16,000 sisal in roto baler

I knocked down some oats to hay for the second time this year this last week. It actually produced more the second time than it did the first time. But, the point of the story, a friend decided that he'd take a bunch of it in roto bales, if I wanted to make them. Having no roto baler/binder twine on hand, and needing some fast, I tied a five gallon bucket on the side of the baler twine box, dropped in a ball of 16,000 sisal, and it worked every bit as good as the binder twine. After seeing that it worked, I called the pastor from our church to see if he wanted to make some roto bales for old time sake. He couldn't get there fast enough. He grew up on a farm in north eastern Nebraska, where they made up to as many as 10,000 roto bales a year. Well, I left him with two balls of the 16,000 twine, plenty of hay raked up and ready to go, and plenty of gas in the tractor and told him to go until he had enough, whether it was 10 bales or a thousand. Next time I heard from him, he was out of twine. I haven't counted up how many bales are out there, but man that roto baler can burn through a lot of twine in short order, and I guess I won't be messing with binder twine any more. Glad I don't have to pick em up out of the field. And I hope that their claim to fame of shedding water holds true, because they've gotten about an inch of rain on them now. Darrel

I have the D17 on it this year. The PD really works great for roto baling. Darrel

My first job was following the rotobaler with a hay hook dragging the bales out of the terrace channels so they stay drier on the bottom. I remember some old magazine ads for the rotobaler that showed a kid on a minibike zipping down the rows bumping every bale to roll it over so the string would last longer.

what is Sisal !

A plastic twine.

http://www.aamstrand.com/sisal-twine.html

If memory serves, they were about three ft wide, and 18 inches or so tall. We loved them because unlike a square baler, you didn't have to pick them up right away for fear of being rained on. We always used a hay hook in one hand, and a glove on the other. Swing the hook down on the far end, lean down and grab the other end, and swing up onto the wagon, with a bump froM your knee if needed. Or you could reach put with the hook and stab in the middle and pick up if you had enough horsepower to do so. Dad always kept the tension band pretty loose, so they weren't real heavy. Life is short enough...

There were rotobale loaders that you pilled by hitting them to a drawbar on the sid of a wagon or truck. you drove along and when the bale enter a  guide on the bale loader it tripped a mechanism that activated sn arm that clamped the bale and the arm swung up and the end of its travel released the bale.  You didn't need to align the bales before hand because as you drove along the guide into the bale loader could be used to align the bale.  They worked well and saved a lot of work.  The power for the arm was from the drive wheel on the bleeding loader.  There was also another type that was basically a small elevator that got pulled along beside the wagon or truck.  I preferred the first one I described

John, there is a bale loader like the first one you described for sale not too far from me. I have a hard time imagining how they work, but maybe I should go buy it. It's cheap enough, and sounds like it works alright. darrel

D17 & POWER DIRECTER worked great on a ROTO BALER.