Almost everyone who runs a John Deere 568 long enough hits this moment: the baler is running fine, you're a thousand bales into haying season, and one morning the wrap stops feeding cleanly. You crawl under the back of the baler, and the sheet-steel pan that the net wrap roll sits on has rusted out, flexed, or worn through. The wrap is dragging on the bare frame and tearing on a sharp edge.
You head to the dealer for a price on the replacement pan. The number comes back at about $3,500. One Iowa operator put it well: "I almost had a stroke when they told me that." This article is the answer to "what do other Deere 568 operators do instead?"
What part are we actually talking about?
The "net wrap support pan" on a John Deere 568 / 567 / 569 is the curved sheet-steel tray that sits in the back of the baler underneath the net wrap roll. It serves two purposes: it physically holds the wrap roll in its cradle, and it forms a smooth guide surface that the wrap slides across on its way down into the bale chamber.
There are actually three related parts that all get called "the net wrap pan" in conversation:
- The rear net wrap pan / "rear sheet." This is the curved sheet under the wrap roll. It's the part that rusts out first and the one most operators end up replacing.
- The net wrap slides / wear strips. The narrow steel strips along the edges of the pan that the wrap edges ride on. These wear thin and can be re-welded with hardfacing rod.
- The full net wrap support assembly. The complete unit including pan, slides, brackets, and mounting hardware. This is what the $3,500-3,800 OEM number quotes.
For 90% of the operators we've spoken with, the actual failed part is just (1), the rear sheet — not the whole assembly. Confirming this before you order or fabricate anything is the single biggest cost-saver.
How to diagnose which part actually failed
Walk around to the back of the baler, drop the tailgate, and look up at the underside of the net wrap roll. You're looking for one of four failure modes:
- Rust-through. Daylight visible through the pan. Wrap is contacting the frame or the chamber rolls directly. This is the most common failure on balers operated outdoors year-round.
- Flexing / "oilcanning." The pan visibly deflects when you push on it. Wrap is feeding inconsistently — sometimes catching, sometimes loose — because the surface profile is no longer constant. This is metal fatigue from years of bale-after-bale loading.
- Worn slides. The pan itself is fine but the wear strips on the edges have ground down. The wrap is catching on the lip where the strip used to be. This is a one-hour shop weld, not a pan replacement.
- Cracked frame mounts. The pan is fine but the brackets that hold it to the baler frame have cracked at the welds. This is also a shop weld, not a pan replacement.
If you only have a slide-wear or bracket-crack problem, do not order the OEM assembly. A local farm welding shop can rebuild the slides or re-weld the brackets in under two hours for less than $200.
Why the OEM pan costs $3,500
The Deere replacement pan is a finished, painted, complete subassembly that ships ready to bolt in. It's a high-quality part. The price reflects (a) the parts-margin model on dealer-only replacement assemblies and (b) genuinely low volume — most balers never need this part during their useful life. There is no equivalent aftermarket "drop-in" sold as a finished assembly that's substantially cheaper.
What there is, in essentially every farm community, is a welding shop that will bend up a new rear sheet from raw stock in a half-day for under $300 — and that's the path most operators take.
The $200-$300 shop repair: how it actually works
Here's the sequence operators in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin consistently describe. Total shop time: 4-6 hours. Total parts cost: $50-100 for the sheet stock.
Step 1: Remove the old pan
Drop the tailgate, unbolt or grind out the welds holding the old pan to the baler frame. Most are spot-welded along the edges; some have a few bolts at the brackets. Set the old pan aside — it's your template for the new one.
Step 2: Specify the right replacement steel
Ask the shop for 10-gauge AR400 abrasion-resistant steel. Standard mild steel will rust out again in the same number of seasons; AR400 is approximately four times more wear-resistant than mild steel and resists the abrasion of wrap edges much longer. One Minnesota operator running AR400 reports 40,000 bales and counting with no measurable wear. Avoid going thicker than 10-gauge — the bend radius gets too tight for a typical farm shop's brake press, and the extra weight doesn't help.
Step 3: Trace the old pan and bend the new one
Lay the old pan flat on the new sheet, trace the outline, and cut with a plasma cutter or oxy-fuel. Match the curve using a brake press in two or three setups (the pan is not a simple single bend — it has a primary curve and usually a small lip on the front edge that retains the roll). Match the bend radius of the original; a tighter or looser bend will change how the wrap feeds.
Step 4: Weld in
Tack the new pan into the frame in four corners, check that it sits flat against the brackets and lines up with the chamber rolls, then full-weld the seams. Weld the slides on at the same time using 1/4" × 1" AR400 flat bar — these are wear items, so use the same wear-resistant material the pan is made from.
