USA BiG Pack Roadshow 2010

The BiG Pack Roadshow 2010 is done!

2010-10-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

Hi Followers,

The Roadshow is done. At the 15th of October I finished the Tour after 90 Demos and 10400 Miles in Garden City, Kansas. The Baler has now 150 hours and 5795 Bales on the counter. That is nearly 2 miles per bale!

In the last six and a half month I traveled through 10 States - California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma and I showed the Krone BiG Pack 1290 HDP to round about 160 interested persons.

In Colorado and Kansas we baled some Sorghum and of course corn stalks. But here some pictures of the sorghum. It was the second cut (3-4 ft. tall) and we made some 1700 lbs bales. We never baled stuff like that before, but without any problems I made every 50 seconds a bale with 26-30 flakes. The customer who runs a round baler was very impressed - not only because of the weight, but also because of the speed and the easy handling of square bales.

Also the bales looked pretty nice, and the "little brother" had no problems to load and move them.

In corn stalks we used both balers - the BiG Pack 1290 HDP Roadshow baler and a BiG Pack 12130. With the HDP we could reach in shredded material 1750 lbs, and in only raked stalks 1520 lbs. Everybody told me, that corn stalks make a big mass especially at the knotters, but I didn't had much trouble with that.

At the 4x4 we didn't lost a single knot because of knotter issues. With the 4x4 we baled in Fort Morgan, Colorado again shredded material, and the heaviest bale hat 1980 lbs - also 8 ft long. After some adjustments at the prechamber we could reach 8 mph, and the bales looked pretty well too.

The third crop we baled in Colorado and Kansas was Alfalfa - but I think you have seen enough pictures with a BiG Pack in Alfalfa. If not, go back to California Times.

So, the Roadshow is done - but what comes next?

I'm already back in Reno - after three days of traveling through the rain - and I will go back to Germany at the end of this week. It was a great time here in the USA. I've seen so much of the country and I've met only nice and friendly people. It was a great job for me and I liked it very much. Also the whole team of Krone North America did a really good job, and I got great support from everybody. Thanks a lot that I was able to run this great successful tour!

Back in Germany I will continue working at the sales promotion / Marketing and it would be a pleasure to meet somebody of you one day in Spelle or somewhere else. Also my email-address niklas.beindorf [at] krone.de is still the same, so if you have any more questions - please let me know.

That's it from my side here at this place.

Thanks a lot for following my Blog and have fun!

Regards

Niklas

Idaho good bye - Utah here we are!

2010-09-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hi followers,

it's only one more month of the BiG Pack Roadshow left. At the 15th of October I'm done, and todays plan says, that I finish up in Garden City Kansas - so I have to hurry. After some more days in Idaho - I went to Rupert and Idaho Falls - I came last Sunday to Tremonton, Utah. But now I'm already in Roosevelt.

But step by step:

After my last stop in Twin Falls I went to Rupert, and I had a really good demonstration together with our dealer Pioneer Equipment and our salesman Mike Child.

I made some bales in wheat and barley straw, and I could reach bale weights between 1190 lbs (wheat in the afternoon) and 1433 lbs (barley in the morning with 10-12% moisture). It was really impressive to see so heavy straw bales (3x4x8 ft.) Also the customer was very impressed about so heavy 3x4 bales, and of course about the great performance of the HDP. He liked the baler so much, that it was hard to stop him again.

At the pictures you can see a Case, because our dealer sells beside Krone also Case Equipment. It was a rougher ride than in the JCB, and it took us a little bit longer to go out to the field, but we are flexible, and we run what ever our dealer wants us to run.

We also got a small tractor for the scale - 275 hp only for the scale! Looked a little bit funny but it worked pretty well.

After Rupert we went up to Idaho Falls, and we did a few demos together with the Pioneer store over there.

We baled mostly wheat straw, and I could make some nice looking and heavy bales while I baled against a MF 2190. It was so cool to see, that both baler did exactly the same weight. 1170 lbs.

Later that week we got some rain, so I was not able to bale any more. I used one day to pick up a BiG Pack 12130 in Rupert, and I pulled it with the JCB to Idaho Falls. 240 miles in 6 hours.

Last Sunday I was done with showing the baler in Idaho, and together with Blake Fuller we moved the Equipment to Tremonton, Utah.

We did some really good demonstrations together wit Golden Spike Equipment - we baled for example against a MF 2190, and we could beat it by speed and by weight. My speed in the Alfalfa field was between 12 and 14 mph, and my baleweights were between 1760 and 2005 lbs. The MF was only able to go 10,5 mph, and the bale weights were between 1980 and 1830 lbs.

Everything worked pretty well until we got some rain. The only nice thing that day was the rainbow.

On Thursday I had a long day of driving again. From Tremonton we drove through Salt Lake City and than on Highway 40 to Roosevelt.

In Roosevelt we had also up to now already two demonstrations together with our dealer Big B Equipment. On Friday I baled some gras hay with 25% Alfalfa, and we made some good looking and heavy bales, and today we were in Alfalfa again. One field was very wet, but the hay was down for more than two weeks now. So we had to bale it even with very high moisture. The bales were so heavy, that the baler came up in the front every time, when a bale was on the roller shoot. After the demo I weight a bale and it had 2550 lbs. It was the heaviest bale, I ever baled with the HDP, but with 20% moisture it was also on of the wettest.

So much up to now - and what comes next? On Monday we will go up to Wyoming, and we will have a demonstration over there. After that I have to go south to Price and to Gunnison. Then I hit at the end of the week eastwards to be at the next weekend in the Denver area.

So, see you over there!

Niklas

Twin Falls - about choppers, balers and bridges!

2010-08-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Followers,

I was last week in Twin Falls, Idaho - the place where Evel Knievel tried to jump over the Snake River Canyon, and one of the only places, where it is allowed to jump off bridges.

But it is also the place, where many people like to see the Krone BiG Pack 1290 HDP and the BiG Pack 12130. So our salesman from Burks Tractor and me had a lot of work, and we did some really good demos.

We showed both balers in wheat and barley straw, and the 12130 XC also in Alfalfa.

