New Holland BB9000 big balers weigh in with new features

• Four new models - BB9050, BB9060, BB9070 and BB9080

• Latest harvester styling

• Five CropCutter™ knife configurations

• Unique integrated bale weighing system

• Partial Bale-Eject system

• New slim hitch design

• Upgraded double knotter system

New Holland's current BB-A baler range is the big baler market leader and the product of choice for contractors and large-scale farmers. The new BB9000 big baler range builds on that expertise, clothed beneath sweeping new lines that reflect New Holland's harvester styling, creating a strong family style across New Holland's baler, forager and combine ranges. Featuring a wider choice of knife configurations, a more manoeuvrable hitch design and an upgraded double knotter system, the BB9000 models provide perfectly-formed bales reliably and consistently.

The four new models offer a choice of bale sizes with 80cm or 120cm widths and 70cm or 90cm heights. The BB9050, BB9060, BB9070 and BB9080 big balers all produce up to 260cm long bales.

Baling excellence

The wide SuperSweep™ pick-up is able to operate at high speed, allowing the large swaths left by modern combines to be collected easily. Closely spaced, curved tines ensure the crop is delivered efficiently and quickly to the stuffer forks for high workrates.

The BB9000 features an improved stuffer mechanism, which increases in speed as crop is moved from the precompression chamber to the bale chamber. This improves top and corner fill and wad density to produce well-shaped bales for transport and stacking, and dense bales for high quality forage.

Superior chopping

A wide choice of CropCutter options available on all models provide excellent chop quality for nutritious silage bales, which are readily digested for faster weight gain on livestock. Five configurations offer between six knives on the 80cm Packer Cutter option, and a maximum of 33 knives on the 120cm Rotor Cutter option, giving operators greater flexibility to specify chop length.

The BB9000 retains the proven W-pattern rotor, which spreads the cutting force and creates a smooth cutting action, reducing power requirement and fuel consumption required. The design further promotes the equal distribution of the crop over the full width of the pre-compression chamber and the bale chamber.

The slide out knife drawer is easily accessed to allow quick and convenient knife-sharpening that enables the BB9000 to stay at its most productive. For tough conditions, hard-faced knives are available as a dealer installed accessory resulting in reduced sharpening intervals that can be up to three times greater than the standard knives.

Comfort and convenience

New Holland offers the BB9000 operator a wide choice of monitoring options to allow every aspect of the baler to be carefully controlled. Ready to be used with any ISOBUS compatible tractor, complete baler information and control are possible using the tractor's built-in monitor. For tractors without ISOBUS, the entry level black & white InfoView™ II display provides clear control, or for the highest level of sophistication, the advanced colour IntelliView™ III touch screen monitor provides simple fingertip operation and can be linked to a baler-mounted, rear-view camera, available as a dealer-installed option, for improved visibility.

Bale density, verifying the number of wads, engaging the automatic greasing system and bale count can all be accessed from the easy-to-navigate monitor. Electronic bale length control can be specified to accurately control length from the cab, ensuring consistent measurement with less time spent on adjustments. The optional moisture sensing system uses two star wheels to penetrate the bale for extremely accurate measurement and allows precise application of additives. This saves time and money when working with crops that may have a higher than expected moisture content.

Developed for the BB9000, New Holland's bale weighing system is an industry first. Part of the New Holland's yield monitoring system, the integrated bale weighing system can be installed by the dealer and enables contractors to charge by weight and offers increased specific field management. Using an independent pivoting bale chute frame on the rearmost bale chute section , the unique 'bale tilting' system allows the bale to be accurately weighed without slowing production rates. Extensive trials against stationary weighing machines have confirmed the system's accuracy and with individual and total bale weight able to be recorded, the many benefits 'on-the-move' weighing are available to operators.

The standard Bale-Eject™ system clears the bale chamber of any remaining tied bales for complete bale chamber cleaning. The optional Partial Bale-Eject™ system ejects only the last completed bale that may be protruding from the rear of the bale chamber and not allowing the bale chute to be raised, leaving the start of the next bale in the chamber. Separate teeth on each side of the chamber are activated by separate hydraulics allowing the crop remaining close to the plunger face to allow a "hard start" when moving fields, thus increasing in-field productivity.

A new, slim hitch design allows tight headland turns and when combined with the steered tandem-axle option, ensures that the BB9000 has great manoeuvrability. Two choices of tandem axles are now offered, the new one with larger wheels up to 620/50R22.5 to provide very low ground compaction, ideal when the baler is working on wet ground. A fixed single axle and a fixed tandem axle are also available on the entry-level configurations.

Quality and reliability

New Holland's rugged and reliable baler design has earned it an enviable reputation. The BB9000 continues this philosophy with a durable monocoque frame and heavy-duty, over-engineered gearboxes used for all main drivelines for smooth and efficient power transfer.

The oil-immersed gearboxes and automatic greasing system reduce the daily service needs and further improve reliability.

The BB9000 baler benefits from an upgraded double knotter system, which features new shielding to keep the knotters clean, a larger diameter knotter brake disc, reduced twine tension and changes to the bill hook profile. The design allows higher bale density as there is virtually no strain on the twine and knotter components during bale formation. During testing one BB9000 produced more than 14,000 bales without a single missed tie, underlining the proven reliability of the system.

The BB9000 draws on New Holland's prodigious baling heritage to provide farmers and contractors with a professional baling solution.