Barry and Declan operate a successful contracting business based in Ballybrittas, Co. Laois, and also run a tillage and suckler-beef enterprise with brothers Colm, Paddy, and their father, Tommy.
“I’m farming at home full-time while my brother Declan farms part-time,” says Barry. “We do a lot of contracting work at certain times during the year, so it’s a big priority for us to have reliable machinery. We produce up to 8,000 bales per year,” says Barry. When it comes to the best brand of machine for the job, the Wilsons say they wouldn’t go past McHale’s F5500 baler.
An easy decision
They purchased their first F5500 baler six years ago, and a second one just recently. These have been positive purchases, Barry says. “Before getting our first McHale baler, I would have used Welger and Lely balers. I spoke with other contractors and found that the most common make was the McHale baler. We purchased our first six seasons ago, and the second one just last year.
“We haven’t looked back since. We found that, from a cost perspective, McHale offered us greater value for money. Also, there were a number of extras on the McHale baler over other competitor brands. The biggest benefit that we noticed immediately was the pickup of the machine. We also noticed that the machine was stronger and better able to take a bit of hardship.”
Purchasing a second F5500 was an easy decision, says Declan: “We got on very well with our first baler. In addition to the overall working of the machine, we found that the after-sales service from our local dealer, JH Fitzpatrick, was excellent.”
Cam pick-up
The Wilsons’ F5500 baler is fitted with a five-tine bar, 2.1m galvanised cam pick-up, which they found ‘was much better than the balers they had previously’. “When I compare it to the cam-less pick-up, you have one less row of tines on it but as the crop goes into the baler, the tines let go of the crop a little bit easier. With the type of work that we are doing, the cam option suits us, but the cam-less option is something that we will look into,” says Barry.
He feels that the adaptive intake is much better on the F5500 baler: “It doesn’t choke up. The flow of the swath into the baler is completely seamless. The larger augers on the sides definitely help with this. It pulls the material off the pick-up nearer to the rotor and allows it to get a better grip of the material that’s being fed into the machine.”
The main drive chain on the F5500 is protected by a slip clutch on the PTO. It means that if the baler gets blocked, the drop floor can be lowered hydraulically from the tractor cab, widening the feed channel, allowing the blocked material to be freed and fed through. The floor can then be reset and baling can resume.
Chopper
The Wilsons’ McHale F5500 comes with a 15-knife chopper unit, described by the brothers as ‘excellent’. “As the crop enters the rotor, pairs of rotating tines feed the crop through the chopping unit. It creates a very steady crop flow, reducing the risk of blockages,” said Declan. The knives can be engaged and disengaged from the tractor cab.
The bale chamber on the F5500 is made up of 18 heavy duty rollers that produce a 1.23m x 1.25m round bale. The rollers are made from high-grade tubular steel and the ends are fitted with heavy-duty 50mm shafts on the drive and non-drive side. Long shaft rollers are equipped with 55mm shafts and bearings. The roller ends are fitted with a McHale-designed reverse-thread sealing system.
“The extra roller is really useful in dry straw,” says Declan.
The F5500 also contains a pivot stretch netter unit. The net tension can be adjusted on a variable pulley, allowing for optimum net usage and bale shape. “We find that the baler makes a very neat and tidy looking bale. This is crucial from a contracting point of view because farmers demand well chopped, solid bales,” explains Barry.
Declan believes that the continuous oiling and progressive greasing system is a key function of the machine that give him peace of mind and also saves him time during the really busy periods. “With some of the other machines you have to manually grease all the points on them. It speeds me up getting going in the morning because you don’t have as much greasing to do on the baler. The baler looks after itself.”