But the Highlight of the last week was a field day at the Idaho State University. In the morning we learned a lot about silage quality, and after lunch every company said a few words about their products - in front of my BiG Pack RoadShow Trailer! With the "operate the best - outperform the rest" slogan in the background.

Later that afternoon we were all able to show our choppers in the field. So all operators jumped into their cabins to fold the head together, and drove to the field - Everybody? No, not everybody! Our friends from Harsewinkel didn't like to play with us!

We were with our BiG X 1000 with EasyCollect 7500 the first one at the field, so we also started to cut the corn - but the field was with 2,5 acres small, and there were also NH, JD and the repairing Claas crew, so they told us, that we can also chop some 4 ft tall Sudangras, if we like.

But here some pictures with corn:

A special present from New Holland was a free "corn shower" for all visitors!

But much better was the performance in Sudangras. We went into the field, and were able to chop with up to 12 mph. It looked really perfect. The EasyCollect did a great job, and the chopping quality was perfect. The sound of the 1000 horsepower was really great.

Claas did one slower row, and then the Orbis decided "enough!" They plugged up! After couple of returns the head was free again, but only for a few more foot. They plugged up more and more, and after two more times they were done.

New Holland made it two times - every time perhaps ten feet into the field, but nothing came out of the shoot. Then they were done too!

And John Deere did it like a Deere - they saw the mass with Claas and New Holland, and turned around and ran away. They didn't even enter the field.

So we had to do all the work, and we finished the field in a few more minutes!

All the visitors were really impressed about the good performance of the KRONE BiG X 1000 - The King of the choppers!

So far!

See you

Niklas

Idaho - A week in Caldwell with Burks Tractor!

2010-08-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

Hi Followers,

the first week in Idaho is over now, and I had again some good Demonstrations together with our Dealer "Burks Tractor Co., Inc" - 220 Farmway Road in Caldwell. (http://www.burkstractor.com/) We baled in wheat straw and in Alfalfa hay, and we made again really nice bales.

The average bale weight in straw (harvested with a Case rotary combine) was 1050 - 1100 lbs in really dry conditions (3% moisture and less) The baler could do more - I was running only at 35 - 50% capacity) but the twine was not able to hold these strong and hard compressed bales together. Later that evening I baled again with more due, and the bale weight went up to 1150 -1200 lbs. That's nearly the same weight the 4x4 ft. competitor balers were able to make.

In the Alfalfa Hay I baled against a Hesston / MF 2170 baler, and we baled in not so high quality hay side by side with the exactly same speed. We couldn't compare the number of flakes, because the sensor at the MF baler was broken, but normally it should also be the same. We do 38 stokes per minute, and I think, the MF does the same. (Dear Hesston Specialists - correct me if I'm wrong!)

Our speed was between 5,5 and 6 mph, and we made 38 - 40 flakes per bale (8ft.)

Our weight was in average 1554 lbs and the MF weight was in average 1303 lbs.

Later we moved to another field with higher quality hay with much more leaf and smaller windrows. There I could bale 1-2 mph faster, and I did 45-50 flakes. My bale weights were between 1808 and 2035 lbs (average 1893 lbs). The slower MF baler reached bale weights between 1480 and 1565 lbs (average 1536 lbs). For our customer it was amazing to see such a heavy bale. He couldn't believe it. Now he wants to take same samples of each baler to do a nutrition test. He promised me to send me the results. Let's see, if there are any differences.

This week we had some trouble with the weather. A huge thunderstorm Monday night was the reason why we couldn't bale on Tuesday morning, and today we had also some rain in the morning. Hopefully the rest of the week becomes better again.

So far for the moment!

Niklas

Washington - Good Bye!

2010-08-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

Hi followers,

After some really good demonstrations in Washington it's time to say "Good Bye"!

I also want to say "Thank You" to Kirk Oswalt, our salesman at Farmers Equipment Company in Sunnyside. He made some good arrangements for Demonstrations in the Sunnyside area, and because of his good work we were able to show our baler to many prospective. We baled oats, alfalfa and wheat straw.

It was the first time, that I baled straw, but ist was also very successful. We also had an Krone BiG Pack 1290 XC and a Case LB433 in the field - so it was also for me interesting to see, how much more weight the HDP can make.

And the result was not so bad - The bales of the HDP had weights of 1164 / 1115 / 1140 lbs. The normal BiG Pack 1290 XC (but without knifes) made some bales round about 905 lbs, and the Case baler was only able to make 850 lbs bales. All bales were 97 inch long.

Also the speed was interesting - The Krone balers were much faster then the red competitor.

The bale shape was the best of the HDP baler with the new 2010 top door (The top door of the 2010 models has a additional rail on each side)

But how said Forrest Gump? "..it happens". I was a little bit too fast (I baled with 13,5 mph) on the headland, and a bale ran exactly at the moment off the bale shoot. It hit the ground, jumped a little bit further, and fell directly into the nearby creek. But we were able to get it out with the bale scale and a strap.

The straw demo was also the last demo in Washington. Later that day we hit the road to Baker City, Oregon, and Friday morning we made it to Caldwell, Idaho. That's also the place, where I stay the next week. Togehter with Burks Tractor we have hopefully the same success like in Washington.

See you in Idaho!

Niklas

High Speed with the JCB

2010-07-28T15:17:00.000-07:00

Hi followers,

a few days ago I talked to some Cops, and they told me, that I'm not allowed to go faster in a speedlimit zone as the white signs with the big black number on told me. The only vehicles that are allowed to go faster are vehicles going under blue and red flashlights. First I thought, "That sucks!" but than I had a really good idea. And I did only what they told me - because I don't want to do any illegal things like driving too fast!

It's also pretty nice for baling - with the flashlights came also some additional working lights. And the LED Quality is amazing. So, the next baling night can come - and the next speedlimit, of course!

I'm well prepared!

Regards Niklas

Washington - Sunny Time in Sunnyside!

2010-07-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hi followers,

I'm at the moment in Washington, Sunnyside, and everything works pretty well. The weather is perfect - perhaps a little bit too hot - and our Salesman Kirk Oswalt from Farmers Equipment Company in Sunnyside arranged some really good Demos with lots of interested customers. We baled mostly Alfalfa Hay, but also Bluegrass and Oats, and the BiG Pack made a perfect job in all kinds of material. It's not a big deal to beat the competitor balers in weight and/or speed.

