Patent ID: 7448316

Claim:
In a round baler having a wheel-supported main frame having a front end and an opposing rear end and adapted for movement in a direction of travel through a field of cut crop material, a bale-forming chamber supported on said main frame and including a plurality of belts and rollers arranged to form a cylindrical bale within the bale-forming chamber, a pickup mounted to the forward end of said main frame and adapted to pick up crop material from the field and feed it into the bale-forming chamber, a tailgate pivotably affixed to the bale-forming chamber and adapted to pivot vertically between a closed position where a bale is captured in the bale-forming chamber and an open position where the bale can be ejected, and a twine or wrapping material dispensing mechanism affixed to the main frame and located to partially enclose the crop material in the bale-forming chamber, the improvement comprising: an array of sensors supported on said baler and located in a position to sense the reflectance of the cylindrical surface of the formed bale in the bale-forming chamber; logic circuitry associated with the array of sensors and configured for receiving signals therefrom relative to the reflectance of the surface of the bale formed in the bale-forming chamber, associating the reflectance value with an amount of twine or wrapping material applied by the dispensing mechanism to the bale and generating results based upon the logic steps taken by the logic circuitry; and an output device connected to said logic circuitry for receiving the results from the logic circuitry and communicating audibly or visually.