Editing Baler (section)

==Round baler==
[[Image:Rundballenpresse.gif|left|thumb|Round baler dumping a fresh bale]]
The most common type of baler in industrialized countries today is the round baler. It produces cylinder-shaped "round" or "rolled" bales. The design has a "thatched roof" effect that withstands weather.<ref name="ag.iastate.edu"/> Grass is rolled up inside the baler using rubberized belts, fixed rollers, or a combination of the two. When the bale reaches a predetermined size, either netting or [[twine]] is wrapped around it to hold its shape. The back of the baler swings open, and the bale is discharged. The bales are complete at this stage, but they may also be wrapped in plastic sheeting by a [[bale wrapper]], either to keep hay dry when stored outside or convert damp grass into [[silage]]. Variable-chamber large round balers typically produce bales from {{convert|48|to|72|in|cm}} in diameter and up to {{convert|60|in|cm}} in width. The bales can weigh anywhere from {{convert|1100|to|2200|lb|kg}}, depending upon size, material, and [[moisture content]]. Common modern small round balers (also called "mini round balers") produce bales {{convert|20|to|22|in|cm}} in diameter and {{convert|20.5|to|28|in|cm}} in width, generally weighing from {{convert|40|to|55|lb|kg}}.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Goodwin|first1=Pat|title=Buyer's Guide to Hay Equipment|url=https://www.extension.iastate.edu/smallfarms/buyers-guide-hay-equipment|access-date=31 Aug 2023}}</ref>

Originally conceived by Ummo Luebben circa 1910, the first round baler did not see production until 1947 when [[Allis-Chalmers]] introduced the Roto-Baler. Marketed for the water-shedding and light weight properties of its hay bales, AC had sold nearly 70,000 units by the end of production in 1960.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.toytractorshow.com/ac_inovation.htm|title=Allis-Chalmers Innovation|access-date=January 7, 2010|archive-date=April 8, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100408025734/http://www.toytractorshow.com/ac_inovation.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The next major innovation began in 1965 when a graduate student at Iowa State University, Virgil Haverdink, sought out Wesley F. Buchele, a professor of Agricultural Engineering, seeking a research topic for a master thesis.<ref name="ag.iastate.edu">{{cite web |url=http://www.ag.iastate.edu/coa150/buchele.php |title=Alumni Memories |access-date=2013-12-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224122555/http://www.ag.iastate.edu/coa150/buchele.php |archive-date=2013-12-24 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ag.iastate.edu/coa150/pop10_8.php |title=150 Points of Pride |access-date=2013-12-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224114153/http://www.ag.iastate.edu/coa150/pop10_8.php |archive-date=2013-12-24 }}</ref> Over the next year, Buchele and Haverdink developed a new design for a large round baler, completed and tested in 1966, and thereafter dubbed the Buchele–Haverdink large round baler.<ref name="ag.iastate.edu"/>  The large round bales were about {{convert|1.5|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} in diameter, {{convert|2|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} long, and they weighed about {{convert|270|kg|lb|abbr=off}} after they dried{{Snd}}about 80&nbsp;kg/m<sup>3 (</sup>5&nbsp;lb/ft<sup>3)</sup>.<ref name="thefreelibrary.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Why%20the%20large%20round%20bale?%20A%20little%20hay%20history.-a0128059669|title=Why the large round bale? A little hay history. - Free Online Library}}</ref> The design was promoted as a "Whale of a Bale" and Iowa State University now explains the innovative design as follows:
{{blockquote|Farmers were saved from the backbreaking chore of slinging hay bales in the 1960s, when Iowa State agricultural engineering professor Wesley Buchele and a group of student researchers invented a baler that produced large, round bales that could be moved by tractor. The baler has become the predominant forage-handling machine in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fpm.iastate.edu/maps/memorials/marker.asp?id=15-01|title=Innovative Baler}}</ref>}}

