Abstract: Apparatus for rolling a swath of fodder into a bale in contact with the ground includes a frame, a driven pickup shaft with several transversely spaced sets of fodder pickup tines the tips of which sweep the ground to roll fodder in the swath forwardly to form a spiral bale, bale compacting means in the form of endless bands with raddles therebetween which has a lower working run the rear of which is immediately above the tine tips and the front of which is near the front of the frame, a pair of disks which are journalled on the sides of the frame on a common axis and which support the ends of the raddles so the working run arches upwardly between the rear and the front, spring means tensioning the bands so that when a forming bale is larger than the disks the raddles heavily compress the fodder in the periphery of the bale, and a transverse, driven beater roll immediately forward of the disks which tend to beat fodder loosened by the raddles back into the forming bale.

Abstract: Apparatus for forming a bale of hay has a wheeled frame that spans a windrow of hay and is moved forwardly therealong, a baling chamber on the frame which receives the windrow as the apparatus is moved along, and means in the chamber for forming the windrow into a spiral bale as the apparatus is moved. A pair of disks are rotatably mounted in the sides of the baling chamber near the rear of the chamber, and the diameter of the disks is a major fraction of the diameter of a finished bale. Endless means which is part of the bale forming means has a lower bale rolling run the sides of which are supported on the disks. The rearward part of the endless means is nearly vertical, and no other part of the endless means contacts the forming bale until after the diameter of the bale is equal to that of the disks, so the bale has a relatively loose core and a firmly packed exterior, and the sides of the bale are relatively smooth and even from being confined between the disks.