At the last demo I baled Alfalfa Hay, and I made bales with 1780 - 1850 lbs. The competitor balers could only made 1250 lbs. The customer was really impressed, because I was also faster in the field. We had to fill up some Harvest Tec Preservative so I started half an hour later than his balers, and at the end of the day I had 78 bales on my counter, and his operators made only 68 bales. So, the next morning we played with some numbers, and we found out, that it is no problem to replace his three baler by two Krone baler. He has one third less bales to handle, one tractor and on operator less, and he saves money for twine and fuel. After he stacked the bales, he told me, that he likes the stack with the Krone bales more, because the solid Krone bales are easier to pile.

Here a picture of the Krone stack!

And here a picture how it looks when you stack CNH bales!

I also have some new records - I made the first 8ft. bales with 2150 and 2165 lbs (Alfalfa Hay, 13% moisture) and I could beat a 4x4 baler by 40 lbs per bale! (also Alfalfa Hay)

Last weekend I visited some friends in British Columbia, Canada. Of course, it was nice to meet everybody after four years again - I worked in 2006 for a Timber Company in Salmo, BC. Also cool - now I crossed the United States from South (Mexican Border) to North (Canadian Border).

It was such a cool weekend. We went swimming in the Pend d'Oreille River, we went to Trail and we spend the half night at a small bar with live music, and the cops, who pulled me two times over were not very familiar with the German / European Driving License. Both times they told me after turning my License three times around "OK, when you tell me, that that is your driving license - have a good and safe trip!"

I've also seen a lot of the beautiful country again - Columbia River is so gorgeous!

I've one more week here in the Sunnyside / Kennewick area, before we go eastwards direction Idaho.

So far at the moment. See you next time!

Niklas

Nevada good bye - Oregon, here I am!

2010-07-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hi Followers,

after some busy weeks in Nevada I will start next week in Oregon.

The last two weeks we baled in Fishlake Valley, Fallon, Susanville, Lovelock and north of Winnemucca. Our Dealer Dan Smith (Smith Valley Garage, Wellington NV) lined up some really good demonstrations, and I was happy to see so many prospective in the field. We showed at 15 field demonstrations more than 54 interested customers our BiG Pack 1290 HDP.

Everybody was able to drive with me on the JCB, or if he liked to drive by his own, he could make some experiences by his own. I think, everybody was impressed when he saw the baler with higher speed than the competitors making heavier bales. Not only one time we could beat the competitor baler about 600 lbs (Krone baler 1850 lbs / Competitor 1250 lbs). Also the great features which come serially with the baler like a central lube system that greases all the moving parts at the baler except the drivelines or the great steering tandem axle with hydraulic brakes and leaf springs enjoyed nearly everybody. The cam less header and the huge flywheel make the baler running so smooth, that one customer asked me to start the PTO - but the baler was already running.

One customer plugged the baler, and was a little bit scared when he could hear the ratchet clutch at the VFS system running over. I told him to throttle down, and after a few minutes the baler and the pre chamber cleaned itself again. The only thing we had to do was throttle up again, and we could go on baling. That customer liked that feature very much. No shear bolts to change, no problems with the timing - not even a reason to leave the seat of the tractor.

At the end of last week I left Nevada on Highway 140 from Winnemucca to Lakeview and then to Alturas, CA. It was a long drive through the desert with a lot of nice landscape. On the way I lost a hose of the cooling system, because a hose clamp slipped of the fitting, but I could fix it again in the middle of nowhere and I luckily had enough water in the applicator tank on the back of the baler. The little water bottle with only 0,5 litre was not the fastest way, to fill the missing 25 litres up again, but it was a way, and after 1,5 hours I could continue my trip to Alturas.

Friday and Saturday we had three good demonstrations in the Alturas area, and next week I will start the Roadshow in Oregon. See you!

Regards Niklas

PS: Dan, thank you very much for the good work and help!

Nevada - The first successfull weeks with Dan Smith!

2010-06-20T13:02:00.001-07:00

Hi Followers,

two really busy weeks in Nevada are behind me. We did nearly every day at least one demonstration, I had to do the 100 hour service at the JCB, and we had a lot of travel in between. The first week I stayed in Yerington in a hotel without Internet, and at the moment I’m at the Super 8 Motel at Lake Topaz – and also here the Internet connection is so slow, that it is hard to upload pictures. So, I’m sorry that I can’t show you so much today.

But step by step: Last week Saturday we moved the Tractor and the baler over the Sierras – see the last post – and I went back to Reno. I had to do some things at the office on Monday morning, so that I came back to Smith Valley Monday afternoon. At the evening we baled at the first customer in Yerington – we started at 11pm and baled till 3 am. The customer who already owned two older Krone BiG Pack HDP balers was very interested to see the ‘new’ 2010 HDP in the field. He is looking forward to buy his third Krone BiG Pack HDP – but he prefers the XC (X-Cut) machine with cutter bar. Another machine he liked very much is the JCB tractor. The full suspension makes the ride in the field very smooth, and so it is possible to speed up when the windrows getting lighter. He liked the easy handling, the huge cabin with AC, radio and air suspension seat. When we had to move to the next field he asked me, if he is allowed to drive the tractor. It was no problem to me, and so he did. At the first possibility he passed his other tractor – a John Deere 7820 – and then he speeded up. When we arrived at the other field, he jumped out of the cabin and told me, that he had the whole way a smile on his face. Driving a tractor with 44 miles down the road was just incredible for him.

The next morning, Tuesday, we started at 9:30 am again, but we were only able to bale one hour before the hay became too dry. During the day I prepared the baler, and I helped our dealer Dan Smith to fix another Krone BiG Pack HDP. The next morning - Wednesday - we went to another customer also in Mason Valley to show him our baler. It was really dry when we came out there – we had only 6% moisture at the beginning and 3% moisture at the end – but we were able to bale heavy bales with 1790 – 1830 lbs (7,5 ft long). We did 64 bales before we stopped. The Customer who owns Freeman balers and older tractors was really impressed – on one hand because of the nice and smooth riding JCB tractor but also because of the performance of the Krone baler. The huge flywheel with 1600 lbs helps to make the baler running very smooth, and the tractor isn’t running like an old steam train in the field like you can see at other brands with smaller flywheels. Also the steered tandem axle helps to have a nice ride also on rough terrain or while crossing borders.

