The Profitable Farming Company will be displaying the new Harvest Tec 600 Series Isobus-ready moisture monitoring and automatic preservative application system atthis year’s Grassland & Muck (Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire – May 21/22, 2014). The unit, which has been designed for use with all makes of big square balers, will be seen at the event on the Agco and Kuhn balers demonstration plots, as well as the Profitable Farming stand.
The new Baler’s Choice 600 Series automatic applicator is the most advanced system of its type on the market. It provides operators with greater flexibility and ease of use, and being Isobus-ready, ensures full integration into the baler control system.
Initially, the new 600 Series is fully compatible with Agco, Kuhn, Case IH and New Holland Isobus balers and tractors, ensuring that essential application data is displayed alongside the baler information on the ISOBUS monitor in the tractor.
For other Isobus-compatible balers or tractors with dual or spare BUS connectors, there’s an optional interface that enables information to be displayed on a split screen or on a separate screen, including the Harvest Tec Touch Screen display. This can also be used to control balers without Isobus.
The ability to accurately and automatically apply buffered Baler’s Choice preservative to hay and straw crops in less than ideal conditions, or in order to maximise crop yield and increased feed value, has baler operators to ensure high bale quality at moisture contents of up to 27 per cent, without dust and mould developing. In good conditions, being able to bale above the historically safe 15 per cent moisture content, baling can start earlier in the day and finish later into the evening, resulting in up to 30 per cent higher daily outputs and increased profitability.
The new Baler’s Choice 600 Series system is designed specifically for use with the highest capacity big square balers. In addition to providing accurate moisture content readings and automatic variable rate application of Baler’s Choice buffered preservative, the new 600 Series can offer the operator the option to provide full bale traceability from the field to end user, yield mapping and visual identification of high moisture content bales.
Two versions of the Baler’s Choice 600 Series system are available: moisture only and moisture expandable. The 600 Series moisture-only option is designed for operator’s who just want an accurate moisture monitor and are unlikely to want to add any other function modules. Using star wheels located in the bale chamber, that take nine readings every second, this provides an accurate record of the moisture content over a range from 8-72 per cent, accurate to one percentage point, and this information is fed into the baler’sIsobus network for display on the control terminal. Should it then be decided that additional modules are required, these can be added, but only after a companion kit has been installed to upgrade the system.
The 600 Series moisture-expandable system, meanwhile, provides all the moisture monitoring functionality, but also includes a baling tonnes per hour feature.
To expand the system, a number of modules can be quickly and simply added. These include:
- The Baler’s Choice Automatic Applicator module that uses the moisture content and bale length data recorded by the star wheels to automatically adjust the application rate relative to the moisture content of the bale. On balers fitted with a weigh scale, this data is also recorded and used to further increase accuracy.
- The Dye Sprayer module provides an easy and cost-effective way of highlighting bales with wet spots that are above a required level and sprays a food grade dye to indicate areas of the bale where the moisture content is above a set level.
- The Bale Tagging module records bale location and application data onto a RFID tag, which is attached to the bale string, so as to provide full traceability from field to end user and can produce full yield maps.
For round and conventional balers, the Profitable Farming Company will continue to offer the current 500 Modular Series and 400 Series automatic application systems or the electronic manual system.
For more information visit: www.profitablefarming.co.uk.
