DLG e.V.Test Center

Technology and Farm Inputs

DLG Test Report 6112 F Page 1 of 8

Brief description

– Utilization of the baler in grass silage and straw

– Determination of the power requirement at the power take-off shaft

– Determination of the harvest amounts with DLG bale weighing device

– Determination of the processing times for pressing, wrapping and ejection

– Determination of the bale density distribution on the DLG bale density test rig

– Determination of the dry matter content using the oven drying method in the laboratory

– Calculation of the bale density in kg/m3

– Calculation of the throughput in tonnes/h

ManufacturerJohn Deere

Usine d’Arc Les Gray70103 Gray Cedex

France

John Deere GmbH & Co. KG Mannheim Regional Center

Performance Testing in Grass Silage and StrawJohn Deere 900 Series Round Baler with variable chamber

DLG Test Report 6112 F

Figure 1: John Deere 900

Series round baler in field operation

DLG Test Report 6112 F Page 2 of 8

John Deere 900 Series round baler – technical descriptionpatented parallel kinematics. Both functions can be operated from the cab via the IOSBUS terminal. In conjunction with the ISOBUS tech-nology, John Deere offers optional tractor baler automation (TBA), which automates certain processes between baler and tractor. The baler notifies the tractor when the chamber is full, causing the tractor to stop and initiating the wrapping process as well as automatic ejec-tion of the bales. Figure 2 shows the structure of the baler with appro-priate explanations of the individual functional assembly units (data from the manufacturer).

John Deere offers the 900 series round baler with a variable pressing chamber in models 960 and 990. Both balers are available with two different cutter system options. With the MaxiCut HC 25 which has 25 knives, cut lengths of min. 40 mm can be achieved, and with the reduced number of 13 knives cut lengths of 80 mm are pos sible. The MaxiCut HC 13 with 13 knives provides a minimum cut length of 80 mm. The John Deere round baler with the RotoFlow pickup HC is also offered without the cutter system, providing customers who do not require the knives with an additional option. Since the rotor already has the feeding augers built

in, according to John Deere the number of drive components and the distance between the rotor and pickup can be kept to a mini-mum, which especially facilitates a good material transport for short harvested material.

In order to reduce the holding time of the baler during the wrapping and the ejection of the bale, John Deere developed a new ejection concept that does not include a conventional tailgate. The John Deere 900 Series variable chamber round balers are available with a steplessly variable soft core func-tion and a "Drop Floor" feeder channel that can be lowered with

Figure 2: Functional structure of the John Deere round baler 900 series (data from the manufacturer)

The two wide endless belts are mounted on the frame, so that the tension and stresses are routed to the frame. Three starter rollers enable quick and safe start of the baling process, whereby the tensioning arm regulates the pressure applied to the belts, which in turn ensures uniform bale density.

The net wrapping device is mounted on the front of the frame and thus enables good accessibility. The John Deere CoverEdge net smoothly wraps around the bales and provides good bale stability.

With its rapidly opening and light curtain, the new bale discharge system replaces the conventional tailgate. The non-suppor-ting, flexible side walls prevent the bale from getting stuck in the chamber.

The pickup has an intake width of 2.2 m with 5 rows of tines, which in combination with the cutter system and the rotor enable quiet operation and constant throughput. The "DropFloor" feeder channel helps the driver to clear blockages quickly and safely.

The full-frame concept protects the embedded components from stresses and thus enables compact design of the baler.

DLG Test Report 6112 F Page 3 of 8

Test content and implementationThe test in the grass silage was conducted during the second cut, and the grass dry matter content was between 65.9 % and 51.5 %. The average windrow size, 1270 mm wide and 170 mm high, yielded a grass amount between 1.94 and 2.81 metric tons dry matter/ha.

The grass silage was fed into the John Deere 960 round baler with the MaxiCut HC 25 cutter system, which is operated at a power take-off shaft speed of 1000 rpm. An-other constant adjustment variable was the number of net wraps, which was set at 2.7. In the grass silage bale diameters (1.25 m / 1.4 m), the number of knives (25/13) and the bale density were varied (100 % / 50 %). After the eights test run with different set-up parame-ters, the baler was subjected to a one-hour capacity test with maxi-mum throughput. Here, the bale density was reduced to 85 %, 13 knives were used, and the bale diameter was set to 1.25 m.

For straw, the John Deere 990 round baler was used to produce bale diameters of 1.25 m and 1.85 m. The power take-off shaft speed here was 540 rpm and the number of wraps was increased to 3.2. No knives were used through-out this test. The bale density settings ranged between 70 % and 100 %.

