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In Ireland Ursus is a name that is best known for its budget tractor offerings, so when I spotted an Ursus baler at this year’s Ploughing I made a plan to see it in action. With the straw baling season the way it has been, it took until recently to get an opportunity to go see what the Polish manufacturer’s baler had to offer.
In Ireland Ursus is a name that is best known for its budget tractor offerings, so when I spotted an Ursus baler at this year’s Ploughing I made a plan to see it in action. With the straw baling season the way it has been, it took until recently to get an opportunity to go see what the Polish manufacturer’s baler had to offer.
When I arrived at the test field the operator was baling bean stalks – not a pretty job but the baler was still making good looking bales.
Moving on to what can best be described as moderately dry straw, the Ursus made good, consistent bales in the 18ft swath, which had been badly weathered.
The operator was moving on at up to 12 km/hr, with the machine having no issue with the dampness of the straw, including the inevitable wet lumps.
The Ursus Z597 comes with a 2.16m pick-up and makes a standard 1.2 x 1.2m (4x4) bale.
The technology on this machine is by no means state of the art, but it still has everything you need to do good work. The control box in the cab can be adjusted and the standard stop to tie beeper works well. The machine comes on 400/60 - 15.5 tyres, which will come in handy on Irish land, especially this year.
This machine was producing a bale every 50 seconds in this crop of straw, which is decent throughput for a machine of this size. Ursus claim that 95hp is sufficient to run this baler effectively, but having seen it at work 120hp is probably a more sensible number.
This baler has 13 knives which can be lowered and raised using a very simple and user-friendly manual lever.
Looking at the build quality of the baler, it seems to be well made. This one had made around 1,000 bales so far and had given no trouble.
Denis Sutton from Ursus Tractors Ireland told me that he had baled silage with it the week previous and planned to bring it out again the following week.
Denis also assured me that all spare parts for these machines are available ex-stock from him in Wexford, should the need arise.
From seeing this machine at work, it seems to be capable of doing what most Irish farmers require. It also comes at a price (€22,500, including VAT) where it may make sense for people who would like to own a new machine, instead of a second hand machine from a more established manufacturer.
McHale is set to showcase its new F5 range of fixed chamber balers and a new ten-rotor flagship trailed tedder at this year's National Ploughing Championships. Peter Thomas Keaveney reports.
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