DURING a New Zealand holiday, Adrian and Vickie Bond saw two brands of variable chamber round balers at work on neighbouring farms.

One of them was a McHale V660.

With his own baler overdue for an upgrade with more than 30,000 bales on the clock, Adrian returned to Timboon and by the start of the season had his first McHale V660 on the farm.

The decision came after years of loyalty to another brand.

"I hadn't seen a McHale baler before we went to New Zealand," he said. "We bought the V660 in September and by November we'd done more than a thousand rolls with it. I've never baled silage so green and so easily. You can drive with it all day and no problems."

Adrian and Vickie live at Coorie Ridge Farm. The dairy farm is 170ha and another 121ha is leased.

With help they milk 350 Friesians on a 24 herringbone system and produce three million litres a year.

In addition to hay and silage, the Bonds grow 12ha of turnips which they will harvest for fodder in January.

Adrian's father, Colin, farms 141ha next door and the two men, together with share farmer Lee Doak, share the use of the machinery.

"The service we've had from Rhys Evans over the years was certainly a factor when I chose the McHale baler," Adrian said.

Irish company McHale Engineering has produced agricultural equipment for three decades, with a focus on balers and bale wrappers for round and square baled silage and round bales of hay and straw. The machines are manufactured in Ireland and Hungary.

The V660 variable chamber round baler has a spiral rotor with pairs of rotating tines feeding the crop through to a 15-knife chopper unit.

Double tines increase the output and the spiral design reduces load peaks when working through heavy swathes.

The baler's three heavy-duty belts are reinforced to provide high pressure to the material in the bale chamber.

"The build quality of the V660 is terrific. It's a heavy baler and very well engineered," Adrian said.

"It's got excellent ground clearance and a clean pick-up. The big flotation tyres are great. I've taken it to places I haven't been able to get into with other balers and it handles damp conditions very well."

He said the hydraulic drop floor behind the pick-up prevented blockages.

"You don't have to get out and waste half an hour pulling out material," Adrian said. "You just drop the floor, turn the chamber over, bring it back up and you're off again.

The Bonds baled 4800 rolls last season, with 80 per cent silage and 20 per cent hay. Adrian is hoping for a similar tally this year.

"The weight, density and form of the bale we get with the McHale baler is as good as you could ask for," he said. "It means we're getting better quality silage to feed to our cows."

They pull the baler with a 115kW Case Puma tractor and wrap the bales with an Elho twin satellite wrapper bought new this season.

For mowing, they have two Taarup 2432 eight-disc mower conditioners and they use a Taarup 8055 four-rotor tedder.