Wednesday afternoon I got some help from one of Dan Smith guys, and we did the 100 hour inspection at the JCB. Changing all the oil in the axles, the hubs, the engine and changing all the filters took us at least three hours, and so we finished that work at 6:30 pm. After we were done, I hade to prepare the baler, grease the drivelines and I filled up the twine boxes. Then I attached some new stickers on the side cover, so that everybody knows now, that we do a ‘BiG Pack Road Show’. I was done with everything at 9 pm - and the next demo was planned for 2 am the next morning. Time to sleep!

At 2 am we went out to another customer in Mason Valley to show him our baler. The first field was very good – nice windrows, and we made some really nice bales. But the second field was a mass. Small windrows with interesting hay, that didn’t spread on the pickup made it hard to make some nice looking bales. I couldn’t fill the bale chamber very well, and the bales looked like bananas. The only good thing was that the customer had the same problem with his Hesston baler. We had also suddenly some problems with our outside knotters, but Dan helped me very well to repair it very quick. The problem was that the knife arm was not able to remove the knot from the bill hook. But after some ‘adjustment work’ with a hammer and a wrench the knotters worked well again. We went to the next field, and the windrows were a little bit bigger again. That field was perfect. I could bale faster than the Hesston, and the bales were nearly the same weight like the Hesston. (The customer asked for 1600 lbs, and we did a little bit more) When we were nearly done with that field, George Kilbride, Brent Raines (both Krone Reno) and Rusty Fowler (President and Chief Executive Officer of Krone NA, Memphis) arrived at the field to see the baler in action. Luckily we had another field, and so we moved over to that place. The windrows were a little bit lighter again, but the hay speeded on the pickup and I was able to fill the bale chamber very well. Also George and Rusty tried to make their first bales with the BiG Pack HDP, and they did a really good job.

When I came back to the shop at 2 pm my first 12 hours of the day were over. I started to clean the baler again, and because of the parade at the Carson Valley Days on Saturday I decided to clean the baler with the pressure washer. I was not tired and I had time to do it. Later that afternoon we moved the baler to Wellington, Smith Valley, because the next demo was lined up for the next morning at 6 am in Smith.

When I left the Hotel in Yerington at 5 am I couldn’t trust my own eyes – it was RAINING!

The normally have no rain in the desert at this time of the year – a sentence, I heard so often the last few weeks. I moved to Wellington, and the weather at the field in Smith was better – it was dry, but in Wellington was rain again. We moved the baler to the field, and we were also able to bale – but the wet baler and the dust was not good for my clean baler and the Parade. When we were done in the field, the baler was completely dirty again. The demo was perfect again. The customer had his two Hesston balers in the field, and I made the first few windrows with nearly double speed. When I stopped to pick up the customer, he called me ‘Speedy Gonzales’. I explained him how to operate the baler and we changes seats. It took 2 more windrows, and he was also at 12 mph – double as fast as his Hesston balers. The customer liked 1600 lbs bales so I was running at only 55% plunger force and we made round about 35 flakes. When we weight some bales after the demo, we had a range from 1620 – 1760 lbs. The customer was also very impressed about the perfect bale shape and the heavy bales with nearly double speed. We made 53 bales in less than one hour with stopping in between.

When I was back at the shop, I cleaned the baler again – again with the pressure washer – and that evening I moved to Minden. I met Brent over there, and we went back to Wellington to get my PickUp Truck with the Trailer.

Saturday morning we waxed the baler before we went to the Parade in Carson Valley. Dan Smith deals also with Case and Kubota, but not with JCB, so I had to unhook the JCB. I pulled the baler with a Case Tractor at the parade, and it was really funny. It was the first time for me to drive a machine in a parade.

Sunday I had a day off, before I moved the tractor back to Wellington on Monday. We had no demonstration on Monday, but on Tuesday morning at 5 am was the next demo north of Wellington in Smith Valley. There was also a camera crew on Tuesday and Wednesday joining me to take some film shoots for a video about the Roadshow. They filmed Tuesday morning in the field and after that we made a lot of road scenes in the nearby Canyon between Smith Valley and Mason Valley. Later that day I went back to Reno because the next day we had some film shoots in the Office and the warehouse in Reno. Also the arch “Reno - the biggest little city in the World” was one place of filming. And we had some Rain and Ice-rain in the morning…..

Wednesday evening I moved back to Wellington, and we had the next demo on Thursday morning at the pivots nearby Highway 208 between Wellington and Topaz. The first time pivots for me. It’s really cool to bale the whole time in circles.

Later that day I moved the baler back to Carson Valley because we had two demonstrations that evening – starting at 11 pm – nearby Minden. I was back at the hotel by 4 am on Friday morning. Later that day I moved the baler back to Wellington, and I prepared everything on Saturday. We decided to lift the bearing between the two drivelines between tractor and flywheel a little bit, because the angle of the drivelines was really hard and there are some vibrations in the driveline. So I changed that and I did the normal maintenance like filling up the twine boxes with Krone HDP twine, greasing the drivelines and cleaning the baler.

Next week we will go down to Fishlake Valley. I don’t think that I have Internet access over there. But of course I will tell you about Fishlake Valley at my next post.

Have a good one!

Niklas

Goodbye California - Nevada, here we come!

2010-06-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Hi Followers,

after a busy week with lots of demos I leave California tomorrow and we will go over the mountains to Nevada - Wellington, Smith Valley. Within the last two weeks we had six really good demonstrations and we baled oats, Alfalfa and wheat hay. We had rain, we had good weather, small and huge windrows - so nearly every conditions.

But the performance of the Krone baler was very well - all the time!

