Keith Henderson's new Welger Lely RP220 Master baler combined with the McHale wrapper have doubled his previous capacity of 30 bales per hour and provided a raft of new features and benefits.
Fitted with drop floors it's now just a matter of operating some hydraulics from the tractor to open floors and clear blockages, helpful with the current season and when a client's own mowing and raking is less than ideal. "That's where this baler come into it's own," Keith said, "when you have difficult baling conditions, lumps and blocks don't seem to worry it much. It's got a big mouth that just swallows everything you put in front of it."
A chopper baler with knives, they can also vary the bale density to produce bales from 400 kilos to 900 if required, increasing bale density for light dry crops without much weight.
Keith has been on the family property up the Sunrise Valley, Upper Moutere all his life growing hops, running some stock and with a couple of hundred acres of forestry. Six years ago he took on the balage business. It was a relatively small business to start with but it has grown over the years and they needed better gear. "We had our old baler 5 years and it was getting to the stage where our maintenance costs were getting a bit high, like any old gear does, and that's all gone with the new machinery."
While visiting a field day in Blenhiem to see the wrapper, they saw the Welger baler and it had many of the features they were looking for. "Chris (from FMR) explained it was a demo model and he trailered it over to Nelson and around the various contractors to trial behind their own tractors. We tried it, liked it and it has worked very well."
Keith now produces close to 5,000 big round bales per year, a job make easier by the selection of good gear.
