Krone sets new world record

German company Krone recently entered the record books when a Comprima F125 XC baler produced 149 round bales in one hour. Joe Spencer reports.

Krone sets new world record
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A new baling record was established in a 35ha wheat field in eastern Germany on 1 August, 2012. Operating the Krone Comprima F125 XC baler was Ewald Vehring, who teaches agriculture at the North German DEULA Institute for practical industrial training. Two German agriculture magazines monitored the attempt.

The record run started at 12.05pm and ran for precisely 60 minutes with the baler set to its highest density, and applying three layers of net wrap to each 1,25m bale. When the operation was stopped – at 1.05pm sharp – the bale count was 149. In just 60 minutes, about 28t of wheat straw was baled.


Driver Ewald Vehring shows off the certificate for the record.

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“Those 60 minutes were sheer stress for me, even though I’m quite a seasoned baler operator,” says Ewald. “Then, when I looked at the bale counter after half an hour, the count was already seven bales ahead of the existing record. That was when I knew we were going to set a new world record.”

Some innovative features
Francois de Fleuriot de la Coliniere, manager of the Pietermaritzburg branch of Rovic & Leers, the distributors of Krone equipment in South Africa, says the Comprima F125 XC baler (below) has a number of features that obviously helped in the setting of the new record. These include the cam trackless EasyFlow Pick-Up, which ensures a continuous flow of crop into the baling chamber, and the new NovoGrip elevator, made up of rubber-treaded fabric belts in combination with horizontal slats.

This achieves dramatically higher bale densities and throughputs because of the positive grip it exerts on the material. The material is compressed as soon as it enters the chamber, resulting in well shaped bales with dense centres. At the same time, smooth running ensures reduced wear and maintenance costs. Krone Comprima round balers are available with both a net wrap and double twine wrap system. Net wrapping is faster and allows higher throughputs.