In the summer of 1969, the Australian Econ Fodder Roller baler came out, a design that made a {{convert|135|kg|lb|abbr=on}} ground-rolled bale. In September of that same year, The Hawkbilt Company of Vinton, Iowa, contacted Dr. Buchele about his design, then fabricated a large ground-rolling round baler which baled hay that had been laid out in a [[windrow]], and began manufacturing large round balers in 1970.<ref name="thefreelibrary.com"/>

In 1972, Gary Vermeer of Pella, Iowa, designed and fabricated a round baler after the design of the A-C Roto-Baler, and the [[Vermeer Company]] began selling its model 605{{snd}}the first modern round baler. The Vermeer design used belts to compact hay into a cylindrical shape as is seen today.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vermeerag.com/history/1972.cfm|title=1972 |access-date=January 7, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090924013317/http://www.vermeerag.com/history/1972.cfm |archive-date=September 24, 2009 }}</ref>

In the early 1980s, collaboration between [[Eaton Corporation|Walterscheid]] and Vermeer produced the first effective uses of [[CV joint]]s in balers, and later in other farm machinery. Due to the heavy torque required for such equipment, double Cardan joints are primarily used. Former Walterscheid engineer Martin Brown is credited with "inventing" this use for universal joints.

By 1975, fifteen American and Canadian companies were manufacturing large round balers.<ref name="thefreelibrary.com"/>

===Transport, handling, and feeding===

==== Short-haul transport and on-field handling ====
[[Image:Round hay bale at dawn02.jpg|right|thumb|A large round bale]]
Due to the ability for round bales to roll away on a slope, they require specific treatment for safe transport and handling. Small round bales can typically be moved by hand or with lower-powered equipment. Due to their size and their weight, which can be a ton or more, large round bales require special transport and moving equipment.

The most important tool for large round bale handling is the [[bale spear]] or spike, which is usually mounted on the back of a tractor or the front of a [[skid-steer]]. It is inserted into the approximate center of the round bale, then lifted and the bale is hauled away. Once at the destination, the bale is set down, and the spear pulled out. Careful placement of the spear in the center is needed or the bale can spin around and touch the ground while in transport, causing a loss of control. When used for wrapped bales that are to be stored further, the spear makes a hole in the wrapping that must be sealed with plastic tape to maintain a hermetic seal.

Alternatively, a [[grapple fork]] may be used to lift and transport large round bales. The grapple fork is a hydraulically driven implement attached to the end of a tractor's bucket loader. When the hydraulic cylinder is extended, the fork clamps downward toward the bucket, much like a closing hand. To move a large round bale, the tractor approaches the bale from the side and places the bucket underneath the bale. The fork is then clamped down across the top of the bale, and the bucket is lifted with the bale in tow. Grab hooks installed on the bucket of a tractor are another tool used to handle round bales, and can be done by a farmer with welding skills by welding two hooks and a heavy chain to the outside top of a tractor front loader bucket.

==== Long-haul transport ====
The rounded surface of round bales poses a challenge for long-haul, flat-bed transport, as they could roll off of the flat surface if not properly supported. This is particularly the case with large round bales; their size makes them difficult to flip, so it may not be feasible to flip many of them onto the flat surface for transport and then re-position them on the round surface at the destination. One option that works with both large and small round bales is to equip the [[Flatbed trailer|flat-bed trailer]] with [[guard rail]]s at either end, which prevent bales from rolling either forward or backward. Another solution is the [[saddle wagon]], which has closely spaced rounded saddles or support posts in which round bales sit. The tall sides of each saddle prevent the bales from rolling around while on the wagon, as the bale settles down in between posts. On 3 September 2010, on the A381 in Halwell near [[Totnes]], [[Devon]], England, an early member of British rock group [[Electric Light Orchestra|ELO]] Mike Edwards was killed when his van was crushed by a large round bale. The cellist, 62, died instantly when the {{convert|600|kg|lb|adj=on}} bale fell from a tractor on nearby farmland before rolling onto the road and crushing his van.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2010-09-06|title=ELO's Mike Edwards killed by hay bale in freak crash|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-11195393|access-date=2021-04-07}}</ref>

