t reward the people who bring value to your farm or business then why would they continue to invest?
As one contractor highlighted: “If a farmer carried a cow to the mart and got a fixed price per cow where would the incentive be to feed on the cow and fatten up the animal?”
The farmer is getting paid per kg of beef so it’s in their interest to feed the animal and get an appropriate financial return on their investment and this, he says, should happen with round bale silage too if the sector is going to progress properly so that everyone prospers.
With the technology available today on machines from moisture meters and load cells it isn’t difficult to accurately weigh bales, just like weighting cattle accurately at the mart.
Case study
Consider a situation where a contractor makes 120 round bales of silage for a customer at €9/bale and produced an average bale weight of 670kg. In this situation it works out at 1.34c/kg of silage baled.
Under the same field conditions if the contractor was to use a high-density round baler like the Krone Comprima F155 XC or the McHale Fusion Vario for example, have all the knives sharp and in operation to chop the grass and pack the bales at a greater density and therefore then produce a bale averaging 800kg it would mean the contractor should get approximately €10.70 per bale if paid at 1.34c/kg for this same customer at the same moisture content.
The contractor would have the same financial return for their work but less stopping and hence greater throughput and better field efficiency overall.
The farmer in the scenario outlined would have about 20 fewer round bales – so less plastic used and less handling, but no less winter fodder, plus theoretically better silage as it is packed more densely.
When factoring in other considerations like yard storage space as bales are now only permitted to be stacked two high, it would be in both parties’ interests to reward this type of efficiency.
Using just the scenario outlined under the current payment structure between most agricultural contractors and farmers of being paid per bale they would have a loss of earnings on just this job alone of €180 and the farmer also must use more plastic, as well as more bales to handle and store.
If the volume of bales highlighted in the example presented here increases from 120 to 600 bales for example, then the potential saving using higher density machines is 500 bales produced or 100 less bales and the knock-on savings increase exponentially in plastic, diesel, time, labour, storage and handling for all.
This is why the baling sector is at a type of impasse as there is no real incentive to invest in high-density variable chamber round balers when the outcome is a potential loss of income on numerous fronts.
It’s hard for a contractor to persuade a farmer that they are making denser bales without proof, as there are a few variables that come into play. The current payment method is curtailing the contractor from investing in higher-density machines as they can cost more to purchase initially and operate, and the return is less income by being paid per bale.
A new approach to round baling is needed to make it more feasible and sustainable as a contracting service going forward for both the farmer and the contractor to succeed. If they were paid per kg and not per bale it would be in the farmers best interest to choose the most efficient baler men.
The potential environmental gains don’t just stop at plastic, but diesel saved also plus machines saved as less hours logged on tractors and bales counted on the baler itself.
New metrics on payment opens new possibilities and this approach drives efficiency for both the contractor and the farmer. The goal for all involved should be to make the bale as dense as possible as most farmers now have equipment on farm well capable of handling bigger bales.
High-density round balers
Shane Clarke is the midlands area sales manager for Farmhand which is the importer for Krone equipment into Ireland.
“The Comprima F 155 XC is a fixed chamber baler with a semi-variable bale chamber therefore you don’t get a soft centre bale,” Shane says.
This machine he says produces very high-density and well-shaped round bales as its packing the bale all the time, unlike fixed chamber machines where its only really compressing towards the end of the bale.
When asked about the bale weighing system, he says: “On the Krone Comprima round balers, the bale weights can be determined via four weighing pins in the wrapping table. The bale weights are displayed directly on the terminal.”
In addition, further data such as moisture, bale size and position are recorded for each individual bale. This type of technology can help farmers in many ways from in field yield to more accurate winter fodder data.
Most brands offer optional load cells and moisture sensors, but there is currently no real advantage for contractors to equip machines with such options.
Justin Ryan is an agricultural contractor based in Cooraclare, Co Clare. He has 33,000 bales on his Comprima F 155 XC. After two seasons he says: “It has performed very well on the heavy wetter crops associated with the west of Ireland”.
Justin is adamant that it makes an unbelievably dense bale for his customers, and he prides himself on the bale he makes which is why he opted for this machine. “You have to be paid right for the work you do,” he states.
According to James Heanue the sales manager for McHale, there still is an old legacy thing in Ireland with variable chamber round balers that some assume they can’t bale short grass, wet grass or there not as durable but that’s certainly no longer the case, with modern pickups and intake systems he explains.
