Roto-baler action

We had a major breakdown with our square bailer (we never did own a round bailer) in the early 1980’s and borrowed one of these from an old neighbor. It hadn’t been used in years but that old man knew how to set it up and adjust it properly so it made nice bales. We pulled it with a Wd45 and the hand clutch made it easy but it was so slow and tedious stopping every 10-15 ft. We three boys finally got sick of that and decided spending hours in the hot sun, walking a hundred miles picking up all those little bales wouldn’t be fun. So we got the old push rake from loose hay stacking days out of the top of the shed, put it on a 1950 JD B we had. Then we just pushed all the hay into the center of the field in a pile and used that thing as a stationary baler. With one of us taking turns feeding it with a pitch fork while the other two loaded the bales on a wagon as fast as it spit them out. Needless to say we were plenty happy when we got the parts in to repair our old JD 214 T square bailer even though we still had to take turns riding the wagon stacking square bales as they came off the bailer. Later we got a newer JD kicker bailer and thought we had as my dad would say “the world by the butt on a downhill pull”😂

The ancestor of modern round balers. I used one for years 60's/70's. Could pump out over 1000 a day. It was slow compared to small square balers but had the advantage of being waterproof - no mad carting panic to beat the thunderstorms! We used edible flax string no problems, bales stacked like pipes against end poles in the shed. Matched with the Allis WD45 tractor (with the oil lubed hand clutch and live PTO) it was years ahead of its time. Took considerable mechanical knowledge to set up properly but gave little trouble thereafter. Some never mastered it. As others have pointed out, the rows were best raked loosely together, or side by side. Thanks for the fond memories Proudhawk!

In 1962 I was 4 and started helping my dad bale hay with one of these pulled by a Farmall H for many years. He had to stop each time the arm swung down and put the tractor in neutral, then engage the PTO again to tie and eject the bale, then once again put it into gear to move. That baler took a LOT of maintenance. I remember how fascinated I was about the bale ejecting. Never got tired of watching that. Later my grandfather bought an Allis Chalmers tractor that had the hand clutch. Huge difference!

This young fellow is making some great little round bales. A lot of guys never got on to running these balers.

Ah, the good old Allis Chalmers toolbox jump seat. I spent many hours riding one on our D19. The Allis tractor with the Power Director is the only tractor I would want to use with a Roto Bailer. You could use another brand, but it will never be as perfect a tool for that job as the Allis.

I'm a 72 old retired Farmer and have baled tens of thousands of bales with allis baler, my best day was 1400 bales. It was a good baler ins day, but you really needed a allis with live pto, to max the number of bales you could make. I used a WD45 on it and ran the engine wide open in third gear and used the hand clutch to conrol my speed and the amount of hay on the apron. you could slip that clutch all day long and it worked good., running in oil with steel plates in it.

Yes, the sound of the twine arm dropping as Sam Moore said - I haven't heard that in over 40 years. My Dad was really sold on this baler. I was embarrassed by it as we were pretty much the only farmers that used it. I also hated handling the bales. They were much harder to pick up by hand than a square bale where you just had to grab the twine for handles. We use hay hooks. Does anyone remember hay hooks? The major advantage that Dad saw in the round bale was its much better ability to shed rain. When I left home, he got one of the early Vermeers.

Look like some very good bales. Nice and tight. Enjoyed watching.

Years ago, I baled thousands of bales with one of these. Pulled behind an old Case diesel tractor. Worked pretty well. They obviously don't stack nicely like square bales but they roll out nice when feeding.

Dad had a Roto-baler pulled by an IH 460 when I was growing up. By the time I was in high school I was running it and I shudder about what a death trap that combination was! The 460 had no fenders and had a frying pan seat that sometimes acted as sort of a catapult but did have independent PTO so stepping on the clutch did not shut off the PTO. Actually, he had two of the balers, the second one was bought on a farm auction that was newer and in better condition. Both were around the place until there was a family cleanup auction in 2000. The sound of the twine arm dropping was key to stopping. Eventually the muscle memory was such that everything just happened in time with the sounds from the baler. That combination was retired 40 years ago this month when he bought a used John Deere 410 "big" round baler. It's bales were about 4 feet wide by almost 5 feet tall. These days I bale with a John Deere 4450 tractor and JD 566 baler. I don't miss the 460 or the Roto-baler at all.

