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ROLLANT ROUND-UP
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Heavy duty ROLLANT
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The latest ROLLANT 540 and 520 fixed chamber round balers have been completely redesigned and include new rollers, a stronger chassis, a new drive concept and ease of maintentance, all ensuring high performance, excellent reliability and a long service life Both ROLLANT balers produce a 1.25m diameter bale, the ROLLANT 520 bale being 1.20m wide and the 540 bale 1.22m
IDEAL ROLLER DESIGN FOR PERFECT BALES In the fixed chamber, the ROLLANT 540 has 15 redesigned rollers all made from 4mm thick steel and the ROLLANT 520 has 16, of which eight are made from 3-mm-thick sheet steel, and the other eight from 4-mm-thick sheet steel. The ribbed profile of the rollers ensures precise rotation of the bale, even under moist conditions. Storage and power transmission functions are performed by the heavy duty stub shafts that can be individually replaced if necessary, like the rollers themselves. The rotor, main drive and tailgate rollers are fitted with Zubakki 1.25inch (ROLLANT 540) or 1.00-inch (ROLLANT 520) drive chains. The oil lubricating the chain is pumped from the large storage tank by an adjustable eccentric pump. Lubrication is not tied to throughput –
the oil is distributed as needed, precisely on the chain link pivot points. The baling pressure is controlled via the horizontally mounted tailgate closing rams. For maximum bale density, pressure of up to 180 bar can be applied to the rams. Optionally available is the MPS II system. With this system, three of the compression rollers pivot into the chamber for additional bale compaction, early bale rotation and a perfectly uniform bale shape.
POWERFUL PICK-UP FOR OPTIMUM CROP FLOW Both the ROLLANT 540 and 520 balers are available either with the ROTOCUT chopping system or with the ROTOFEED feed rotor. The ROLLANT 520 is also available with an assister feed rake. The crop is picked up cleanly and efficiently with a 2.10-m-wide controlled pick-up (1.85 m on the RIOLLANT 520 with assister feed rake). A crop guard is available as optional equipment. This improves the crop flow even with small swaths, and helps to produce a uniform bale shape. Two lateral feed augers ensure the crop material is conveyed efficiently and reliably to the intake rotor. The knives in the optional ROTOCUT chopping mechanism give a theoretical cut length of 70 mm and each knife has protection against foreign objects. On both balers there is also the choice of net or twine wrapping, with no tools required to change the wrapping mode. A ramp on the right side of the machine simplifies the process of loading the wrapping system, and a spare roll of either film or net can also be carried here. Both balers are operated using the CLAAS OPERATOR terminal while the COMFORT version of the ROLLANT 540 also enables the netting settings to be altered from the cab.
Barrie Clayton | Contractor | Abergavenny
ROLLANT 520
“Produces a good, solid bale.” “It’s restored my faith in the ROLLANT,” states Barrie Clayton of his pre-series ROLLANT 520RF. Barrie’s only other experience with a CLAAS baler was back in the early 1990s with a ROLLANT 46. Having used a different make of baler until very recently, Huw Brown of RIVERLEA suggested trying the pre-series ROLLANT 520 as he felt it would be a good alternative and the ideal baler for Barrie. “I have been very impressed with the ROLLANT and fair play to it, it really does make a good dense bale. Between what I do for my own suckler cattle and sheep and some contract work I now only do about 3,500 bales a year,” explains Barrie. “So I don’t need anything fancy and in that respect the ROLLANT 520 is ideal. My last three balers have had chopping systems and drop floors, but after a few years the customers who want their bales chopped often say not to bother, and chopping does use more fuel, so it’s good to go back to a straightforward baler.
PRESSURE TAILGATE “I’ve not had a baler with a pressure tailgate before, but the bales that come out are definitely hard and solid. Loading the net using the chute is straightforward and net feed has been reliable. Because the bales are so dense, I like to put four layers of net on just to avoid any risk of the net pulling apart and the bale collapsing when moved. It may be slightly more expensive, but it’s better than a collapsed bale. “Setting the baler up using the (OPERATOR) terminal is very easy and I particularly like the fact that it counts every bale that’s wrapped, even if you manually trip the wrapping, which my old baler didn’t. It’s well designed, the flow into the baler is very good and I like the fact that all the roller bearings are in flanges, so easily replaceable - not that I am expecting to have to do that for quite a while!” “The ROLLANT produces a well filled, solid bale. I can’t fault it, have got on well with it and been extremely pleased with what it does. I look forward to doing the next 30,000 bales with it, and if it does that then it will have done all right.”
