'About two hundred off the big field, then some off the next one'
In July and August your balers run from the moment the dew lifts. One operator is making big square bales of straw behind a combine on an arable farm. Another is baling and wrapping round bales of haylage for a horse livery. A third is on silage bales for a beef farm, with a separate wrapper following. Each customer is charged per bale, with different rates for the type of bale, wrapping, chopping and perhaps stacking.
At the end of the day the operators report back: 'about two hundred off the big field, then some off the next one'. The baler has a counter in the cab, but it runs across fields and customers, and nobody wrote down the reading when they moved. The wrapper operator counts separately, and the numbers do not match the baler because some bales were left for the farmer to wrap himself.
Why bale numbers go astray
The counts exist, in the baler's monitor, but they are not tied to fields or customers, and the operators have other things to think about.
- Baler counters run continuously unless reset, and resets are forgotten when moving between fields.
- Several fields for the same customer get lumped together.
- Wrapping is often done by a different machine and operator, sometimes the next day.
- Some bales are wrapped, some are not, some are chopped, and the rates differ.
- Bales are sometimes counted by the customer too, and their number may differ from yours.
Many modern balers record bale counts, and some record weight, moisture and location per bale, but getting that data out of the terminal and into the office is its own job.
What loose counts cost
Baling margins depend on counting every bale. A few bales missing from each field, across a season, is real money, and it is money you never know you lost. Rounding down to avoid an argument with a good customer adds to it.
Wrong counts also cause disputes. A customer who counted his bales in the yard and finds a different number on the invoice will query it, and a query delays payment. And wrap, net and twine used per bale, which are a real cost, cannot be matched to bales when the bale numbers are guesses.
Bale numbers tied to fields and invoices
What we build is a bale record per field and customer, fed from the baler where possible and from quick taps where not.
- At the start of each field, the operator picks the customer and field on a phone in the cab. The baler's counter reading is photographed at the start and end, or taken from the baler's data export if it has one.
- If the baler records bale data that can be accessed, per-bale counts, and weights or moisture where recorded, come in automatically and are split by field using location.
- The wrapper operator does the same: customer, field, bales wrapped, and the number of layers if you charge by it. Unwrapped bales are marked as left for the farmer.
- Extras such as chopping, stacking or carting are ticked per field.
- Each field then has bales made, bales wrapped and extras, priced from your rate card for that customer.
- Draft invoices are created in Xero, QuickBooks or Sage with a line per field, and customers can see a per-field summary if you share it.
| Count | Source | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Bales made per field | Baler counter photos or baler data | Invoice and customer records |
| Bales wrapped per field | Wrapper operator's entry | Invoice and wrap usage |
| Bales left unwrapped | Wrapper operator's entry | Checking against bales made |
| Extras | Ticks per field | Invoice |
After a long day of straw
The straw baler ran across four fields for one customer and two for another. At each field the operator picked the field and photographed the counter. At the end of the day, the record shows bales per field, with the counter readings as evidence. The haylage wrapper recorded that forty bales were left for the livery owner to wrap. When the customer rings about the invoice, the per-field numbers and photos are there.
At the end of the season, you can see bales per field and customer, alongside the net and wrap used, which is useful when you set next year's rates.
Is your baling billed from rough counts?
- Operators report bale numbers as rough totals.
- Baler counters are not read at each field change.
- Wrapping and baling numbers do not match and nobody knows why.
- Customers query bale numbers on invoices.
- You round down to keep customers happy.