New twin tie kit for Deere 530 round balers lets you tie bales almost twice as fast, according to farmer and manufacturer Clint Watson, Scandia, Alta.

The twin-tie kit replaces the baler's single-tie arm with two twine-tie arms that wrap the bale at the same time. It ties each bale in 1/2 to 1 1/2 minutes, depending on the number of wraps and spacing of twine. The kit includes two twine arms, gears, and brackets; two twine knives and brackets; two twine boxes (each holds four balls of twine); and the guides. You remove the original single twine arm and bolt the new twine arms on.

Watson also came up with a clever way to unplug belts on his baler. "Dry, short straw and corn stalks often rolled around inside the bale chamber for a long time and broke up, causing the belts to tighten and the baler to plug up. To solve the problem in the past, we manually locked the endgate shut, then activated the hydraulic cylinders that are used to open the endgate. The cylinders remain in position, but the belt tension arms are still free to move which slackens the belt tension and allows plugged-up material to feed into the baler. To make the job easier we installed an electric car door lock on the manually operated hydraulic valve on the baler's endgate. The electric car door lock is wired to a switch in cab and lets us lock the endgate without getting off tractor."