Square Balers Upcoming Auctions

About Square Balers

Square bales of hay and straw are typically easier to transport and stack than round bales. Because small square bales can often be carried by one person, they don’t require special equipment for feeding. Square balers work in conjunction with bale racks, bale wagons, bale elevators, and related hay and forage support equipment to provide winter feed for horses and livestock.

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New Holland BigBaler 340 Large Square Baler

Tying The Knot

The small square balers you see on farms and ranches throughout the world have been around in various shapes and forms for a century or so. Early versions of square balers saved substantial human labor but still required someone to bring hay, straw, or other forage to the machine for baling, and then hand-tie the final bale.

The format for the fully automated square balers used today first appeared in the 1940s. Balers typically feature cutting knives to chop the crop, a plunger to pack it into a tight bale shape, a flywheel to maintain momentum, and a twine tying system to bind the bale together. In 1978, Hesston debuted the first large square baler.

Square Baler Features

The output of a typical small square baler is 14 by 18 inches (35 by 45 centimeters) in cross-section with user-adjustable lengths of 12 to 52 in. (30 to 132 cm). Some manufacturers offer mini square balers for bales that are even easier to handle, and most sell balers that produce larger-sized square bales that can save on labor and fuel costs. An example of a large bale is 36 in. (91 cm) in height, 48 in. (122 cm) in width, and 96 or 108 in. (244 or 274 cm) in length.

Meanwhile, high-density square balers from New Holland, Massey Ferguson, and others can pack an extra 15%, 20%, or more forage into each bale. The pickup width of small square balers is often 65 to 75 in. (165 to 190 cm), whereas large-bale models can take in windrows of up to 86 or 97 in. (218 to 246 cm) wide. Depending upon the application, buyers may seek a baler that can cut the forage to particular lengths, such as 1.5- or 4.5-in. (3.8- or 11.4-cm)-long pieces.

Square balers often require other hay and forage equipment such as a bale rack, bale wagon, bale elevator, or even a bale thrower to complete the process of transporting, moving, and storing the finished bales. Recent innovations by Case IH and others have helped make square balers work better in all kinds of crops and crop conditions, even with large or uneven windrows. Manufacturers have also improved their twine tying systems or knotters, such as New Holland’s Loop Master double-knotter.

High-Tech Features

Precision agricultural innovations have reached even the humble square baler. For example, New Holland’s IntelliView display and Precision Land Management technology can log data such as individual bale weight, moisture content, yield, and GPS drop-off locations. New Holland’s IntelliCruise feed rate control system lets the operator address capacity and specify the number of slices going into each bale.

Find The Right Square Baler

Top manufacturers of new and used square balers available on Tractorhouse.com include Case IH, Hesston, John Deere, Krone, Massey Ferguson, and New Holland, and others. Popular models include New Holland’s BC5070 and Big Baler series, Massey Ferguson’s 1840, and John Deere’s 348 series.