“We use much better materials nowadays such as the heavy-duty three-ply single piece belt and advanced engineering techniques to fabricate these machines,” he says.
When asked about the Vario Fusion baler for Irish conditions James highlights how the machines were extensively tested in the west of Ireland in heavy crops as well as other parts of the world in the toughest most extreme environments and working conditions.
“They would have absolutely no bother here it’s just the market isn’t really there for them in Ireland.”
When questioned on this he acknowledges that contractors aren’t willing to pay more for a machine and then their customers aren’t willing to pay them anymore per bale.
McHale has a few of these baler configurations sold in Ireland, but James says it’s mainly to bigger farms who are doing their own work, and they see the benefit of making less bales to handle and store.
He also says, depending on the type of grass, the moisture content and conditions these machines have produced bales in the region of 1,000kg. However, for those operating older equipment or in tough fields conditions, smaller and lighter bales can still be made with variable chamber machines.
It’s not all about grass
Speaking to some tillage farmers this week most of those selling straw feel selling bales by weight is a far more efficient and reasonable system for both the buyer and seller. Labour is such an issue and handling bales is a time consuming and a costly exercise.
Craig England is a poultry and tillage farmer in north Cork. He highlights how he has seen up to almost 100kg of variability between straw bales due to several factors from baler type, density setting, chopping, moisture etc.
Craig feels there should be a set price per tonne for straw under 18% moisture. If a farmer was to purchase 100 round bales of straw for example there is a possibility of up to 10t alone of unaccounted material using the bale itself as measurement device.
Being paid per kg of straw also means the contractor isn’t penalised but makes in-field gains in efficiency by stopping less for netting and bale transfer for high-density bales and the farmer has less handling and storage for the same volume of straw which is a saving.
Bales per acre is becoming a primitive metric for yield and not an accurate indicator where data on farms is a valuable commodity.
Farmers would have more accurate information on winter fodder and bedding if they had better data available.
Load cells and
pressure transducers
Load cells are not new technology and are used on diet feeders so farmers can monitor a fodder mix, draft pins are located on most modern tractor lift arms. They are tough devices and well capable of the rigors of harsh conditions. Pressure transducers are used generally on hydraulic systems like loaders to monitor bucket weights and work by converting hydraulic pressure into an electrical signal. They too are durable and accurate devices and are widely used in construction equipment.
Once this instrumentation – along with moisture meters is set up properly, maintained and calibrated – it can offer accuracies under 5kg no problem and sometimes even more depending on the grade of the components used.
The only way to truly unlock the value of the data for the weight of the bale plus the moisture content data would be if that data was in some way electronically tagged or barcoded to a bale itself.
This would be transparent for both contractor and farmer at payment time and for the resale of bales to others.
Single-use plastic
The EU’s Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive, while focusing on reducing single-use plastics like straws and cutlery, does not currently include silage wrap and other agricultural plastics in its ban.
However, the EU is continuing to review and update its plastics strategy, potentially including agricultural plastics in future iterations.
As a farming nation we need to be proactive here and under the 3Rs of sustainability: reduce, reuse, recycle we could reduce silage-use plastics on farm by rethinking and rewarding those making the densest round bales possible.
The biggest issue currently is that most farmers don’t seem to truly realise the value of the bale itself either when making it or selling it.
If you were to study the average price of fodder for sale online over the past five to seven years, it is clear to see it hasn’t kept pace with the corresponding land rental price, increased fertiliser cost, labour, plastic, diesel prices as well as machinery purchase and maintenance costs. If a new approach isn’t pursued in this sector it may lead to further stagnation.
Fergal O’Sullivan is an agricultural
engineering lecturer at Munster Technological University.
The definition of insanity, according to Albert Einstein, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Currently, there is an air of frustration across the agricultural contracting sector in general.
This is mainly due to the rising costs of machinery, operational costs and this, most feel, is not being properly reflected in the market as the greatest brunt of these costs are being absorbed by the contractors themselves and not being fully passed on up the line.
Round baling, as an agricultural service, is one of those jobs that seems to be in an indeterminate state, where doing more can mean less financial reward for the baler man.
Perhaps a change in the sector is needed so the most efficient contractors can progress and not be penalised for making bigger, denser bales. The current payment system of being paid so much per bale is now starting to hinder this progress.
