Quick answer: The windguard (John Deere calls it the compressor rack, others call it a windrow compressor) holds the windrow down so the pickup teeth can grab it. It earns its keep in heavy, fluffy first-cutting windrows and in crosswinds. It causes trouble in short, dry, slick crops — second and third cutting, rotary-combine straw, fine grass — where leaf and chaff pile up on top of the rack instead of feeding under it, so the bale won't start, the baler backfeeds, and on some machines the net wrap duckbill jams against the buildup. Before you pull it off, lighten its down-pressure spring and raise its float stop. If the crop is still short and slick, removing it for those fields is a legitimate factory-documented fix — just put it back for heavy windrows.
There is a specific, maddening failure that shows up every year around second cutting: the baler that ran perfectly in heavy first-cutting hay suddenly refuses to start a bale in light, short, dry grass. It pushes the windrow instead of eating it. Hay piles up in front of the pickup, then blows back out the front. The monitor goes blank. You back up, clean it out, and it does it again three minutes later.
Almost nobody's first guess is the round baler windguard — the bar-and-tine assembly hanging over the pickup. But in short, slick crops it is one of the most common causes, and the fix is often free. This guide covers what the windguard does, why light crops break it, the net wrap consequence most people never connect, how roller and tine styles differ, and what to adjust before you take a wrench to it.
What the windguard actually does
The windguard sits above and slightly ahead of the pickup. It has two jobs. First, it keeps a light windrow from being lifted and scattered by wind — your own forward speed, the pickup's airflow, or a real crosswind. Second, and more importantly, it holds crop down into the pickup teeth so the teeth get a bite instead of sliding underneath.
That second job is why removing it is not automatically an upgrade. One producer working through exactly this problem on a New Holland 457 concluded the rack was doing real work:
"I've taken it out several times and put it back in after a few bales. I think it needs to be there so the pickup teeth have something to hold the hay into the teeth. When my baler has a good day, it's a great day. When it has a bad day I want to burn it to the ground."
— Mitchco · AgTalk thread 1171224
His description of the failure is worth reading closely, because it is the signature symptom:
"Second bale at 37 inches it started pushing the windrow and not taking any hay in. Backed up cleaned out the pickup and cleaned off the rack. Started baler and never moved. After 2 minutes the pile in front of the pickup was up to and on top of the rack. Cleaned it out and repeated."
— Mitchco · AgTalk thread 1171224
Note the phrase "up to and on top of the rack." That is the diagnostic. When the crop is climbing over the windguard rather than passing under it, the windguard has stopped compressing and started blocking.
What John Deere's manual says about the compressor rack
This is not folk wisdom — it is in the operator's manual. A John Deere 335 owner chasing the same second-cutting problem quoted it directly:
"In short, dry, slick crops it may be necessary to remove the compressor rack if material builds up on top of rods. (See Removing Compressor Rack Assembly in this section.) Belt damage may occur if crop is allowed to buildup on top of compressor rack."
— Granary, quoting the John Deere operator's manual · AgTalk thread 1171224
Two things matter here. One, the factory explicitly sanctions removal in short, dry, slick crops — so you are not voiding anything or hacking the machine. Two, there is a real downside to ignoring the buildup: belt damage. Crop packed on top of the rack eventually works its way somewhere it shouldn't. Cleaning it off every three minutes is not a strategy.
Other operators found the same answer independently in different crops:
"Found out a few years back, had to take out the wind guard in order to bale extremely short swathed wheat. After that, I've had much better luck baling straw from our rotary combine as well. Never put it back in since."
— dfarms11 · AgTalk thread 1171224
Rotary-combine straw is the classic case: short, broken up, and slick enough that it behaves nothing like long conventional straw.
The net wrap connection most people miss
Here is the part that rarely gets connected, and it is the reason this belongs in a net wrap guide. On balers where the net wrap duckbill feeds in near the top of the pickup area, chaff and leaf that accumulate on the windguard sit directly in the duckbill's path. The net then fails to start — and you go hunting through the net system for a fault that isn't there.
