soft core hay baler

I just bought a new krone fortima 1600f fixed chamber baler with net wrap and wide pick up.  I have limited experience with hay balers but I think I would have preferred a hard core baler.  The reason I ended up with the Krone fortima is my father had 2 krone 4x4 hay balers. One was a few years old and the other a bit older but few bales through it.  I am a one man show and after doing the math I decided it would be much faster to bale, haul in and wrap 4x5 foot bales.  I think it came out to 36% bigger.  Anyway, the Krone dealer would give us the most on a trade on both balers and it made the money difference affordable. I didnt have 10g extra for anther brand  So, that is why I ended up with another Krone. I cant complain, I have a new baler.  We buy our equipment form the same dealer and they are great to work with and service is excellent.  that made a big difference as well.  

 

I have wrapped 4x4 soft core bales for haylage and they were just fine for feeding.  I have read that soft core are not good for haylage.  Will I have a problem stepping up to the 4x5? I wouldnt think there would be much difference. many times it is close to dry bales by the time I get everything done and baled myself.

 

I do Have a problem when it comes to wrapping on a inline wrapper. If the net is torn off of one side and you put on new rolls of plastic it will occasionally catch and create a problem.  They seem to be a little bigger than my neighbors 4x5 veermeer.  

 

One major problem I had was the guy who set it up said to only run it at 85% hardness the first 100 bales.  He also said if I run low on time you could let them set out over night and wrap them early the next day.  I did some research and found that to be true.  But, you know what happened.....they were not full hardness in the first place and they were squatting.  VERY difficult to get them through the wrapper.  I am nervous about opening them up the winter.

 

So, my neighbors vermeer silage bales squat a bit.  The Krone does a little more.  They are fairly solid. I run into a little trouble if I am baling on the side of a steep hill and it doesnt form on both sides.  Then the one side will be a bit softer.  It is a little harder to move second cutting. 

 

They are fairly hard.  I do drop a gear when it hits the 75% full buzzer.  Would stopping and let it pack in after that buzzer make it more solid?

 

We didnt have heavy hay this year due to lack of rain.  But, this thing seems to be a hay eating machine.  it just sucks it in.  We had a little trouble with the net wrap But I think we may have that worked out.  the monitor is easy to use.  It seems to be over engineered and I think it is made to do thousands of bales a year. very heavy built.  I only do 350 bales a year so it will still be going when I am not.  

 

Any information and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

soft core hay baler