Round bales of agricultural blade crops

Claim 2

A round bale of agricultural blade crops, comprising: a rolled cylindrical body of blade crops; and a length of open mesh wrapper netting made from synthetic material and extending around the circumference of said body, said length having overlaping ends which are flexible in a direction transverse to the direction of wrap around said body and which cling to each other to fasten said length about said body, portions of said blade crops extending radially from said body through the mesh openings in said overlapping ends to reinforce the clinging of said overlapping ends to each other, said netting being essentially inextensible in the direction of wrap around said body, whereby said wrapper netting holds the shape of said body without requiring additional fasteners or ties.

Claim 3

A bale according to claim 1, wherein said material is polyethylene.

Claim 4

A press for round bales of agricultural blade crops, the press having a center axis, comprising: a plurality of pressure rollers for forming blade crops fed into said press into a cylindrical bale of compressed blade crops with the axis of said cylindrical bale being coincident with said center axis of said press; a supply roll of open mesh wrapper netting of synthetic material, said netting being substantially inextensible in its length direction and being extensible in its width direction; means for mounting said roll for rotation parallel to said center axis of said press; means for feeding an elongated section of wrapper netting in the length direction of said netting from said roll into said press to wrap a cylindrical bale of blade crops therein, said section of wrapper netting having overlapping ends which are flexible in the width direction of said elongated section and which cling to each other to fasten said section about such a bale without requiring additional fasteners or ties, portions of the blade crops in such a bale extending outwardly of the bale through the mesh openings in said overlapping ends to reinforce the clinging of said overlapping ends to each other; means for measuring the length of the section of wrapper netting that is fed from said roll into said press; and means for separating said elongated section of wrapper netting from said roll.

Claim 5

A press for round bales of agricultural blade crops, the press having a center axis, comprising: a plurality of pressure rollers for forming blade crops fed into said press into a cylindrical bale of compressed blade crops with the axis of said cylindrical bale being coincident with said center axis of said press; a supply roll of open mesh wrapper netting of synthetic material, said netting being substantially inextensible in its length direction and being extensible in its width direction; means for mounting said roll for rotation parallel to said center axis of said press; means for feeding an elongated section of wrapper netting in the length direction of said netting from said roll into said press to wrap a cylindrical bale of blade crops therein, said section of wrapper netting having overlapping ends which are flexible in the width direction of said elongated section and which cling to each other to fasten said section about such a bale without requiring additional fasteners or ties, portions of the blade crops in such a bale extending outwardly of the bale through the mesh openings in said overlapping ends to reinforce the clinging of said overlapping ends to each other; means for measuring the length of the section of wrapper netting that is fed from said roll into said press; and means for separating said elongated section of wrapper netting from said roll.

Claim 6

A press according to claim 3, wherein said roll is pivotably mounted by said means for mounting on an axis parallel to the axis of rotation of said roll.

Claim 7

A press according to claim 4, wherein said wrapper netting has pre-set tearing strips across its width at predetermined intervals.