Lely’s Welger RP 520 Farmer baler produces Europe’s biggest round bale, measuring up to 2.0m in diameter. It is also the first variable chamber belt machine from the company for a long while. Mick Roberts delves beneath the giant side covers.
Probably the first question one asks when looking at the Welger Farmer 520 is why hasn’t anyone else thought about making 2.0m diameter round bales before? The benefits, it would seem, are obvious: More material in fewer packages should save baling time, net wrapping and transport costs. All sensible reasons to look at buying a baler that can produce packages with diameters from 1.10m to 2.00m. Not only can this machine produce sensibly sized silage bales, it can also pump out huge 2.0m ones when working in straw.
But, as always, the reality is somewhat different. Contractors using the first Welger RP 520 round balers in the UK report few difficulties with the machines – it’s their customers that are the problem. Few farmers who use round bales, it seems, are geared up to handle the 2.0m diameter bales made by this really big round baler.
Working in straw in the north of England this year one contractor is said to have made round bales weighing up to 650kg. If farmers and contractors can handle these monsters then there could be significant savings. For example, working in a normal crop of wheat straw Welger reckon the RP 520 Farmer will make just 6.6 bales/ha. Welger has combined technology from its existing balers with new designs and components to make the RP 520. Up front it is typically Welger with the same drawbar, driveline and net wrap system found on the RP 220 roll balers.
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