One day we baled for example together with a competitor baler in the same field. My speed was up to 16 mph, his speed was probably 9 mph, and my bales were with 1808 - 1880 lbs 300 lbs heavier than his bales (1477 - 1570 lbs)

The baleshape was perfect - all the time - and I didn't had any problems with the machine jet. Only at one demonstration the both outside knotters didn't like to work any more after 93 bales. I couldn't find a mistake and we were luckily done at the field. The next day I tried it again, and I never had any more problems after that day.

So I had a very good time the last few weeks in California - I baled in Bakersfield, Corcoran, Hanford, Turlock, Modesto and Escalon - and I hope the Customers I baled for liked our machine also very much.

It's time to say Goodbye California and Nevada, here we come!

Regards Niklas

Kings County - here we are!

2010-05-23T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Followers,

I'm in Kings County now, and the last days were really busy. We had 5 demonstrations and I baled two days together with 3 competitor balers in the field nearby Corcoran. And that's the first thing I wanted to tell you about. When I came over to Corcoran on Friday 14th the customer asked me, if I would like to bale that evening with him. We had changed the tractor in the morning - I run the JCB 8250 Fastrac again - and so I decided that it is a good opportunity to check all the settings and adjustments of the baler. The hitch of the JCB is a little bit higher as the hitch of the CASE Puma, and I was not sure, if it is not too high for the Pick Up. So I went out to the field in the evening, and I made some nice heavy bales side by side with the competitor balers. It was interesting for me to see the performance of the Hesston balers - they were slower and the density was not as good as at the Krone baler. This picture I took the next morning showes you very well how much more efficient the Krone baler is.

In the middle of the picture you can see a windrow the competitor baler baled. You can see 5 bales in that row. Left beside that windrow is a row I baled with the Krone baler with 1-2 mph more speed. You can see 2 bales, and one more was at the end of the windrow before.

Here another spot in the field, but the same picture - My windrow has less bales than the competitor windrow.

I also weight some bales with my balescale in the front hitch, and the results were the same like the pictures tell you:

The other bales had the following weights:

1411 lbs; 1546 lbs; 1340 lbs; 1411 lbs; 1411 lbs; 1367 lbs; 1368 lbs; 1565 lbs; 1455 lbs; 1521 lbs

Average was 1439 lbs

Our Krone bales had the following weights:

1896 lbs; 1786 lbs; 1870 lbs; 1720 lbs; 1808 lbs; 1720 lbs; 1852 lbs; 1962 lbs

Average was 1831 lbs

We made 8 ft. bales Alfalfa Hay with 8-13% moisture

It was also very nice to see the difference while baling. When the baler on my side dropped a bale, I looked how long my actual bale was - for example 70 inch in the bale chamber. When he dropped his next bale, I looked again to my monitor, and it showed me most of the time that my actual bale was 45 to 50 inch long. So I knew exactly, that I had 20-25% more material in my bale. And that with 2 mph more speed and with only 65% plungerforce.

Here is a picture of alle balers side by side at the end of the day.

I baled there two days and all together 180 bales, before I left. Our salesman Steve Silver had lined up a demonstration on monday morning, 9am, and at 8 am it started to rain. So we had no chance to run the demo but I showed the customers the baler, all the features and I explained them the features of the monitor.

Tuesday morning it was still so wet, that we were not able to bale, but wednesday we moved to another customer to show him our baler. When I opened the front cover above the flywheel to check the oil level at the compressor I had a nice surprise.

Two days no movement, and the baler became an RV for birds. There was still another bird's nest in the front of the tractor above the front hitch. I removed everything, and we moved the baler to our next customer. He still owned two BiG Pack 1290 XC, but he was also interested in the HDP baler. We had to bale wheat hay in his field. When I arrived at the field, his rake was in the field to flip over the windrows. Perhaps it is necessary that the material dries better in the windrow, but for baling it is not very good. The windrow has more material on one side now, and when you don't give care how you feed the baler you have more on one side. The result are bad bales bended to one side, and if you use cheap twine with less knotstrengh the twine will brake on the side with more density. And that's exactly what happend to the baler and the bales of our customer and it is also the reason why he is not so happy with the balers. Perhaps the not very well maintenance of our customer is another reason for his problems.

When we showed him the HDP baler, we didn't had any problems. The HDP baler did a better job under these bad conditions, and the bales looked nice and straight. Even our customer recognized that.

Perhaps a few words about maintenance at our balers - because a good maintained machine is the key to a good operation. Perhaps this at the beginning - The Krone baler is because of it's features like the knotter cleaning system and the central lubrication nearly maintenance free.

Here you can see a picture of our simple and secure knotter cleaning system. We use air pressure we generate with a small compressor at the front of the baler if we can't get it from the air-brake system of the tractor and we blow every time before the knotter works to the important areas of the knotter. So we make sure, that the dirt and dust is not at the moving parts, when we make a knot. This system works very well when you give some care of the compressor (checking oil and cleaning the air filter daily - takes perhaps 5 minutes) and if you don't bend the airlines away from the knotter.

And that is nearly the whole maintenance you have to do every day. Of course, you also have to check and refill the twineboxes, but you don't have to grease anything daily. The central lubrication greases all the moving parts like plungerrollers, VFS rollers and the knotters autimatically and constantly. You only have to make sure, that there is enough grease in the central lubrication. The few manual grase points at the axle and at the drivelines don't have to be greased daily.

So, to do the daily maintenance at the Krone baler is really not a big deal. Other brands needs much more maintenance work every day!

On thursday we went to another customer, who also owned two Krone balers, two HDP from 2007 and 2008. He is the complete opposite. He maintaines his balers every day before he starts baling, and his balers are in a really good shape. We went to his field, to show him our actual baler and the Harvest Tec moisture system. It was a really good field, because a lot of regrown material made some wet spots in the hay bales, and the Harvest Tec system found them all.

This is a picture of the monitor in manual mode. On the left you can see a graph, that showes you the last 90 seconds of measurement. Every bar is 3 seconds. On the right, where you can see LO% it showes you the actual moisture contend. (under 6% is too low for an accurate value - that's the reason why you see LO% on the picture). On the left side on the bottom you see the Average of the last bale. (here 7%)

In his field we had some bars with 24 - 32% in between. And when he checked the bales with his moisture tester, he could find this spots again with nearly the same moisture contend. So, the Harvest Tec system is very accurate.

