Agriculture Reference
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Fig. 6.2 Miscanthus giganteus in a square bale form
pass for grain collection and another where cutting, chopping, and/or baling takes
place. Single-pass whole-crop harvest systems are sometimes used for prairie
energy crops and agricultural residues. For short-rotation woody coppice, the single-
pass harvest system comprises cutting and baling. The efficiency of two wood har-
vesters, a single-pass Biobaler and a two-pass Fecon mulcher cutting head combined
with a Claas baling system, were compared in earlier research [ 13 ].
Round and square baling equipment is common in North America. Baling
machinery designed for energy crops can produce square bales with a dimension of
122 × 122 × 244 cm, weighing as much has 454 kg (Fig. 6.2 ). The bale density of
herbaceous grasses and agricultural residues typically ranges from 150 to
200 kg DM m −3 , although balers designed for bioenergy feedstock can reach
230 kg m −3 . Specialized stationary round baling machines, such as the BaleTech3,
can reach values ranging from 360 to 400 kg m −3 . Round baling equipment has been
widely adopted for forage hay, agricultural residues, forest residues, and short-
rotation woody coppice. Figure 6.3 shows a set of round switchgrass bales on a
flatbed trailer. The capacity of large round balers varies from 227 to 1,134 kg, and
bale sizes range from 1.2 m diameter × 1.2 m wide to 1.8 m diameter × 2.4 m wide.
The bulk density of round bales ranges from 100 to 170 kg m −3 for herbaceous bio-
mass and from 321 to 373 kg m −3 for short-rotation wood coppice or forest residues
[ 13 ]. Round bales are more difficult to load and stack compared to square bales, and
consequently have higher storage and transportation costs, especially for long-dis-
tance transportation and large-scale stacked storage [ 6 ]. Although theoretically the
porosity among round bales stacked in a triangular configuration as present in
Fig. 6.3 amounts to 9.3 %, in practice, the top bales settle into the void spaces,
reducing the porosity. The possibility and merit of filling a standard-sized ISO
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