IN hindsight, Bunbury-based dealership Western Ag should have placed multiple orders for the new fully automatic McHale Orbital wrapper.
It recently took delivery of the first unit in WA and promptly sold it, amid strong inquiry and interest in the machine.
According to Western Ag mechanic Tom Foster, farmers have quickly recognised the improved productivity and timeliness the wrapper brings to the round bale silage market.
“It’s a high speed unit which enables an operator to typically follow two tractors and balers to pick up and wrap the bales, following the same direction,” Mr Fowler said.
“It virtually halves wrapping time.
“So if you’re a big operation, this machine is more than capable of keeping up to bales being produced.”
According to McHale, the high-speed wrapping system can apply four layers of wrap in 18 seconds to a 1.25 metre (4foot) bale and six layers of wrap in under 25 seconds.
As the lift arm moves the bale towards the wrapping ring, the wrapping roller closest to the tractor moves out of the way, which reduces the height the bale has to travel to get to the wrapper.
This allows the bale to move from the ground to the wrapping platform in a smooth quick manner.
A bale can be carried on the arm while another is being wrapped.
The new model features vertical orbiting arms, rather than horizontal, which overcomes uneven wrap tension.
The Orbital is offset and has a loading arm that swings open 90 degrees when approaching the bale.
Once the bale is in place, the arm reaches around the base of the bale before lifting it clear of the ground.
To reduce the distance that the loading arm has to lift the bale, the front roller on the table swings back and down simultaneously.
With the bale on-board, the arm lowers and the roller reverts to its level position.
Another benefit of this loading arrangement is that the rear roller, in effect, becomes a stop and prevents the bale falling out the back when working up steep slopes.
With the bale on, the operator just selects the bale size on the Expert Plus control console and the rear roller then automatically positions itself so that the film is applied to the middle of the bale.
The control console can also record a number of bale totals for different jobs and also features film-break sensing.
Once the bale is wrapped – the Orbital will handle bales between 1.10m (3.6ft) and 1.45m (4.7ft) – the rear roller lowers to reduce the drop height for the finished bale.
With an optional side-tip, the bale can be rotated through 90 degrees and can be placed on its end.
The machine length is 4.35m (14ft), transport width is 2.74m (9ft) and hydraulic requirement is 35 litres a minute, with free flow return.
More information: Western Ag 9725 7011.