Here you can see his two balers in operation - towed by two Case Puma 165 with 145 hp at the PTO.

The last two demonstrations were at two different dairys. Both times I baled Alfalfa hay. Bothe times we had nice heavy bales and we baled with speedes from 10-13 mph. Both customers were very happy with the performance of the baler. One ownes three self propelled Freeman small balers, and the other one has two Hesston 4910 4x4 ft big balers.

It was both times at nighttime, so it was dark outside and I don't have any pictures of it.

So far for the moment!

Regards Niklas

Bakersfield - the Show must go on!

2010-05-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Followers,

Yesterday evening we did the next demonstration here in Bakersfield. Because of the time and the darkness it was not possible, to take much pictures, but I did some few.

The location was south of Bakersfield on Old River Road nearby Highway 119. We had to bale Alfalfa Hay for the customer. I asked him before the demonstration how heavy he would like to have the bales, and he answered me "really heavy, but what is heavy? Perhaps 1200 lbs?" I decided to start with 85% plungerforce to made the first 96 inch long bales. My colleagues weight the bales directly with our small Case scale tractor and the scale showed us 1765 lbs. It was a bale with 13% moisture in average. Our customer was really surprised but also a little bit nervous if his bale wagon can load these bales, but after a call to the driver his doubts were gone and we were able to continue making heavy bales. With a speed of 8 to 9 mph one nice bale after the other came out of the bale chamber. We dropped down the plungerforce to 70%, because the Harvest Tec moisturemeter told us, the moisture raised up to 16%. We also speeded a little bit up to get less flakes in the bale, but the weight still stayed at 1700 lbs.

The customer had also his baler in the field - a Freeman 1592. The average bale weight of his baler was at 6 mph 1100 lbs. A big difference, but his baler is also not a HDP baler.

After we were done with the field after only 21 bales, he was very happy with the Krone baler. We talked a few minutes about the technics and I explained and showed him lots of details about our baler.

At the end of the day it was also a very successful demonstration, I thing the customer liked our machine very much, and when I came back today all the bales were out of the field. So the bale wagon also did a good job!

So far!

Regards

Niklas

Bakersfield - the second successful demonstration!

2010-05-09T21:41:00.000-07:00

Hi Followers,

last Friday we had another very successful demonstration. This time we were a little bit north-west of Wasco and we had to bale Alfalfa Hay. The Customer already knew the older generation of Krone BiG Pack balers, but after some problems with that machine he changed to New Holland, and now he owns two New Holland BiG Balers - one BB690 and one BB690A. Both balers were also in the same field, pulled by John Deere tractors.

We started at 10:30 am baling, and our first bale was a 2065 lbs bale (96 inch long). The only problem was that the moisture of the Alfalfa Hay was still a little bit too high (18%) so we stopped baling for perhaps half an hour. We also turned down the plunger force from 80% to 40% because the customer thought his bale wagon could have problems to lift up so heavy bales. With 40% plunger force we made bales with 1400 lbs to 1550 lbs - exactly the weight, our customer wanted to have.

Also the moisture dropped to 9-11%, so that we were able to make pretty bales with the requested weight. Because of the rough field and the Case Puma without suspension we were not able to run the fastest possible speed. At 12 mph the tractor jumped up und down, and it was hard to stay on the seat. But the small windrows asked for more than 12 mph - much more. Sometimes the plunger hit the same flake two times because there was not enough material to feed the VFS System (prechamber) within one plunger circle. It's not such a big deal, but it shows you that you are able to go faster. The optimal speed for the baler is that moment when you have with every plunger stoke a new flake. That is also shown in the terminal - every time when a new flake is pushed into the bale chamber a small icon gets black. When it stays black, you are fine. When it becomes to get light and black it shows you that you have not enough material which means you have to go faster.

We also had our small Case tractor with the scale in the field. In addition to our bales we also weight some New Holland bales - they were at 1365 lbs. Not bad! But the New Holland balers were operating at least with half speed. Every time, they finished their first windrow we finished our second windrow. And we were operating with 40% plunger force and slower than possible because of the rough terrain and already made in average 1500 lbs bales. It's amazing to see, how well the Krone baler works.

Also the customer was very happy with the performance of the baler. He liked the cam less pick up EasyFlow, and the quiet and smooth running of the machine very much. He also complimented the nice bale shape.

After we were done I also showed him how we eject the last bales hydraulically out of the bale chamber, and he also liked that.

So the day was very successful until the bale wagon came to the field. The New Holland bales were no problem, but after he loaded the first two Krone bales (light ones with perhaps 1500 lbs) it was not possible to lift the second table. The only possibility was to collect only single bales.

So far!

Regards

Niklas

Bakersfield - The Roadshow continues!

2010-05-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

Hi Followers,

after two weeks of bad weather we have started yesterday again. Our first demo was 40 miles north of Bakersfield. Our dealer, Pioneer Equipment, is a big CASE dealer, so I also have to use a Case Puma with 195 hp. The baler here is also a different one. At the one we used in Imperial Valley we attached an accumulator, now we have one with an applicator and moisture kit from Harvet Tec.

Link to Harvest Tec

The demonstration was very successful. We made perfect bales on the hilly field out of the wheat and oat with 1450 - 1750 lbs (depends on the moisture, here we had from 9 -17%). Because of the Case without front hitch we had to use another small Case to weight the bales, but this split system is also perfect. While I bale with the customer my colleagues could weight some bales - also from the Hesston baler of the customer in the same field. He could only reach 1050 lbs at the same bale size (3x4x8ft)

Also the moisture kit from Harvest Tec works perfect too. It is very nice, when you can see in the cabin exactly how much moisture every part of the bale has. It shows you the the actual moisture in a bar chart - every bar is 3 seconds, all 30 bars together are the last 90 seconds of baling - and as an average of the last bale. We didn't use the applicator jet, but the applicator is connected to the moisture kit and works in an automatic mode.

So far!

