AN OTWAYS hay contractor swaps round baling for the convenience of big square bales, ANDREA MAYES reports
In 2003, Jodie and Michael Buttigieg left their Tatura dairy farm because of lack of water. They moved to Lavers Hill in the Otway Ranges where they and their four children, Jock, Emily, Rebecca and Taylor, enjoy an average rainfall of 2 metres.
- IN A WORD
- MAKE: KRONE
- MODEL: BP1290 XC Big Square Baler
- PRICE: $228,195 (incl GST)
- BEST FEATURE: Michael said the Krone baler is very efficient and quiet and the amount of volume it gets through is amazing, yet it requires less horsepower than others he looked at.
- MORE DETAILS: Rhys Evans (03) 5231 5855
In addition to the 280ha home farm, the Buttigiegs lease a further 200ha and a 60ha lucerne property.
Sharefarmers Phil and Rebecca Sloane run the Buttigiegs' 40-unit rotary dairy for a herd of 500 Friesians.
Ten years ago, Michael began contracting hay and silage work. "I started out with a John Deere round baler, just helping out the next-door neighbour and it all grew from there," he said.
Operating as Beechwood Farms, Michael and two staff, Clint McCrae and Don Perkins, now work with clients from Horsham to the Otways. "We go where the work is, cutting, raking, baling and wrapping, starting with cereal crops up north and working our way back home to the silage," Michael said.
Until September 2008, Michael had always used a round baler, trading it in every two years or so and producing about 10,000 bales a year.
"We wanted a square baler because we're doing so much carting around, moving and selling the bales. You can move square bales a lot more efficiently," he said.
"We can get more of them on the truck and, with fuel the way it has been, you want to get the most you can from each run.
"We had a look around and the Krone BigPack 1290 XC looked to be the best available. It's very well built, well finished and it has all the features we need. We bought it from our local Colac dealers Rhys Evans. We've always been happy with the service we get from them."
Michael chose the tandem axle model with brakes on all four wheels, rear wheel steering and big flotation tyres.
"Safety considerations are very important," he said. "You can get into some tight places in the Otways, with steep paddocks and wet, slippery slopes. It really tests the limits of your equipment. We're a fair way inland but at the top of some of these paddocks you can watch ships go past."
Michael said the Krone's variable filling system produces uniform bales across a range of conditions. In light windrows or at slow forward speeds, the crop is retained in the feed channel until a full wad forms, and is then released into the plunger channel.
Sensors measure and control the baling density, allowing for high density and evenly compacted bales.
The crop is cleared off the pickup by five feed rakes and one feeder arm, providing a very high clearance capacity.
Michael says the Krone BP1290 baler makes work much easier. "With the auto greaser, you can work in the field all day and not have to worry about anything. There's very little maintenance before you start up in the mornings and we can do a bale a minute comfortably in good conditions, processing about a tonne of hay.
"They wrap the bales in a double stack, reducing the amount of plastic needed and the cost. We're effectively wrapping one bale where we'd have wrapped three round bales in the past," he said. "It's very efficient and quiet and the amount of volume you can get through is amazing, yet it requires less horsepower than others we looked at. By the end of the season, we'll have done about 11,000 big square bales all up. We're very happy with it.
"A lot of silage in this region is still done in round bales or pit but I've found this is a much more competitive and cost effective way of doing it. Using the Krone, we've more than doubled our efficiency." Michael also recently bought a four-metre EasyCut Krone 400 linkage mower.
"I expect my mowers to do about 1500 acres a year and we've just done a solid 100 acres a day for 10 days with this one. It travels very smoothly and it's all gearbox driven with no belts, so it's virtually maintenance-free. It's very user-friendly too. You can put in a new set of blades in five minutes."
Large drive gears are constantly in oil contact to withstand long hours under load and reduce noise. The underside of the fully-welded mower bar is protected by skids and designed to withstand demanding conditions.
