COMPARING THE QUALITY OF ROUND BALERS WORK

Abstract

Forage harvest belongs to the principal works in contemporary agriculture. Increasingly popular technology is the making round bales. The basic advantage of round balers is application versatility. Harvest method is useful for making hay, straw and haylage, Quality of the bale is dependent on the level of work equipment and operator. This paper is focused on comparing the round baler with variable bale chamber. Round baler Vicon RV 1601 OC14 was compared with round baller Welger RP 435 Master. Both models were equipped with variable chamber. The variable chamber was formed by the endless belts. The evaluation was conducted from quality of work perspective and efficiency. The most important quality parameter was the density of bales. Quality parameters of bales were determined by measuring and weighing. Straw bales and haylage bales were used for studies. Qualitative indicators were converted into dry matter content. Microwave drying according to Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences was used to determine the dry matter. Baler Welger reached better qualitative parameters of work. It was also demonstrated by statistical evaluation using Tukey test. It has clearly demonstrated that round baller Welger achieves significantly greater pressing than round baller Vicon. Greater difference was measured at baling straw. Difference was below the threshold of statistical significance during haylage baling. This difference shows favour of the round baller Welger. On the other hand baler Vicon requires lower input power.

Keywords: forage crops; straw; quality parameters; round baler

Article DOI: http://doi.org/10.15544/RD.2017.201