Regards Niklas

Bakersfield - Rain and bad weather last week stopped the Roadshow

2010-04-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Followers,

last week we had some hard rain in the Central Valley, so that we were not able to run any demonstrations. They also talk about rain next wednesday, but I hope that we become better weather after that. It is really boring, when we can't run any demonstrations. Ok, I had some other work like maintanance at the JCB Tractor to do, and I also cleand up my trailer, but now I'm done with that.

At Saturday we, another service guy from Krone Spelle and me, visit our customer lambchops in the field to see his new BiG X 1000 in operation.

It is cool to see, how smooth and powerful the BiG X 1000 with it's 1000 hp works on the field. It also did a good job pulling out the trucks when they get stucked at the wet field. The four wheel hydraulic driven machine had no problems even with heavy full loaded trucks. The camless PickUp EasyFlow3801 made also a very good job in the heavy winter forage.

So far after a week without baling!

Niklas

Small Update - Bakersfield, here we are!

2010-04-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

Hello followers,

I just wanted to tell you, that we are done at the Imperial Valley, and that I drove the JCB up to Bakersfield last Friday.

We had eight demonstrations at the Imperial Valley, and I think everybody was very amazed about the smooth running of the whole machine, the perfect work of the camless EasyFlow Pick Up and of course about the perfect heavy bales, we did. For me it was also a very interesting experience to see, under what conditions the guys down in the valley have to bale. Most of the time you have only a very short time window from less than two hours to bale the hay with 9-14% moisture. In the early morning it is still to wet, and after the sun came out it started to dry so fast that it became too dry after a few hours. I also never heard about too dry hay in Germany. We have so much rain over there, that we are happy to have a dry week in the summer time, to get any hay. Most of the time we can only bale silage.

Also the trip to Bakersfield was very nice. I made the 360 miles with the JCB in nearly 10 hours, and I saw many different kinds of landscape on my way.

So, this week and probably next week we have some rain here in Bakersfield, but I hope, that we can continue with our Roadshow at the beginning of May.

Here are some more pictures of our demonstrations in the Imperial Valley.

See you!

Niklas

Imperial Valley - The first demonstrations are done!

2010-04-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

Hi followers,

the first demonstrations in the Valley are done without any problems and with perfect results. The first demonstration was in the south of Holtville at the first of April early in the morning and the weather became after the first bales really bad. It started to rain, and we had to stop the demonstration for a couple of hours. After Breakfast the sun came back, and so we were able to bale in the afternoon again. The bale weights and the bale shape was pretty well. We had 7 feet bales with 1800 lbs and 12 - 13% moisture. In the afternoon the hay dried very fast, so at the beginning we had also good results, but at the end it was to dry to get really heavy bales. They were heavy enough, but not as heavy as in the morning.

Edit: One more picture of the Hesston baler - but it is the second and last bale, he did, so you also can't compare the bale shape to the Krone bales. But the customer told us, that he can't reach the bale weights we did with the HDP with his Hesston baler and that he liked the shape of the Krone bales very much.

After the first demonstration we had to clean the whole baler with a pressure washer. Normally it works pretty well when we use our leaf blower to blow away all the dust and dirt, but after the rain in the morning there was no chance to remove it only with air. After we searched a little bit in the Holtville area we found this car wash place, which was high enough (11ft) for the JCB (11ft 6 inch). It was also wide enough for the Phiber accumulator.

Our second demonstration was in the north of the Valley nearby Brawley with the "four by four" - the BiG Pack 12130 - at a local feedlot. They normally bale with three Hesston balers, but I think, they really liked the performance of the Krone too. We were able to drive roundabout 30% faster and we still had better looking bales. The interested person, we ran the demo for, liked also the EasyFlow PickUp without cam track very much. A really nice constant flow into the machine without any losing of hay amazed him. Also his three operators drove the JCB with the Krone baler, and after a few minutes they made also pretty good bales. He liked it so much, that we were allowed to come back the next day to show also his father our baler on the field.

The next demonstration was in the morning of April 8th north east of Holtville. The customer has several dairys and has to haul his hay over long distances out of the imperial valley. We made some nice heavy 8 feet long bales (average 1800 lbs) with 13-15% moisture, and I think he also liked the Krone baler very much. Another customer in the valley baled for him with an Krone HDP before, and so he also knew a lot about our baler and the nice heavy bales. His demonstration started early in the morning.

The same evening we wanted to demonstrate nearby Westmorland, but it was still to dry in the evening. So we stopped the demonstration at 10 pm and came back today in the morning. At 8.30 am we met at the field, but we had to wait a little bit before we could start again, because it was to wet. At 11 am, we had already done 80 bales, we had to stop again, because now it became to dry. So, the time windows for baling export hay in the valley are very short which makes it not easier to plan aour demonstrations.

We also used my bale scale in the front hitch the first time.

So far for the moment.

Regards Niklas

Reno - Grand Opening!

2010-04-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

Hi Followers,

EDIT: Here is an older post of my blog. Somthing went wrong, so it was gone, but here it is again - good, that I saved it on my computer. Sorry for that!

today I want to tell you about the grand opening at Reno office and warehouse last Thursday and Friday. For this important event Bernard Krone, owner of the Krone Group and Wilhelm Voss, member of the management board, from Germany, and also Rusty Fowler, president /CEO of Krone North-America from Memphis office came over to Reno. Thursday evening we had all together a great dinner with many customers and dealers from the western region at the Grand Sierra Resort, and on Friday we had an open house at Reno office and warehouse at

4674 Aircenter Circle

Reno, NV 89502

I think both days were very successful for everybody. Here are some pictures of the open day on Friday.

There was also an offical part on friday - Bernard Krone had to cut the ribbon. Here it was the strong Krone HDP twine, but it was not strong enough for our owner!

But of course it’s a lot of work to prepare such a big event. The whole week before everybody helped to clean up and to arrange everything. Here you can see how the new Krone sign was hanging up just over the front door.

I also had to put all the spare parts into my Roadshow Trailer, and we had to clean all the cars, the Krone Machines, the trailer and the whole floor in the warehouse. But on Thursday noon everything was done.

Here are some pictures of the warehouse I took two weeks ago.

How you can see we are now well prepared for the comming season to send spare parts very quickly to the western region. Because it's very important for our customers to get their machines running again quickly.