Technology from manufacturers has certainly advanced over the years from standalone balers and combi units to nonstop balers, from twine and netting to film-on-film binding.
Baler manufacturers offer a host of features like drop floors, cover edge, camless pickups, ISOBUS, auto greasers etc, to help owners maintain their equipment and operate it optimally.
However, when you dig a little deeper there is some dissatisfaction when talking to contractors who are investing in this equipment as operating costs like diesel, parts and labour rates are also soaring, but the old payment system remains unreasonable.
For any task to be done well it has to be incentivised properly, because if you don’t reward the people who bring value to your farm or business then why would they continue to invest?
As one contractor highlighted: “If a farmer carried a cow to the mart and got a fixed price per cow where would the incentive be to feed on the cow and fatten up the animal?”
The farmer is getting paid per kg of beef so it’s in their interest to feed the animal and get an appropriate financial return on their investment and this, he says, should happen with round bale silage too if the sector is going to progress properly so that everyone prospers.
With the technology available today on machines from moisture meters and load cells it isn’t difficult to accurately weigh bales, just like weighting cattle accurately at the mart.
Case study
Consider a situation where a contractor makes 120 round bales of silage for a customer at €9/bale and produced an average bale weight of 670kg. In this situation it works out at 1.34c/kg of silage baled.
Under the same field conditions if the contractor was to use a high-density round baler like the Krone Comprima F155 XC or the McHale Fusion Vario for example, have all the knives sharp and in operation to chop the grass and pack the bales at a greater density and therefore then produce a bale averaging 800kg it would mean the contractor should get approximately €10.70 per bale if paid at 1.34c/kg for this same customer at the same moisture content.
The contractor would have the same financial return for their work but less stopping and hence greater throughput and better field efficiency overall.
The farmer in the scenario outlined would have about 20 fewer round bales – so less plastic used and less handling, but no less winter fodder, plus theoretically better silage as it is packed more densely.
When factoring in other considerations like yard storage space as bales are now only permitted to be stacked two high, it would be in both parties’ interests to reward this type of efficiency.
Using just the scenario outlined under the current payment structure between most agricultural contractors and farmers of being paid per bale they would have a loss of earnings on just this job alone of €180 and the farmer also must use more plastic, as well as more bales to handle and store.
If the volume of bales highlighted in the example presented here increases from 120 to 600 bales for example, then the potential saving using higher density machines is 500 bales produced or 100 less bales and the knock-on savings increase exponentially in plastic, diesel, time, labour, storage and handling for all.
This is why the baling sector is at a type of impasse as there is no real incentive to invest in high-density variable chamber round balers when the outcome is a potential loss of income on numerous fronts.
It’s hard for a contractor to persuade a farmer that they are making denser bales without proof, as there are a few variables that come into play. The current payment method is curtailing the contractor from investing in higher-density machines as they can cost more to purchase initially and operate, and the return is less income by being paid per bale.
A new approach to round baling is needed to make it more feasible and sustainable as a contracting service going forward for both the farmer and the contractor to succeed. If they were paid per kg and not per bale it would be in the farmers best interest to choose the most efficient baler men.
The potential environmental gains don’t just stop at plastic, but diesel saved also plus machines saved as less hours logged on tractors and bales counted on the baler itself.
New metrics on payment opens new possibilities and this approach drives efficiency for both the contractor and the farmer. The goal for all involved should be to make the bale as dense as possible as most farmers now have equipment on farm well capable of handling bigger bales.
High-density round balers
Shane Clarke is the midlands area sales manager for Farmhand which is the importer for Krone equipment into Ireland.
“The Comprima F 155 XC is a fixed chamber baler with a semi-variable bale chamber therefore you don’t get a soft centre bale,” Shane says.
This machine he says produces very high-density and well-shaped round bales as its packing the bale all the time, unlike fixed chamber machines where its only really compressing towards the end of the bale.
When asked about the bale weighing system, he says: “On the Krone Comprima round balers, the bale weights can be determined via four weighing pins in the wrapping table. The bale weights are displayed directly on the terminal.”
In addition, further data such as moisture, bale size and position are recorded for each individual bale. This type of technology can help farmers in many ways from in field yield to more accurate winter fodder data.
Most brands offer optional load cells and moisture sensors, but there is currently no real advantage for contractors to equip machines with such options.
