Patent ID: 8544243

Claim:
A method of forming crop material into a bale with a baler, the baler having a pickup for picking up crop material from the ground and an accumulation conveyor extending from the pickup to an inlet of a bale forming chamber, the baler being configured to operate in a plurality of operational cycles, including bale-forming operational cycles and non-bale-forming operational cycles, the method comprising: operating the pickup to place crop material onto the accumulation conveyor; operating the accumulation conveyor in a feed direction at a first speed to convey crop material to the inlet of the bale forming chamber during a bale-forming operational cycle of the baler; rewinding the accumulation conveyor to an initialized position in response to completion of said bale forming operational cycle and switching to a non-bale forming operational cycle so that a point on the conveyor proximate the inlet of the bale forming chamber at the completion of the bale-forming operational cycle is moved proximate the pickup; and operating the accumulation conveyor at a second speed in the feed direction during the non-bale-forming operational cycle of the baler such that said point on the conveyor is moved from proximate the pickup toward the inlet of the bale-forming chamber prior to starting the next non-bale forming operational cycle.