DLG FokusTest "Throughput and bale density measurement in grass silage and straw" with the John Deere round baler 960/990, was carried out on a farm in Hesse (cen-tral Germany) in the harvest season 2012. The aim of the tests was to examine the performance of the baler in the field in order to deter-mine the throughput rate and bale density. In addition, the power re-quirement at the power take-off shaft, the driving speed and the processing times of the round baler were also determined. Each bale was subsequently marked with a number, measured and weighed with the DLG bale weighing device. The tractor used was the John Deere 6930 Premium (rated power accor-ding to ECE-R24, 110 kW/150 hp) and the John Deere "CoverEdge" net was used in the round baler.

The grass and straw fields provided were level and between 4 ha and 10 ha in size. The tests were per-formed matching the harvesting conditions on site. The baler was adjusted according to these before the start and some sample bales were produced before the test runs.

The test runs were carried out both in grass silage and straw with eight setting options. In addition, a one-hour endurance test was per-formed in the grass silage. Depend-ing on crop conditions, 4-5 bales were produced for each test run.

For the straw processing, the straw moisture was between 10.2 % and 10.7 %. The straw yield was relatively low with an average of 2.65 metric tons dry matter/ha. The straw swath was laid out directly by the combine (John Deere T560, header working width 6.7 m) with an average width of 1350 mm and a height of 224 mm.

Figure 4: John Deere 990 round baler during test run in straw

Figure 5: Harvesting conditions in grass operation during the DLG baler test

Figure 6: DLG bale marking during test run in straw

Figure 3: John Deere 960 round baler during test run for grass processing

DLG Test Report 6112 F Page 4 of 8

Table 1 shows the results of the eight test runs with varying setting parameters. The ninth test run shows the result of the one-hour capacity test.

Figure 7 shows the throughput and the bale density in the individual test runs. The throughput is stated without the processing and turn-around times here. Under these field conditions the John Deere round

baler delivered a high bale density, both with 13 knives (test run 3, 100 % density) and with 25 knives (test run 1, 100 % density).

The one-hour capacity test (test run 9) yielded the highest throughput values, although it was perfor- med with a density of 85 % and 13 knives. During the one-hour ca-pacity tests which included the pro-cessing and turnaround times, the

John Deere 960 round baler was able to attain a throughput of 43 t/h, producing 53 bales with an av-erage weight of 809 kg per bale and a bale density of 540 kg/m3 (grass moisture content 48 %). The maximum driving speed was 21.6 km/h, the average speed was 14.3 km/h. Figure 8 illustrates the processing times of the John Deere round baler. Featured here are the test runs 1 and 3 (bale density 100 %), which only differ in the number of knives used. With 25 knives (test run 1) the round baler can produce 48 bales per hour, or based on the crop mass 39.9 t of fresh mass. With 13 knives (test run 3) the round baler can produce 52 bales per hour, or based on the crop mass 39.2 t of fresh mass.

The bale ejection system of the John Deere round baler is characterized by very good values in terms of speed. On average, the round baler reached a bale ejection time of 4.9 s with bale diameters between 1.25 m and 1.4 m. The average wrapping time was 5.8 s with a 1.25 m bale diam-eter and 2.7 net wraps.

Test results grass silageTable 1: Overview of the average test results of the John Deere 960 round baler during the grass processing without processing and turnaround times

Figure 7: Summary of test results of the John Deere 960 round baler across all test runs with an average throughput and bale density

B

ale

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ut [t

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Throughput fresh mass Bale density fresh mass

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Density setting [%] 100 50 100 50 100 50 100 50 85Number of knives 25 25 13 13 13 13 13 13 13Bale diameter [m] 1.25 1.25 1.25 1.26 1.40 1.41 1.26 1.23 1.25Bale width [m] 1.23 1.23 1.22 1.22 1.22 1.22 1.22 1.22 1.22Driving time [sec] 64.2 55.0 57.8 49.8 73.6 51.6 82.8 76.3 49.5Holding time [sec] 10.9 10.6 10.7 10.6 12.0 12.1 10.5 10.5 –Wrapping time [sec] 5.8 5.7 5.9 5.8 7.0 7.1 5.7 5.8 –Ejection time [sec] 5.1 4.9 4.9 4.9 5.0 5.0 4.8 4.7 –Driving speed [km/h] 13.7 13.8 14.8 15.2 15.6 15.1 9.5 9.4 17.4PTO power requirement [kW] 48.4 41.4 43.5 34.8 44.9 37.3 39.3 30.4 44.4PTO torque requirement [Nm] 454 388 408 325 421 349 368 284 417Bale weight [kg] 831 653 754 642 874 713 730 586 809Bale density fresh mass [kg/m3] 546.8 430.5 506.5 419.1 467.4 376.1 483.0 402.0 540.2Bale density grass dry matter content [kg/m3] 281.6 253.1 328.4 274.0 302.1 247.8 318.2 264.8 277.7Grass moisture content [%] 48.5 41.2 35.2 34.6 35.4 34.1 34.1 34.1 48.6Grass dry matter content [%] 51.5 58.8 64.8 65.4 64.6 65.9 65.9 65.9 51.4Throughput fresh mass [t/h] 46.9 43.5 49.5 47.3 43.1 50.3 31.8 27.7 58.8Throughput grass dry matter content [t/h] 24.1 25.6 32.1 30.9 27.8 33.1 20.9 18.2 30.2