So far!

Regards Niklas

Trip to Imperial Valley

2010-03-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

Hi Followers,

I'm back in Reno after a long trip through the south of California. Two weeks ago I went down to Imperial Valley to meet Blake Fuller, a Krone Product Specialist, and Tom Brown, a salesman from Central Implement. Central Implement is the Krone Dealer for the Imperial Valley region. The main reason for that trip was on the one hand to see, where we start our Roadshow at the end of March, and on the other hand to speak to some customers in that region, who still own one or more Krone balers, or who are interested in a Krone baler. For me it was also a very interesting trip, because I had never seen so big fields with vegetables or so many cattle in a dairy before.

Here some salad fields....

... and a big carrot harvester.

Also such a perfect watering system with several canals to get the water from Colorado River to the fields on one side and to drain it on the other side was completely new for me. In Germany we have so much rain, so we don’t need such a system.

It was also very impressive for me to see a big customer like Agritrade, who export the hay, baled with several KRONE BiG Pack HDP, to overseas. Because of the HDP baler they don't have to repress the bales in such a big stationary bale press - the HDP bales are heavy and strong enough to load a container to its maximum weight. So it is possible to load the containers directly on the field - that saves lots of money.

Another very interesting place was at Triple III Press, where they repress small bales with big stationary presses to get higher Bale density, so that they can load a container up to the weight limit. They also cut the bales into two pieces for the asian market, because the smaller bales are easier to handle over there. Many people buy every day the hay they have to feed to their cattle, and they have to carry it home by small vehicles or motor-scooter.

Here you can see the huge hay and straw storage, and some of the Containers they have to load.

This is the place, where the normal bales come to the machine. A forklift pushes a hole pack into this red frame....

..... so that the bales could be lined up on the other side to a transport belt which carries them to the press.

On the way to the main part of the machine an operator removes the twine of the small bales, so that the blue hydraulik driven bar can push the material into the press chamber of the stationary baler press.

Here you see the other side of the machine. On the right side you can see the hydraulik driven plunger, and on the left side in the front you see the new high density bales, which are ready for shipping. You can also see, that they are cut into two pieces, to make the bales smaller.

And here they load the plastic wrapped bales into one of the containers.

Every day in the morning we could see the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy's flight operation squadron over the valley, when they were on their training flights. It was amazing to see them operating in the blue sky.

So, the week at the Imperial Valley was very interesting for me, because I saw many interesting things, and of course we had some good customer meetings too. But the most important aspect for me is, that I know, where I will start the Big Krone BiG Pack 1290 HDP Roadshow 2010 at the end of the month. Now I know a little bit of what's going on down there.

Regards

Niklas

Trip to Smith Valley

2010-02-18T22:13:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Tuesday morning Brent and me made an excursion to the "Smith Valley" south east of Carson City

We had to pick up two spare tires for the Big Pack I have to carry with me in my trailer. I hope I will never have to use them, but it’s better to have them for such a long journey.

I also used the chance to meet our local dealer at the smith valley and to talk to him about the roadshow. I was very surprised, that he still hat so much interested customers jet. He also told me a lot about the region. But he also thought that we couldn’t start baling before May. So I think, I will be back the in May.

n the following pictures you can see some impressions of the region and the way out there. The landscape is very different to the landscape when going eastwards to California. Here it is dryer, and it looks more like the desert. I don’t know why, but when I see this kind of landscape I will be remembered to one of my favourite movies named “Convoy” with Chris Kristofferson.

I looked out the whole time for that nice black Mack with this small rubber duck on the hood.

In the valley there is a complete different landscape again. You could see farmland and cattle, and everything is a little bit “greener” than the Tumbleweed and bushes along the Highway before.

Here you can see the nice bright colours of the Krone products in front of the pale looking mountains with a little bit of snow.

Here you can see our dealer in the Smith Valley Area.

It is also very interesting for me to see such a typical dealer outside the big cities and of course not in Germany. There were many interesting machines standing outside the shop, some of them I've never seen before.

New and old, unused and used are standing side by side. Some of them will never go to work again, but they are still used to get spare parts. In the shop you can find everything you need, and it's also possible to by single parts like bolts or nuts. It was a very interesting trip for me, and I’m looking forward to come back to demonstrate our HDP baler here.

On the way back we just bought some stuff for the trailer, so that I can complete it this week too. I have to attach some cabinets for tools and spare parts. We also decided to put some linoleum onto the floor so that it is easier to clean it, even when grease or oil comes onto the floor. So I have enough work to do this week.

Regards Niklas

At least a photo I have made this morning. I think, it looked fantastic, when the sun comes over the mountains every minute.

Roadshow 2010 - Here we are!

2010-02-18T15:19:00.000-08:00

Hello

This is the english version of my Blog about our JCB / Krone BiG Pack 1290 HDP Roadshow 2010. On this site I will tell you many important and interesting things I will experience while driving through eight States of the USA with a JCB 8250 and the Krone big baler BiG Pack 1290 HDP. On this map you can see the planned route of the BiG Pack Roadshow.

You will ask you, why we do all this. The answer is very easy. We want to show you our HDP big baler, the first baler in the world that can put as much material in a 3 x 4 ft bale as you normally have in a 4 x 4 ft bale. That implies, with the Krone High Density Press (HDP) we have 25% more material and weight in our 3’ x 4’ bales. That saves you a lot of money. At the end of the day you have 25% less bales on your field, on the truck and in your stock, but the same Amount of tons. Fewer bales to handle, truck and store.

Here you can see some pictures of the tractor and the baler.

And of course some words about me, who will run the whole tour. I’m 27 years old, from Germany and now it’s my third year for Krone. The last two years I worked with sales promotion in Spelle, Germany, where the head offices of Krone are located, and where we build all the Krone machines. Before I worked for Krone I had studied agriculture science in Kiel in the north of Germany.

I’m now in our office in Reno and at the moment I’m still waiting, that the crop down in southern California is ready to be baled. But I also have a lot of work to do to get everything fixed in the trailer, to get all the stuff together I will need in the next eight months. Next week I will go down to Imperial Valley to see what’s going on there.

So far

Niklas