John MacGillivray | 160ha | Highlands
ROLLANT 540RC
High quality bales for high quality forage Even though it had only just been introduced, John MacGillivray had no qualms about buying a ROLLANT 540RC for the 2019 season. The decision to change his old ROLLANT 375 for the a ROLLANT 540RC was not taken lightly, as for him the baler is one of the most important machines he has on the farm and key to his whole farming system. “I am a one man band and generally the farm is completely selfsufficient,” says John, who is the 7th generation of MacGillivray’s to farm at Boat of Garten near Aviemore. “I have a herd of mainly Angus x Simmental suckler cows that are generally put to a Limousin bull. Rather than sell the progeny, I want to have control over the quality of meat that is eventually going into the market, so take them right through to finishing, aiming to reach 700kg at about 22 to 24 months to give a 400kg carcass. In addition, I also overwinter Blackface sheep from Loch Tay, which we have been doing for 50 years.”
net far easier and means you can safely swop rolls in just a couple of minutes.” Farming on the edge of the Cairngorms, the biggest factor is weather. “By having my own machinery and not being reliant on a contractor I can make the most of any good conditions and do as much or as little as the weather allows. My silage season starts around June 20th and takes about a month, by which time the hay is ready to cut, which then leads into the arable baling and harvest. “All told the baler is being used for about 4 months and is responsible for packaging all my winter feed, so is very cost effective. Having quality forage is important as I generally need to feed from around September 15th through to May 15th, so it’s a long winter.”
All the feed he needs is produced on the 160ha farm, where he makes 1,500 silage and 800 hay bales and grows 26ha of barley. Some of this is baled green to provide 300 arable bales and the remainder is taken through to harvest and combined, giving about 400 straw bales.
WELL PROVEN BALER Being a key machine, John aims to replace the baler every 5 years, by which time they will have made about 20,000 bales. CLAAS balers bought through SELLARS have been a feature on the farm for many years, starting with a ROLLANT 250, followed by a 255, 355 and the 375 prior to the new 540, which arrived in late July. “The ROLLANT is a well proven baler, that’s reliable, easy to use and makes a good, well filled bale. They also hold their value well, so the cost of use is low. Before deciding SELLARS arranged for me to have a demonstration, and the new ROLLANT 540 has done everything that Dustin Bishop (Field Sales Manager at SELLARS Forres) said it would.”
MINOR CHANGES MAKE MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS
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“Overall it makes a really well filled bale. The other key feature of all ROLLANT balers is the net wrapping system which is bombproof. It’s so reliable; you can just keep going all day and it never causes a problem. The net chute is a huge benefit and makes loading rolls of
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“The ROLLANT has a great crop flow into the baler and there are a lot of other small changes throughout the baler, which all together add up to major improvements. The autolube system means that about 95% of maintenance is done for you and the centralised greasing makes daily maintenance simple.
Martin Ainscough | 600ha and 2000 ewes | Lancashire
ROLLANT 540RC
A positive switch to ROLLANT The last few years have been ones of considerable change for Martin Ainscough Farms, not least in a gradual change in the colour of machinery to CLAAS seed green.
“I only considered the ROLLANT and one other baler I had read about, but the decision to go for the ROLLANT was largely because of the service we get from RICKERBY, and knowing that they had sold a few others which were going well. It’s certainly a good, strong baler with beefed-up drives and has gone really well. As we keep reducing the cereals and put more down to grass, so we will increase the amount we bale.”
From having been a predominantly arable and dairy farm, over the past couple of years Peter Ainscough has gradually increased the amount of grass on the family’s 600 hectare farm at Parbold in Lancashire, which mainly provides grazing and forage for a flock of 2000 ewes.
THE CAPACITY TO TAKE MORE
“We only started using RICKERBY two years ago. Even though we are the other end of the county from their Carnforth depot, the service and support they offer is so much better. It’s way ahead of any other dealer in the area, so when their new south Lancashire depot is opened that will be ideal for us,” comments Peter Ainscough, who in addition to the baler also now runs four CLAAS ARION tractors on the farm – a 650, 610, 460 and 420 with a FL loader.
“The ROLLANT certainly has the capacity to take more. It’s very easy to operate and maintain, and having the loading chute for the net is definitely a help,” states Stephen. “The feed through the baler is good and discharge from the chamber is excellent, as I’ve not had a single bale stick.”