==== Feeding ====
A large round bale can be directly used for feeding animals by placing it in a feeding area, tipping it over, removing the bale wrap, and placing a protective ring (a ''ring feeder'') around the outside so that animals will not walk on hay that has been peeled off the outer perimeter of the bale. The round baler's rotational forming and compaction process also enables both large and small round bales to be fed out by unrolling the bale, leaving a continuous flat strip in the field or behind a feeding barrier.

===Silage or haylage===
[[File:High Moisture Round Bale - Pickup and Wrapping 320k.ogg|thumb|320px|Video: Picking up and applying plastic cling wrap to a round bale.]]
[[File:High Moisture Round Bale - Sealing Bales Together 320k.ogg|thumb|320px|Video: Sealing the wrapped bales together.]]
[[File:In-line bale wrapped hay.webp|thumb|[[Bale wrapper#In-line bale wrapper|In-line bale wrapped]] hay]]
[[Silage]], a fermented animal feed, was introduced in the late 1800s, and can also be stored in a silage or haylage bale, which is a high-moisture bale wrapped in plastic film. These are baled much wetter than hay bales, and are usually smaller than hay bales because the greater moisture content makes them heavier and harder to handle. These bales begin to ferment almost immediately, and the metal bale spear stabbed into the core becomes very warm to the touch from the fermentation process.

Silage or haylage bales may be wrapped by placing them on a rotating bale spear mounted on the rear of a tractor. As the bale spins, a layer of plastic cling film is applied to the exterior of the bale. This roll of plastic is mounted in a sliding shuttle on a steel arm and can move parallel to the bale axis, so the operator does not need to hold up the heavy roll of plastic. The plastic layer extends over the ends of the bale to form a ring of plastic approximately {{convert|12|in|cm}} wide on the ends, with hay exposed in the center.

To stretch the cling-wrap plastic tightly over the bale, the tension is actively adjusted with a knob on the end of the roll, which squeezes the ends of the roll in the shuttle. In the example wrapping video, the operator is attempting to use high tension to get a flat, smooth seal on the right end. However, the tension increases too much and the plastic tears off. The operator recovers by quickly loosening the tension and allows the plastic to feed out halfway around the bale before reapplying the tension to the sheeting.

These bales are placed in a long continuous row, with each wrapped bale pressed firmly against all the other bales in the row before being set down onto the ground. The plastic wrap on the ends of each bale sticks together to seal out air and moisture, protecting the silage from the elements. The end-bales are hand-sealed with strips of cling plastic across the opening.

The airtight seal between each bale permits the row of round bales to ferment as if they were in a [[silo bag]], but they are easier to handle than a silo bag, as they are more robust and compact. The plastic usage is relatively high, and there is no way to reuse the silage-contaminated plastic sheeting, although it can be [[recycling|recycled]] or used as a fuel source via [[incineration]]. The wrapping cost is approximately US$5 per bale.{{Citation needed|date=June 2013}}

An alternative form of wrapping uses the same type of bale placed on a [[bale wrapper]], consisting of pair of rollers on a turntable mounted on the three-point linkage of a tractor. It is then spun about two axes while being wrapped in several layers of cling-wrap plastic film. This covers the ends and sides of the bale in one operation, thus sealing it separately from other bales. The bales are then moved or stacked using a special pincer attachment on the front loader of a tractor, which does not damage the film seal. They can also be moved using a standard bale spike, but this punctures the airtight seal, and the hole in the film must be repaired after each move.

Plastic-wrapped bales must be unwrapped before being fed to livestock to prevent accidental ingestion of the plastic. Like round hay bales, silage bales are usually fed using a ''ring feeder''.