DLG Test Report 6112 F Page 5 of 8

Figure 9 shows the bale weight with the corresponding power require-ment for the power take-off shaft and the corresponding dry matter content of each test run.

This round baler can achieve the highest bale weights with a bale di-ameter of 1.4 meters, 13 knives and 100 % density (test run 5), which then yields an average bale weight of 874 kg. The ratio of required power to bale weight [kW/kg crop mass], indicates the actual power requirement of a round baler. This round baler is able to attain good values in grass silage.

Individual bales were selected from every test run to determine the bale density distribution and scanned on the bale density test rig in the DLG Test Center. An example of bale density distribution from test run 3 (100 % density, 13 knives) is shown in Figure 10. The density distribution shows a not too soft bale core, whereas the highest density is achieved between bale core and outer layer. In general, for grass si-lage, a maximum bale density with-out a soft core should be targeted in order to ensure a safe fermentation process in the bales. In this example, under the harvest conditions speci-fied below the John Deere 960 round baler is able to attain a bale density of 348 kg dry matter/m3 at 68.8 % dry matter content.

Figure 8: Overview of the processing times of the John Deere 960 round baler across all test runs

Figure 9: Overview of the bale weights and power requirements in relation to the dry matter content across all test runs of the John Deere 960 round baler

48 bales/hor 39,9 t 52 bales/h

or 39,2 t

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Figure 10: Bale density distribution of a bale from the John Deere 960 round baler from test run 3 with 100 % density, 1.25 m bale diameter and 13 knives engaged

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Date: June 23, 2012

Harvested crop: grass silage

Baler: John Deere 960

Bale number: 12

Bale weight: 786 kg

Bale density: 505.8 kg/m3

Bale diameter: 127 cm

Bale width: 123 cm

Dry matter content: 68.8 %

Density setting: 100 %

Number of knives: 13

Driving speed: 14.3 km / h

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DLG Test Report 6112 F Page 6 of 8

Table 2 shows the results of the eight test runs with the John Deere 990 round baler.

Figure 11 shows the throughput and the bale density in the individ-ual test runs, whereby the through-put is stated without the processing

and turnaround times. Under these harvesting conditions the John Deere round baler de livered a high bale density during test runs 1 and 2 (100 % density, 1,85 m). During test runs 5 and 6 (100 % density, 1,25 m) the density values

of test runs 1 and 2 could not be achieved. This may be due to differ-ent swath conditions.

Figure 12 illustrates the processing times of the John Deere 990 round baler. Highlighted here are test run 1 (100 % density, 1.85 m), test run 5 (100 % density, 1.25 m) and test run 7 (70 % density, 1.25 m). During test run 7 the round baler reached an output of 120 bales per hour, or based on the crop mass 20.3 t of fresh mass, even though the density was reduced to 70 %. But even 60 bales per hour (test run 1) with a bale diameter of 1.85 m is a good value which this baler can easily achieve (stated values include pro-cessing and turnaround times).

During use for straw processing too, the John Deere bale ejection system was able to attain very good values, with a bale ejection time of 5.9 s for bale diameters between 1.25 m and 1.85 m.

Figure 13 shows the bale weight with the corresponding power re-quirement for the power take-off

Test results strawTable 2: Overview of the average test results of the John Deere 990 round baler during straw processing without processing and turnaround times

Figure 11: Overview of the test results of the John Deere 990 round baler across all test runs with an average throughput and bale density in straw

Throughput fresh mass Bale density fresh mass

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Number of knives – – – – – – – –

Bale diameter [m] 1.92 1.92 1.88 1.86 1.34 1.33 1.31 1.29

Bale width [m] 1.25 1.25 1.25 1.25 1.25 1.25 1.25 1.25

Driving time [sec] 45.5 49.0 43.3 52.3 22.8 25.5 18.5 21.0

Holding time [sec] 14.6 14.2 14.2 14.1 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6

Wrapping time [sec] 8.2 8.2 8.4 8.1 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.8

Ejection time [sec] 6.4 6.0 5.9 6.0 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.8

