Preseason Maintenance Tips for Large Square Balers

Jun 02, 2022

The Forage Is Ready. Are You?

Ensuring optimum forage quality means working fast. Working fast means your equipment needs to be ready to go when you are. There’s nothing worse than unexpected downtime in the middle of the season — especially when it was preventable. Even if you carefully prepared equipment to sit over winter, fluctuating temperatures and months of sitting idle can result in maintenance requirements. A thorough once-over on every piece of equipment is a great way to start the season. Inspecting belts, chains, bearings and other components for signs of wear and replacing them before things become an issue can prevent downtime in the field. Additionally, greasing all lube points and running equipment for a few minutes can get your season off to a smooth start.

When it comes to your large square baler, here are some helpful tips for preseason maintenance.

1. Check the pre-compression chamber trip door
The pre-compression chamber trip door, sometimes called the stuffer trip, controls flake size, making it a very important part of your end result. If the door is not functioning properly, you could end up with oversized flake or more than a 1-to-1 ratio, which can result in poor quality bales in some forages.

Make sure the spring tension is correct and the door actuates properly before heading to the field. Your operator’s manual will provide the tension values for your particular model.

2. Inspect twine tensioners
As with the stuffer trip, too much or too little twine tension can reduce bale quality. Generally, 15 to 20 pounds of tension is recommended, but consult your operator’s manual for exact specifications for your machine. Too much tension will keep knotters from functioning properly. Too little tension will result in slack bales and long tails that make transporting bales difficult.

3. Make sure the knotter lube system is properly functioning
Creating high-quality bales relies on all baler components working properly, including the knotter lube system. Before heading to the field, ensure oil is cycling through and getting to all knotter heads. If these components are not properly lubricated during operation, you run the risk of damaging the knotter head, which can lead to expensive and extensive downtime.

On Hesston by Massey Ferguson large square balers, you can check knotter head lubrication manually through the monitor. You should see oil coming out in all the spots around the knotter heads. If it is not, contact your local Massey Ferguson dealer for a service call.

4. Verify chamber pressure
Make sure the load is correctly set for the bale weight and type of crop you are harvesting. Values may have been tweaked at the end of the prior season. Additionally, it’s important to export any tracking data from last year so you can start with a clean slate.

5. Be ready for in-season routine maintenance
It’s always important to be prepared for in-season maintenance with a stock of ware parts and consumables like twine on hand, but this season, planning ahead will be especially important. Work with your local dealer to make sure you have access to all the parts you need before the season gets underway.

Source : Massey Ferguson

Video: 2025 USDA December Crop Report a “Dud” + Trump $12 Billion U.S. Farm Aid

The USDA December crop report was friendly corn, neutral soybeans and bearish wheat. The USDA did surprise and increase the 25/26 U.S. corn export forecast to a new record high at 3.2 billion bushels now up 12% vs. last year vs. prior at +9% vs. the export pace to date up 30% the best in 10 years even higher than 20/21! The USDA left the 25/26 U.S. soybean export pace unchanged at 1.635 billion bushels. Higher global wheat supplies will remain a weight and headwind for wheat into year end and start of 2026.
Mexico is now the #1 buyer of U.S. corn, soybeans (usually China), wheat and pork!
USDA also released its long-term early projections but expect more changes by February of 2026.
Trump announces a $12 billion U.S. farmer aid package to be paid out by February 28, 2026. This helps no one but the ag banks, farm equipment companies, seed and fertilizer companies. It does prevent more farmer bushels from being sold near-term but is not bullish grain prices long-term. The Trump administration should focus on increasing U.S. domestic demand and propping up grain futures so farmers can cover their higher costs, up since COVID of 2020.
The China U.S. soybean purchase tracker now stands at 4.521 mmt or 38% of the 12 mmt promised by China at year end or is it end of February or the growing season? Why the discrepancy vs. the fact sheet. The optics are poor for the Trump administration.
After surging to contract highs U.S. natural gas futures plunged over 30+% in just 5-trading days!
Silver traded to new record highs as the debasement and de dollarization trade continued but technicals remain overbought near-term.
Soybean futures remained in correction mode after the funds went record long futures on Nov. 19 +233,000 contracts but the $10.80 support should hold into year end when the fund profit taking/liquidation comes to an end from the year end, end of month and end of quarter selling.
The U.S. Fed cut interest rates for the 3rd time by 25 basis points to a range of 3.50 – 3.75% and they will only cut one more time in 2026 and once in 20267/ but when Powell is gone next April the replacement is willing to cut more aggressively and we could see U.S. interest rates fall to 2.0% very bullish for ag and stocks as it could reignite inflation into 2027.
After 2 months of being drier than normal in Brazil the rains have finally arrived for the 1st half of December, and a record crop is still in the cards but if this pattern continues and verifies it could start to delay the harvest. Argentina after being too wet has turned dry but they are too small, compared top Brazil in the grand picture.
The Canadian dollar surged to $0.73 after better-than-expected employment data with 180,000 new jobs in the past 3-months and 3rd quarter GDP at +2.6% but this could be short-lived.
The latest CFTC report as of 11-19-2025 reported a record long fund position in soybeans at +233,000 contracts when 2026 March soybean futures peaked on 11-19-25 at $11.724/bu.