Which round baler is best for you? Which baler has the longevity to last? And just how do you know where to buy a hay baler when previous brands have let you down? Sure, it all depends on who you ask, but for Oklahoma rancher Danny Wann, the Vermeer 604R Signature baler brought him the answers he needed.

Outside of Poteau, Oklahoma, the Wann Ranch is home to roughly 250 head of registered Angus cattle, with a few commercial cattle just for kicks.

“It’s definitely a family operation,” Wann said. “We all own cattle and we all know which one is whose. Everyone gets a check at the end of the year and we call it good.”

What wasn’t good was their constant battle with baler maintenance. Between what they owned and what they leased, the Wann family was producing about 4,000 bales per year from 1,200 acres (486 hectares), but their previous baler wasn’t keeping up.

“The last baler we had — basically it was supposed to be that company’s cat’s meow, but it didn’t have the longevity in it that we needed,” Wann said. “I was constantly replacing pickup teeth and there was always some little nagging issue that we needed to fix or replace.”

While Wann was in the midst of his endless maintenance cycle, he received what would turn out to be a very well-timed call from his Vermeer dealer.

“I was in-between trading balers or fixing my old one when [my Vermeer dealer] called and told me about the 604R Signature baler,” Wann said. “The day I test ran it, it had absolutely no issues at all.”

"The day I test ran it, it had absolutely no issues at all."

As the days went on and his bale count increased, Wann’s list of appreciation for the design and features on his 604R Signature just kept growing. He was hooked.

“I like the camless pickup and the quietness, and there are just fewer moving parts to go wrong on it,” Wann said. “Anytime you can simplify something and make it better, that’s just common sense.”

Equipped with a 5-bar, camless wide pickup, the 604R Signature is designed to handle high crop capacity. The 71-inch (180.3 cm) pickup is designed with no cam tracks or follower bearings to help minimize machine maintenance.

The rubber-mounted pickup teeth on the 604R Signature help with durability and tooth life. With an increased number of tines, more crop can be put into the baler with less left behind on the field.

“The bale density is important, and I like the fact that we can set that in the cab [using the monitor]. Before, we would have to try a couple bales first to get it right,” Wann said. “Plus, now I’m able to identify how many bales each field makes, and at the end of the year I can put that in an Excel spreadsheet. I could have used that data before.”

Even with all the new bells and whistles on his 604R Signature, Wann still says it’s all about the durability to him — the rest are just extras.

“I bought the 604R Signature because I felt like Vermeer was trying to build this baler to last,” Wann said. “I was tired of other companies saying, ‘Well, you bale 4,000 bales a year’ (when something went wrong). I think you should be able to bale 4,000 bales a year.”

That’s why Danny Wann switched to the 604R Signature baler.

To hear why others switched to Vermeer, click here.