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It’s noticeable how well the bales have stacked and stored without losing shape.
The grass is mown with a 4.0m mower, then ideally tedded out prior to raking in just before baling using a 2.4m single rotor rake, putting two passes into a single swath.
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GREAT DEALER SUPPORT
“We had some thick rows of grass and there are quite a few hills, but the ROLLANT comfortably handled everything that was put in front of it. The bales are certainly good and dense, but the shoulders are also well filled and it’s noticeable how well the bales have stacked and stored without losing shape.”
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Having run variable chamber balers to bale both silage and straw for many years, the change back to the fixed chamber ROLLANT 540RC was prompted by their buying a Wilson Super Move bale collector from RICKERBY to speed up field clearance, but this could only accept regular 1.2m sized bales.
The ROLLANT is operated by Stephen Hunter behind the ARION 650, who has also been very impressed by the baler and its performance. “It went very well and smoothly despite being a very difficult season and the ground conditions were certainly against it by the end when baling straw.
22 Kelly | Contractor | Co. Offaly Brendan
By Alistair Chambers
ROLLANT 540
“The Perfect Bale in All Conditions” Brendan Kelly runs a contracting business in the heartlands of Ireland, close to Tullamore in County Offaly. Brendan has been contracting since 2003 and his main business has always been producing high quality baled silage for local customers. Since the beginning, he has used CLAAS grass machinery to produce quality forage for this customers. He started out in 2003 with a CLAAS ROLLANT 46, moving on to a CLAAS ROLLANT 254 in 2005 and a CLAAS ROLLANT 374 in 2013. With the good service these machines had given Brendan for many years, he decided that he wanted the latest and greatest baler from CLAAS the new ROLLANT 540.
In the field Brendan tells us the pickup can handle anything he has thrown at it with ease, both very dry hay and overly wet silage. On the very rare occasion that a blockage occurs the chopping floor with its 15 knives can be dropped from the in-cab control box to release the offending grass and also make the start-up of the machine far easier on the tractor and the baler. Brendan specified that the baler came on the biggest tyres possible, these being 560mm wide. These give the baler serious stability in hilly conditions and help to “keep it afloat” in wetter areas of fields. Since starting the business Brendan has used BREEN FARM MACHINERY to both purchase and provide service to him and has found them very helpful on the odd occasion when there has been any issues with a machine. Brendan has been a loyal CLAAS grass machinery customer for 17 years and going forward he sees that CLAAS will be the backbone of his business for many years to come.
A GOOD SOLID BALE The 540 was launched at the end of summer 2018, and Brendan had his eye on one as soon as he saw the upgraded specification. When the first CLAAS ROLLANT’s arrived in Ireland for the silage season of 2019, Brendan’s was one of, if not the first machine to be working on the island. Brendan’s business is compact, working within a 8 km range of his base. His customers are mainly dry stock and suckler farmers. Brendan on average produces 4,500 bales per year, not big numbers, but he says that taking his time and producing a “good firm solid bale is what the farmers wants”. Brendan finds that the combination of his 2017 bought CLAAS DISCO 3150TC mower, 2011 CLAAS LINER rake and new CLAAS ROLLANT 540 gives his customers exactly what they want and need from his business. According to Brendan the new CLAAS ROLLANT 540 has some stand out features. • The fact that the rollers are driven from the one side means that in the field he has found that there is far less build-up of chaff and loose grass on the machine. This is an improvement over his previous machine. • When in the shed for routine maintenance the fact that all the high-pressure points on the machine are in the same area make it easy to inspect and maintain it correctly.
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• The drive train for the rollers is also a feature which Brendan commented on saying “each roller is separately driven which gives an even force on all the rollers” this is essential for good bale formation.
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• Brendan also commented on the new rollers and the great job they did when working with damper grass. With the excellent feed from the 2.1 metre pickup and 70mm chop length, Brendan said that the baler makes the “perfect bale in all conditions”. Speaking of the rollers, Brendan said the new 4mm steel used in them should allow for many years of trouble free baling.
Kyle Bray | Contractor | Powys
ROLLANT 540
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“Having tried the 540 I didn’t need any persuading to buy it,” states Kyle, who in 2019 was looking to replace his two-year old ROLLANT 374 with a higher output baler. Knowing that local CLAAS dealer REES AGRI had a demo machine, Kyle arranged to have the baler for two days and on the second day contacted James Rees saying he had to have it, and took delivery a week later in late July, after the new baler had been on the CLAAS stand at the Royal Welsh Show.
