LOUISVILLE, Ky. (DTN) -- The 60th National Farm Machinery Show opened Wednesday with new introductions and technologies in an event that has drawn in some years up to 300,000 visitors over its four-day run.

Among the new machinery displayed was Kubota Tractor Corporation's pair of high-capacity small square balers, the SSB2014 and SSB2012 models, featuring a patented dual chamber design.

The SSBs work this way. As an incoming crop enters Kubota's SSB series balers, an intake rotor separates the windrow into two separate stuffer chutes, each feeding alternating plungers that form bales in two independent bale chambers, each chamber with an independent knotter system. The baler delivers 100 plunger strokes per minute toward supporting the high-capacity output.

"This is a project we started back in 2017 asking hay producers about their barriers, the barriers and the constraints that they were having in their current operation, whether it's labor productivity, efficiency or just up time," said Cort Morris, Kubota product manager, hay tools. "We took everything that they said and we put it into this product to speed up that productivity, to reduce labor cost (with a machine) that is able to do the work of two machines with just one machine."

The Kubota small square baler line offers two bale size options. The SSB2014 produces standard 14-by-18-inch bales. The SSB2012 creates smaller 12.25-by-18-inch bales.

Morris said if you consider a 60-pound bale, 12 flakes per bale, the dual chamber Kubota SSBs will put out between 850 to about 900 bales per hour.

Both the SSB2014 and SSB2012 feature the Rasspe 6003 knotter system, completing the knotting process in 0.3 seconds, even at the high capacity of 100 strokes per minute. Twine storage options include 20 standard spools (five per knotter) or 16 large spools (four per knotter).

By producing two bales simultaneously, producers reduce field time and equipment demand, Kubota said. Bale ramps on the SSB balers align the production of the dual chambers into a single row of bales on the ground.

"Our baler is patented to take both bales out of our baler and singulate them on the ground," Morris said. "We call this the traffic cop design. When one side trips, the other side is going to stop that bale from passing through."

The Kubota small square baler series comes standard with full ISOBUS compatibility, allowing direct integration with any ISOBUS-compatible tractor through a simple plug-and-play connection. For operations using non-ISOBUS equipment, the optional Kverneland IsoMatch Tellus GO terminal provides comprehensive control and monitoring capabilities.

The Kubota SSB Series is compatible with tractors equipped with 1000-spline PTO output. Kubota tractor models include the M6-131, M6-141 and all M7 and M8 series tractors. The minimum PTO horsepower requirement is 100, with 120 PTO horsepower recommended for optimal performance and attachment operation.

The Kubota SSB series will be available at authorized Kubota dealers this spring. This baler series is manufactured by Great Plains Manufacturing. Great Plains is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kubota North America.

For more information go to https://www.kubotausa.com/….

The National Farm Machinery remains open through Saturday.

Dan Miller can be reached at dan.miller@dtn.com

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