Tony Bell has been in the business of baling forage maize since 2002. He first witnessed a similar business venture on the continent a number of years previous and thought that it could work in Ireland. Tony purchased a secondhand Goweil LT Master static baler in Belgium earlier this year.

The operation

Tony sows somewhere in the region of 380ac of maize in the Balbriggan area on an annual basis. This maize is sown by Tony using his own Samco equipment. It’s later harvested using his John Deere 6810 harvester equipped with a six-row Kemper header before being hauled to the yard using Broughan silage trailers.

The freshly cut maize is then tipped in a concrete yard where it is loaded into a chain-driven double-slatted conveyer using a JCB 414s articulated wheel loader. This chain-driven double-slatted conveyer floor is very similar to the floor in a typical forage wagon. This floor sends the maize through two cross augers before dropping it onto a single chain-driven slatted conveyer floor. This moving floor carries the harvested maize vertically over the machine before dropping it into the baling chamber.

Fixed chamber

The Austrian-built machine has a fixed baling chamber. This consists of two half chambers comprising of rollers and belts with a packer roller.

These continuous belts are on the inside of the rollers in order to minimise any losses. The tension of the belts can be altered hydraulically, meaning that bale density can be increased or decreased.

Underneath the entire length of the machine is a re-feed slatted conveyer. This conveyer begins at the front of the machine near the wrapping table, continues past the baling chamber before leading back to the chain-driven single-slatted conveyer floor that begins the cycle again.

This conveyer ensures there is no waste or contamination by collecting all losses and recycling them back to the beginning of the cycle once again.

Wrapper

The mobile wrapping table slides under the baling chamber, collects the bale and slides back to the wrapping position. Similar to what we are accustomed to with traditional combination baler units, the wrapper has a twin dispenser arm.

When the bale is wrapped, the operator must give the go ahead for the bale to be dropped off the wrapping table and onto the hydraulically controlled bale ramp. This safety feature means the operator must either signal the bale to be dropped via a remote control or on the machine’s control box.

Balers to date

Tony started off baling maize with an Orkel MP2000 machine back in 2002. He continued to stick with the Orkel brand for many years, running up to five static Orkel balers at one stage. These balers were working in both Ireland and the UK in the agricultural and waste industries.

Tony operated Orkel machines right up until 2016 when he made the decision to purchase a BMP 2012 Unseld-Technic. This baler was electrically driven thanks to a 30kw straight electric motor. Tony was fond on the Unseld machine, however, when he couldn’t get the machine home from a job in the UK he had to go in search of a new baler. He later came across this 2011 Goweil LT Master baler online on a farm in Belgium which Tony purchased. The baler was being used there for baling maize. It had just over 42,000 bales on the clock at the time.

Wrap

The LT Master is capable of applying either film or net. However, Tony only uses film for the maize. The rolls he uses are 1280mm x 2000m and will make 105 bales per roll.

This is a 16 micron film in comparison to a 20 micron film many farmers and contractors around the country are using for baling grass silage. Tony is applying four layers of this film and an additional six layers of outer wrap, so each bale is gets 10 layers of wrapping.

Maintenance

Tony explains that the static machine requires very little maintenance. Each day, or after every 400 bales, the auto greaser and auto chain oil lubers are filled up. The baler is also easy to drive.

Tony is currently using a hired Same Rubin 150 tractor to drive the baler. The tractor is running at 830RPM on the 1000 shaft PTO at its ease. The baler has a reduction gearbox meaning a smaller tractor of about 120hp would be well capable of driving the baler.

The baler also has its own hydraulic pump, so the hydraulics are independent of the tractor. The chains on this monstrous machine are very beefy and have a lifespan of 40,000 bales.

The clever engineering in the manufacturing of this machine was evident. It takes approximately five minutes to switch the machine from working mode to transport mode. This involves cleaning down the machine and folding up the conveyer floor and the supports.

Maize

Tony sells fresh maize from the harvester, round bales of maize and maize from a pit. In a normal year, he sells between 3,000 and 3,500 bales of maize, around 2,500t of fresh maize and a further 1,000t of maize from the pit.

Last year Tony had an average yield of 19.6t/ac. However, this year’s unprecedented weather conditions meant that Tony’s average yield was down over 4t to 15t/acre.

This significant yield loss was as a result of the drought, followed by the more recent storm Ali in which the crops suffered severe lodging.

Feed quality and price

So what’s in the bale? Typically, these round bales of maize weigh somewhere in the region of 900-960kg. However, Tony emphasised that quality is the main thing on his mind when it comes to harvesting and ensiling the maize.

Tony explained that his average bale has 32% dry matter (DM), meaning that each bale will have around 300kg DM. He went on to explain that “two-thirds (200kg) of this DM is in the form of maize grain”. Due to the reduction in yield, coupled with increasing land lease prices and increasing fertiliser prices, he had to marginally increase the price of his product this year. Last year Tony sold the round bales of maize for €62/bale ex-yard. However, this year the bales are costing €65/bale ex-yard.

Various crops

Tony has travelled throughout Ireland and the UK baling a huge variation of crops in both the agricultural and waste industries. In 2011, he recalls baling a combined total of 120,000 bales using five Orkel balers. Over the years he has baled maize, various types of whole-crop, miscanthus, cocoa shells for Cadbury, beet pulp for Irish Sugar and various industrial materials such as cardboard and paper.

Interestingly, Tony will be soon travelling to a new customer to bale peat, which is intended for bedding. He has another enquiry to able finely chopped mischantus for bedding. Currently, he is making approximately 20,000 bales per year, 3,000 to 3,500 of which are maize.

Goweil LT Master baler

  • Unladen weight: 15,800kg.
  • Estimated price new: €235,000 plus VAT.
  • Capacity: 45 round bales per hour.
  • Brakes: Hydraulic and air.
  • Chassis: Tandem axle chassis rated for 80km/h.
  • Transport length: 11.58m (38ft).
  • Transport width: 2.55m (8.3ft).