Custom hay harvester Peter Harrison adds grain directly to round bales as they're being formed with the help of a hopper he mounted on the front-end of his New Holland baler.

Harrison fills the hopper with soybeans, lupins or any other high-protein crop. Sight gauges in the sides of the hopper let him keep tabs on the supply. Grain feeds down into the baler through 6 plastic tubes that distribute it evenly across the width of the bale as hay enters the bale chamber. Belt-driven metering gates tie into the bale rolling chamber to supply the correct amount of grain to each bale.

Harrison, who farms near Kojunup in Western Australia, says the baler hopper can also be used to mix other additives, such as lime or urea, with bales. That makes it possible to upgrade low-quality straw bales.