Step 5: Re-paint and re-install the wrap roll
Hit the new pan with a rust-converting primer and a coat of black enamel before you install the wrap roll. Re-thread the wrap, run a test bale, watch the wrap feed across the new pan. The first bale of net wrap is going to lay down a polished "track" across the new pan within the first ten bales — that's normal and is the wrap finding its natural path.
What about a Deere pan liner?
Deere does sell a pan liner — a wear strip that you can install over a worn-but-not-rusted-through pan to extend its life. Operators are split on this. Some report it works well as a 5,000-bale band-aid before a full rebuild. Others say it tends to lift and flap once it wears, causing the same wrap-catching problem in a different form. The honest read: if your pan is worn but structurally sound, a Deere pan liner buys you a season or two. If your pan is rusted through or flexing, skip the liner and go straight to the shop rebuild.
How long should the AR400 repair last?
Operators with 30,000-40,000 bales on an AR400 rebuild report essentially no measurable wear yet. The OEM pan is also AR-rated mild steel; the difference is largely about the bend quality and the powder-coat finish on the OEM part. An AR400 shop rebuild that's well-welded and well-painted should last as long as the original — at a tenth of the cost. Several operators report doing two complete shop rebuilds over the life of a baler.
Should you just buy a new baler instead?
If the pan failure is your only major issue, no. Used Deere 568 and 569 balers in good mechanical condition routinely make 30,000-50,000 bales after a pan rebuild. The economic break-even — pan rebuild + a new set of belts + new bearings + an updated monitor — is usually around $1,500-2,500 total, vs. $40,000+ for a new midline 5×6 baler. If the rest of the baler is sound, the rebuild is a no-brainer.
What about the monitor and net wrap actuator?
Two other failure points on the 567/568/569 series that get mistakenly diagnosed as "pan problems" are (a) the net wrap actuator — the small electric motor that feeds wrap into the chamber — and (b) the monitor / control box in the cab. Symptoms include wrap not feeding at all, feeding partially, or feeding randomly. These are diagnosed separately from the pan failure and have their own fix paths (rebuilt actuators are available aftermarket; monitors can be rebuilt by several specialty shops in the Midwest, often for a fraction of OEM replacement). If you're seeing intermittent wrap problems and the pan looks fine, the actuator and monitor are where to look next.
Frequently asked questions
Can I do this rebuild myself if I have a welder?
If you have a 200-amp+ MIG welder, a plasma cutter and access to a brake press, yes. The job is well within the skill set of any farmer who has welded a draw-bar or fabricated a gate. The brake press is the one piece of equipment most farms don't have — that's why even DIY-comfortable operators usually have the local shop do the bend, then either install themselves or have the shop do the install.
Is the 567 pan the same as the 568 pan?
Functionally yes — same shape, same material spec, same mounting points. Deere uses slightly different part numbers but a shop fabrication will fit either. The 569 pan is also extremely similar, with a minor difference in bracket spacing on later production years.
How long does the shop rebuild take, start to finish?
Drop-off to pickup, most farm welding shops will turn this around in 1-2 days if they have AR400 stock on hand. Time on the baler: about 2-3 hours to remove the old pan, 2-3 hours to install the new one. You can have the baler back in the field the same week.
Does this work on Vermeer / New Holland / Case IH balers too?
The principle is the same — most balers have an equivalent sheet-steel net wrap support component that wears or rusts the same way. The specific geometry is different for each manufacturer, so the shop fabrication has to start from your specific baler's part. The economics — OEM assembly vs. shop fabrication — are similar across all the major brands.
What about hardfacing the original pan instead of replacing it?
If your pan is worn but not rusted through and not flexing, you can extend its life by overlaying the high-wear areas with a hardfacing rod (Stoody, Crown Alloys, or equivalent). Skilled welder, about an hour of work, $50 in materials. This is essentially a more durable version of the Deere pan liner approach. Won't fix a rusted-through pan, but excellent for a worn-but-otherwise-good one.
Written by the XES Netting team. We sell net wrap that fits the John Deere 568, 569 and 460M among many others — and our customers have walked us through these rebuilds over the years. If you have additional tips for the rebuild process we'd love to add them.
Related: what size net wrap fits the John Deere 569, how to load net wrap on a baler, why your round bales aren't holding shape.
Featured photo: John Deere round baler 568 by Dudley B. Batchelor, Jr., licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Inline photo: John Deere round baler 568 by Dudley B. Batchelor Jr., licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