Justin Ryan is an agricultural contractor based in Cooraclare, Co Clare. He has 33,000 bales on his Comprima F 155 XC. After two seasons he says: “It has performed very well on the heavy wetter crops associated with the west of Ireland”.
Justin is adamant that it makes an unbelievably dense bale for his customers, and he prides himself on the bale he makes which is why he opted for this machine. “You have to be paid right for the work you do,” he states.
According to James Heanue the sales manager for McHale, there still is an old legacy thing in Ireland with variable chamber round balers that some assume they can’t bale short grass, wet grass or there not as durable but that’s certainly no longer the case, with modern pickups and intake systems he explains.
“We use much better materials nowadays such as the heavy-duty three-ply single piece belt and advanced engineering techniques to fabricate these machines,” he says.
When asked about the Vario Fusion baler for Irish conditions James highlights how the machines were extensively tested in the west of Ireland in heavy crops as well as other parts of the world in the toughest most extreme environments and working conditions.
“They would have absolutely no bother here it’s just the market isn’t really there for them in Ireland.”
When questioned on this he acknowledges that contractors aren’t willing to pay more for a machine and then their customers aren’t willing to pay them anymore per bale.
McHale has a few of these baler configurations sold in Ireland, but James says it’s mainly to bigger farms who are doing their own work, and they see the benefit of making less bales to handle and store.
He also says, depending on the type of grass, the moisture content and conditions these machines have produced bales in the region of 1,000kg. However, for those operating older equipment or in tough fields conditions, smaller and lighter bales can still be made with variable chamber machines.
It’s not all about grass
Speaking to some tillage farmers this week most of those selling straw feel selling bales by weight is a far more efficient and reasonable system for both the buyer and seller. Labour is such an issue and handling bales is a time consuming and a costly exercise.
Craig England is a poultry and tillage farmer in north Cork. He highlights how he has seen up to almost 100kg of variability between straw bales due to several factors from baler type, density setting, chopping, moisture etc.
Craig feels there should be a set price per tonne for straw under 18% moisture. If a farmer was to purchase 100 round bales of straw for example there is a possibility of up to 10t alone of unaccounted material using the bale itself as measurement device.
Being paid per kg of straw also means the contractor isn’t penalised but makes in-field gains in efficiency by stopping less for netting and bale transfer for high-density bales and the farmer has less handling and storage for the same volume of straw which is a saving.
Bales per acre is becoming a primitive metric for yield and not an accurate indicator where data on farms is a valuable commodity.
Farmers would have more accurate information on winter fodder and bedding if they had better data available.
Load cells and
pressure transducers
Load cells are not new technology and are used on diet feeders so farmers can monitor a fodder mix, draft pins are located on most modern tractor lift arms. They are tough devices and well capable of the rigors of harsh conditions. Pressure transducers are used generally on hydraulic systems like loaders to monitor bucket weights and work by converting hydraulic pressure into an electrical signal. They too are durable and accurate devices and are widely used in construction equipment.
Once this instrumentation – along with moisture meters is set up properly, maintained and calibrated – it can offer accuracies under 5kg no problem and sometimes even more depending on the grade of the components used.
The only way to truly unlock the value of the data for the weight of the bale plus the moisture content data would be if that data was in some way electronically tagged or barcoded to a bale itself.
This would be transparent for both contractor and farmer at payment time and for the resale of bales to others.
Single-use plastic
The EU’s Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive, while focusing on reducing single-use plastics like straws and cutlery, does not currently include silage wrap and other agricultural plastics in its ban.
However, the EU is continuing to review and update its plastics strategy, potentially including agricultural plastics in future iterations.
As a farming nation we need to be proactive here and under the 3Rs of sustainability: reduce, reuse, recycle we could reduce silage-use plastics on farm by rethinking and rewarding those making the densest round bales possible.
The biggest issue currently is that most farmers don’t seem to truly realise the value of the bale itself either when making it or selling it.
If you were to study the average price of fodder for sale online over the past five to seven years, it is clear to see it hasn’t kept pace with the corresponding land rental price, increased fertiliser cost, labour, plastic, diesel prices as well as machinery purchase and maintenance costs. If a new approach isn’t pursued in this sector it may lead to further stagnation.
Fergal O’Sullivan is an agricultural
engineering lecturer at Munster Technological University.
SHARING OPTIONS