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“There is just no comparison between my ROLLANT 540 and the ROLLANT 374 it replaced” comments Kyle Bray.
“It was probably one of the easiest sales that James has ever made! The old ROLLANT was fine, but it struggled especially in heavy crops when chopping. The ROLLANT 540 has certainly given me the extra output I was looking for. Not only has bale weight increased but I am getting about 10 bales an hour more. “I did consider another make and would probably would have gone down that route if the ROLLANT 540 had not been introduced, but it wouldn’t have been a match for the 540. Also I have a very good relationship with REES AGRI and the service they provide is superb. That counts for a lot.
EXCELLENT FEED “The biggest difference is the flow through the baler. The feed into the baler is very positive and having the single rotor crop press definitely helps. The ROTO CUT system also copes with heavy crops far better. On the old ROLLANT the clutch would keep going and you would have to ease off, but on the 540 it just keeps taking it in. “Overall in general I am getting another 10 bales an hour out of the ROLLANT 540, which will comfortably produce a bale a minute in a good crop. “The new design of roller has definitely improved bale rotation. On the old baler in straw, it often took a little time for the bale to start rotating properly so you ended up with soft centre bales. That’s not a problem with the ROLLANT 540 and in combination with the pressurised tailgate, I am typically getting bale weights of around 950kg in silage and 250kg in straw.” Comparing the two bales Kyle, who is based near Talgarth in Powys, says that it is noticeable how much stronger the drive system is and the effect that this has had on flow through the baler. He has also found that bale shape is far better, with the ROLLANT 540 producing good, square shouldered bales that are much better for wrapping and stacking, and thanks to the new chute, loading wrap into the baler is also a lot easier.
SMART STOP The ROLLANT 540 is mainly used behind a new ARION 650 CEBIS which with baling in mind was specified with SMART STOP, which stops the tractor when the brake is pressed without needing to declutch. “Having SMART STOP makes baling so easy and far less tiring than having to press the clutch every time you stop. The touchscreen
CEBIS is great to use and makes it very easy to set-up all the baler functions on the F keys on the CMOTION control.” Ahead of the baler, Kyle has been running a DISCO 3150, but that is due to be replaced by a new DISCO 3200 C CONTOUR for the 2020 season. Where required, the crop is spread using a VOLTO 800 prior to rowing up using either his own LINER 370 or a hired in LINER 2900. “The baling work just seems to keep growing and quite a few beef farmers are coming back to baled silage because it’s easier to manage. This year I also added an old QUADRANT 2200 to the fleet as one customer wanted to move from round to square bales. Buying the ROLLANT 540 was definitely a change for the better. It was worth doing and I have certainly had good feed-back from customers,” concludes Kyle.
THE CLAAS ROLLANT 540 Another era of CLAAS ROLLANT balers Heavy duty driveline Roller crop press options Optional folding pickup guide wheels Larger tyre options 80mm full width axle Reinforced door hinges Stronger modular rollers 50mm stub shafts Splined stub shaft & sprocket drive Heavy duty bale chamber & main frame Double race bearings Optional film wrapping system
CLAAS know that reliability and durability are essential for a good harvest. That is why we have developed a fixed-chamber baler with a 1.22 x 1.25 m bale size. This concept has been developed in the UK and Ireland over a number of years to ensure that it meets our customers’ requirements. The ROLLANT 540 is tried, tested and ready for your harvest.
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3 + 33 monthly payments @ 0%
Offer available on all new Green Harvest machinery, while stocks last. Offer ends 31 May 2021. Finance for business users only. Terms and conditions apply.*
Call your local dealer for more information or a demonstration claas.co.uk *Finance for business purposes only. Subject to acceptance and affordability checks. Applicant must be 18 or over. Promotion valid until 31 May 2021. Available on new equipment only. Based on funding 50% of RRP. The finance product available under this promotion is Hire Purchase. First payment, full VAT and a documentation fee of £75.00 are all due on signing. An option-to purchase fee of £50.00 (including VAT) will be collected with the final payment. You will own the machine when all payments have been made. Alternative finance options are available, terms & conditions apply. Images are for illustrative purposes only. Finance provided by CLAAS Financial Services Limited, Northern Cross, Basing View, Basingstoke, RG21 4HL. Registered in England No: 5854271.