Baling Hay with May Wes Poly Pickup Bands.

 May Wes Poly Pickup Bands Provide Quiet, Durable, Less Expensive Alternative to Metal Bands.

 Article provided by May Wes

Forage growers around the country are swapping out the noisy, rusted and bent metal pickup bands on their hay balers with durable poly pickup bands from May Wes.

May Wes offers color-matched poly pickup bands for a wide range of the most common hay balers including Case IH, New Holland, John Deere, Vermeer, Claas, Massey Ferguson, Challenger, AGCO, Hesston and New Idea. The Hutchinson, Minnesota aftermarket agricultural parts supplier adds new makes and models every year.

Interchangeable with OEM, Cost Effective and Easy to Install
“When your OEM bands wear out, it just makes sense to switch to poly,” says May Wes Sales Manager Eric Bates. “The best thing about poly pickup bands is you can replace just one, or two or three, or you can replace the whole set.”

Priced under $30 per band, May Wes poly bands are less expensive than metal, and that price gap may widen more this year due to skyrocketing metal costs.

“Prices on metal parts are going through the roof due to volatility in the materials market,” says Bates. “We’re just not seeing those dramatic price increases with plastics, so forage growers could save quite a bit of money choosing poly bands instead of metal, plus they’ll get a better product.”

May Wes poly pickup bands are easy to install and include hardware. Simply remove the metal bands and bolt on the poly bands. An entire baler can be equipped with poly bands in about an hour or two. Installation videos are posted at www.maywes.com.

Poly Pickup Bands Are Durable and Will Not Rust
May Wes poly pickup bands are made in the U.S.A. They are the same width as OEM bands, are 1” thick and feature a ¼” thick reinforced support ring on the inside to strengthen and maintain their shape.

Unlike metal bands that dent and bend if they hit an object in the hayfield, poly bands flex and then pop back into shape.

Hay grower Ryan Greenwaldt of Henning, Minnesota reviewed May Wes poly bands with Minnesota Millennial Farmer Zach Johnson last summer after installing them on a John Deere 567 baler.

“I like the flexibility of them,” Greenwaldt notes. “Metal bends and it stays, where these will bend and flex right back, which is nice. It’s easier on the teeth.”

Bates notes, “If you cut a poly band with a bent tooth, it’s still going to look good. There’s no paint to chip away or metal to rust.”

“Wow those are quiet!”
Poly bands eliminate the clatter of metal on metal, giving your ears a break.

“When we were baling hay with the Millennial Farmer last summer, another farmer stopped to check out the poly bands. His jaw dropped and the first thing he said was, ‘Wow, those are quiet. You can’t even hear them!’ We hear that so many times. They are so much quieter, and as hay growers, you know how all that noise, on top of being out in the hot sun, can really wear you out.”

Watch the Millennial Farmer’s “Baling Hay” video on YouTube to hear how quiet the poly bands are.

Poly Bands Feed Material More Consistently, Even When Moist
Plastics are used for many agricultural applications thanks to their slickness. Slick poly bands allow material to be fed into the baler more evenly, even if it is moist.

 “You’re going to get a more even bale because that wet material isn’t bunching up,” Bates says.

Will Not Leave Metal Shavings in Forage
 “When you have bent teeth, and those teeth are coming around rubbing on the metal baler band, you can end up with metal shavings in your forage,” Bates points out. With poly bands, you’re not putting those metal shavings into your forage.”

How to Order
May Wes poly pickup bands are available through local dealers, or visit www.maywes.com or call 1-800-788-6483.