Driving speed [km/h] 17.0 15.3 17.7 15.7 17.3 14.5 16.3 14.4

PTO power requirement [kW] 44.3 42.6 38.7 33.0 31.8 27.1 25.4 23.0

PTO torque requirement [Nm] 822 755 683 581 564 478 451 407

Bale weight [kg] 468 440 422 236 187 165 169 165

Bale density fresh mass [kg/m3] 125.8 122.6 114.3 116.8 105.1 104.0 96.2 95.1

Bale density grass dry matter content [kg/m3] 112.1 109.4 104.1 108.7 95.0 92.9 88.0 86.8

Straw moisture content [%] 10.9 10.8 9.0 6.9 9.6 10.6 8.5 8.7

Straw dry matter content [%] 89.1 89.2 91.0 93.1 90.4 89.4 91.5 91.3

Throughput fresh mass [t/h] 37.4 33.5 35.1 29.1 31.2 27.5 33.3 28.1

Throughput straw dry matter content [t/h] 33.4 29.9 32.0 27.1 28.2 24.6 30.5 25.7

DLG Test Report 6112 F Page 7 of 8

shaft and the corresponding straw moisture content for the respective test run. This round baler is able to achieve the highest bale weights with a bale diameter of 1.85 meters and 100 % density (test run 1), with an average bale weight of 468 kg and 10.9 % straw moisture content. Test run 5 (100 % density, 1.25 m) yielded an average bale weight of 187 kg. The total power require-ment for use with straw is lower than with use for grass, with varying average maximum values for the use in straw between 23.1 kW (test run 8) and 44.3 kW (test run 1).

For use with straw too, individual bales were selected from each test run to determine the bale density distribution, which was then scanned on the bale density test rig.

An example from test run 1 (100 % density) is shown in Figure 14. The density distribution here depicts ap-proximately the same density values in the core region and in the outer layer, whereas the highest density values were achieved between them.

Figure 12: Overview of the processing times of the John Deere 990 round baler across all test runs in straw

Figure 13: Overview of the bale weights and power requirements in relation to the straw moisture content across all test runs of the John Deere 990 round baler

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Figure 14: Bale density distribution of a bale from the John Deere 990 round baler from test run 1 with 100 % density, 1.85 m bale diameter and no knives engaged

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Bale density [kg/m3]

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Date: August 13, 2012

Harvested crop: wheat straw

Baler: John Deere 990

Ball Number: 3

Bale weight: 472 kg

Bale density: 125.3 kg/m3

Bale diameter: 192 cm

Bale width: 126 cm

Dry matter content: 88.5 %

Density setting: 100 %

Number of knives: –

Driving speed: 17.7 km / h

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DLG Test Report 6112 F Page 8 of 8

12-041April 2013 © DLG

Summary

Test

The John Deere 900 Series Round Baler performed success-fully with very good measurement results in both grass silage and straw. Although the harvesting conditions were sub-optimal in some cases, the measurement re-sults provided sufficient informa-tion to confirm this. A one-hour endurance test in straw would have supplied additional data.

In grass silage the round baler 960 was used with 25 and 13 knives, and for straw a switch was made to model 990 to be able to achieve bale diameters of up to 1.85 m.

Test performed by

DLG e.V. – Test Center Technology and Farm Inputs, Max-Eyth-Weg 1, D-64823 Gross-Umstadt

provided a throughput rate of 43 t/h fresh mass.

The smooth running pickup with good feeding characteristics, the powerful rotor and the simple oper-ation via the ISOBUS terminal help the farmer to be more productive. The signature trait of this baler is the innovative ejection system, which provides considerable ad-vantages through a very short bale ejection time. This shortens the hold time of the baler during bale ejec-tion, which can consequently lead to a higher rate of productivity.

Overall, the round baler was able to convince test users by deliver-ing a high bale density, a high throughput and a very homoge-neous and cylindrical bale form, even for bales with a lower den-sity. The uniform and symmetrical bale density distribution especially contributes to a good forage qua-lity for silage bales. During the one-hour ca pacity test, including processing and turnaround times, in grass silage the John Deere round baler 960 was able to pro-duce 53 bales with an average bale weight of 809 kg and a bale den sity of 540 kg/m3, which

Test execution, evaluation of the results and reporting

Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Johannes Speer

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Download all DLG test reports free of charge at: http://www.dlg.org/testsagriculture.html

DLG e.V. – Test Center Technology and Farm InputsMax-Eyth-Weg 1, 64823 Gross-Umstadt, Germany Telephone: +49 69 24788-600, Fax: +49 69 24788-690, Email: Tech@DLG.org, Internet: www.DLG.org