A round baler includes a housing, and a gate rotatably attached to the housing. A bale holder is attached to and moveable with the gate. The bale holder includes a retractable member that is moveable between an engaged position operable to grasp a bale and move the bale with the gate, and a disengaged position operable to release the bale. The retractable member is positioned to grasp an end face of the bale at a contact location. The contact location is disposed rearward of a vertical reference plane passing through a centerline of the bale when the bale is within an interior region of the round baler and the gate is in the closed position. The contact location may be disposed below a horizontal plane passing through the centerline of the bale when the bale is within the interior region and the gate is in the closed position.

A round baler includes a pick-up unit for picking up crop material from the ground, a baling chamber which receives the crop material from the pick-up unit, and a press mounted within the baling chamber for forming a bale during a bale formation cycle. The baler also includes a binding unit for dispensing a binding material for binding the bale, a tailgate displaceable by an actuator from a closed position at the beginning of a bale formation cycle to an open position to dispense the bale after the binding cycle. A sensor detects a first tailgate position after the bale formation cycle and before the binding cycle, and detects a second tailgate position after the binding cycle and before displacing the tailgate to the opened position. A controller is responsive to the sensor by determining a tailgate position change between the second tailgate position and the first tailgate position.

A baler connectable to a tractor for providing round bales comprises: a frame supported on a wheel axle; a chamber, for receiving crops and for housing a formed bale, the chamber having a fixed, predetermined size; a tailgate connected to the frame and movable between a closed position and an open position; a conveying assembly which has a first portion provided in the frame and a second portion provided in the tailgate; a cylinder-piston actuator, which includes a closing chamber and moves the tailgate from the open position to the closed position; a binder, configured for binding the formed bale with a fastening element; a pressure sensor for detecting a control signal representative of a pressure inside the closing chamber of the cylinder-piston actuator; a control unit, configured to generate an alert signal as a function of the control signal.

A round includes a housing and a gate rotatably attached to the housing for rotation about a gate rotation axis, and a forming belt that defines a variable sized baling chamber. A take-up roller supports the forming belt. A first actuator is coupled to the take-up roller and is operable to automatically apply a first bias force to the take-up roller to urge the take-up roller into a slack take-up position to reduce slack in the forming belt as the gate moves relative to the housing. A second actuator is coupled to the take-up roller for applying a second bias force to the take-up roller, in opposition to the first bias force, to restrict movement of the take-up roller into the slack take-up position to introduce slack into the forming belt when the gate is opened to an intermediate position.

A combination of a tractor and a baler includes a tractor control unit and a baler control unit. A driving speed of the tractor can be set and/or adjusted with the tractor control unit. The baler includes a bale sensor in order to sense the size of a bale in a baling chamber. The baler control unit is connected to the bale sensor and to the tractor control unit to send a stop signal to the tractor control unit when the bale signal of the bale sensor indicates that a bale has reached a size which is greater than or equal to a first predetermined size. The tractor control unit controls the tractor to initiate a braking operation for stopping the tractor and to adapt a driving rotational speed of the drive shaft of the baler when the tractor control unit receives the stop signal from the baler control unit.

A method for operating a baler system including a combination of a tractor and a baler implement includes generating an adaptation signal with an input and output unit and sending the adaptation signal to a tractor control unit. The tractor control unit adapts a driving rotational speed of the drive shaft of the baler implement when the tractor control unit receives the adaptation signal.

A baling apparatus including a bale forming chamber in which an agricultural bale is formed, wrapped and subsequently released. The baling apparatus also includes a support extending adjacent the bale forming chamber, the support incorporating a plurality of sensors arranged upon the support, wherein the sensors are adapted to measure a surface property of at least one surface of the bale. Since the surface property of an unwrapped bale will differ from the surface property of a wrapped bale, the baling apparatus can detect whether the wrapping material is sufficiently wrapped around the formed bale to release of the bale without the bale falling apart.

A round baler includes a housing, and a gate rotatably attached to the housing. A bale holder is attached to and moveable with the gate. The bale holder includes a retractable member that is moveable between an engaged position operable to grasp a bale and move the bale with the gate, and a disengaged position operable to release the bale. The retractable member is positioned to grasp an end face of the bale at a contact location. The contact location is disposed rearward of a vertical reference plane passing through a centerline of the bale when the bale is within an interior region of the round baler and the gate is in the closed position. The contact location may be disposed below a horizontal plane passing through the centerline of the bale when the bale is within the interior region and the gate is in the closed position.

An agricultural round baler includes a frame, and a tail gate arrangement carried by the frame and arranged in an arcuate arrangement around a bale chamber. The baler is characterized in that the tail gate arrangement include an upper tail gate arrangement and a lower tail gate arrangement. The upper tail gate arrangement has a first pivot axis located at an upper, forward portion thereof. The lower tail gate arrangement has a second pivot axis located at an approximate center of the bale chamber when viewed in cross section.

An agricultural roundbaler includes a housing having a housing part, an ejection flap pivotably mounted on the housing part about a bearing axis, and drivable pressing apparatus arranged on the housing part and the ejection flap. The pressing apparatus define a bale pressing chamber on a peripheral side thereof. A control device operably pivots the ejection flap such that an ejection opening is formed between the housing part and the ejection flap. During an unloading process, the ejection flap is adjustably pivoted by the control device from an unloading position in which the fully pressed round bale is unloaded through the ejection opening to a retained position in which the unloaded round bale is retained by the ejection flap. The ejection flap is pivotable from the retained position to a relieved position in which the retained round bale is released by the ejection flap to eject from the pressing chamber.