These were very popular in Southwest Iowa when I was a kid in the 60's and 70's. My dad had one and it made a lot of bales. Then of course you had to go through the field with a lowboy, or sled of some kind and pick up the bales so there was quite a bit of work with one of these balers. As other posters have said these bales shed the rain better than square bales so we stacked them near the cattle lots for convenience and the stack made a windbreak.

Best thing about the roto, is you could feed it anything from grass to haygrazer, sticks, and cardboard. If it could be fed in, it would bale it for you.

Dad had one, we worked on it a few times. Added tines to the pickup conveyer, didn't have to run it as close to the ground. Bales would take more wet weather than square. We saved the twine and rolled it up into balls to reuse (emergency use, run out of binder twine). We could bale 80 bales in 20 minutes. Powered ours with an AC CA series. Had the hand clutch. Worked good for us, just heavy to haul around.

Having a live PTO tractor is best for these balers. Otherwise you are shifting and clutching twice for each bale. For a 1000 bale field, you will shift and clutch 2000 times! Perfect adjustment is the key to successful operation. There are several limit levers and correct timing between components that are necessary for good operation. If you carefully read the manual, and fully understand how it works, you can quickly fix any problems. Too many novice operators don't take the time to understand how the baler functions, or read the manual. One problem a lot of operators have is the twine knife not cutting properly. It's important to have it perfectly sharp, using a "wet" grinding stone. Sharpening it on a regular grindstone can easily overheat the metal and take the temper out. Also important to have the knife installed bevel side DOWN, as clearly specified in the manual. Lots of operators install it with the bevel up, which will lead to poor cutting. Windrows should not be overly thick. Having the windrow the full width of the feeder is critical. Alfalfa is generally the easiest to bale. As is oat or wheat straw. Longer and "ranker" hay (like prairie or brome) needs to be DRY. Heavy-stemmed hays are best windrowed with crimping rolls, to crush the stems and encourage drying. The bale forming chamber is formed by the belts running in opposite directions. When the hay first enters into the bale chamber, it needs to "double-back" on itself to start rolling a bale. With coarser and damper material, this "doubling-back" action won't happen properly, and will cause the belts to jam. These machines make the best bales. Especially for small livestock feeders. They unroll easily in the feeder, and are easily carried. The hay is gently rolled into the bale, and not "mashed-up" like a square bale.

I too have spent many an hour doing this very thing. Sure, not very "convenient" compared to todays big round and square bales with automation but in their day a very competent machine. The round bale shed moisture much better than a square one in wet areas. By rolling the hay instead of plunging it like a square baler more leaf and protein was saved in the bale. No complicated knotter was required as the twine was just wrapped around the bale and then cut. The real life saver when running a roto-baler was a live PTO where the PTO would remain spinning while clutching and bringing the tractor to a stop to tie and eject the bale. A lot of work on the old WC. Handling and stacking was a bit more bothersome as hay hooks were required. Long live the Roto-baler!

Grand dad had one for years he bought it new.his c had a hand clutch so the pto would not stop.baled 1000 of bales with it.hard to load but easy to stack.

is he bailing, or performing a torture test on his clutch???

Many many many hot Nebraska days with a D17 or a WD45 Allis and a Rotobailer. Bad part is my dad still uses his!.

I remember driving the tractor in the field when I was 6 or 7 to pickup these bales, my two brothers who were older stacked them on a hay rack. An early predecessor to the current large round balers

Not very effecient from a production point of view, but laid out the basic operating principles for all modern day large round bakers, belt style. Years ahead of its time.