"I remove my wind guard on an RB560 for 2nd and 3rd cutting hay. In light windrows the fines fall down on top of it and build up. When the net wrap duck bill tries to insert netting it hits the fines and stops. With the wind guard removed the fines fall into the incoming windrow and are carried back into the baler letting the net wrap work as it should."
— jn5488 · AgTalk thread 1171224
If your net wrap has started missing or failing to feed only in fine second and third cutting, and it behaved fine in heavy first cutting, check the top of the windguard before you touch the net system. Rolls, brake tension, and knife adjustment are all innocent here. For everything else that causes a no-start, see net wrap won't start or feed and net wrap tearing when baling.
Roller vs tine vs flat windguards
Manufacturers use three broad styles, and they behave differently. Tine (or bar) types comb the windrow down and are aggressive; roller types ride on top and compress more gently; flat/plate types mostly shield from wind with minimal crop contact.
| Style | Best in | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Tine / bar | Coarse, long, heavy grass windrows | Strips leaves in fragile crops; fines pile on the rods |
| Roller | Heavy, fluffy first cutting; higher ground speed | Little benefit in light crop; more parts to maintain |
| Flat / plate | Wind shielding with minimal crop damage | Less positive hold-down in gusty conditions |
An operator who moved from a tine type to a roller on a New Holland 7060 noticed the difference where you'd expect it — in the heavy stuff:
"heavy, fluffy first cutting windrows seem to feed in better with the roller windguard and I could drive faster than I could before with the tine type... In later cutting hay or low volume hay I don't think it would make any difference at all."
— Trotwood2955 · HayTalk thread 26165
That last sentence is the honest summary: the roller's advantage is a heavy-windrow and ground-speed advantage, not a light-crop fix. Equipment testing has reached the same general conclusion, with rollers treated as the gentler option for leafy crops and tines as the more aggressive option for bulky ones (Progressive Forage / Ag Proud, "Roller versus tine designs").
Tine types also have a documented cost in leafy crops:
"Particularly in light alfalfa, I can see the damage they do from the seat of the tractor. The feeder tines kind of strip the hay in between the gaps and you can see the leaves being torn off the stem."
— PackMan2170 · HayTalk thread 26165
Leaf is where the feed value is in alfalfa, so this is not cosmetic. If you are running tines in dry legume hay, that is one more argument for raising them.
Adjust before you remove
Removal is the blunt instrument. Two adjustments solve a large share of cases and keep the windguard available when the crop gets heavy again.
1. Take down-pressure off the spring. Many windguards are simply too heavy for light crop, and the assist spring makes it worse:
"Many windguards are way to heavy. A lot of them have a spring that pushes the windguard down even harder. I have modified the spring mount so when it is necessary the spring lifts up and takes some of the down pressure off."
— ManiaPlus · AgTalk thread 1171224
2. Raise the float stop. Chain or wire the guard up to its highest float position rather than removing it, so it still shields from crosswind without pressing crop into a mat. One Hesston 856A operator runs exactly this compromise:
"On a Hesston 856A baler, I have run without and with. Ran fine without until baling light windrows in a strong crosswind, then I needed it. Mine is suppose to float but I have it wired up as high as it will go."
— WeatherBug · AgTalk thread 1171224
There is also a hybrid modification some run on New Holland Roll-Belts — a roller in front with the outer tines trimmed off the rear bar, which keeps hold-down while shedding the pile-up points. And on heavy-crop machines, powered feed is the factory answer: Vermeer's hydraulic, reversible power feeder on cornstalk-special balers exists precisely because passive hold-down runs out of capability in thick, stringy material.
When to keep it and when to pull it
| Condition | Windguard call |
|---|---|
| Heavy first-cutting grass, fluffy windrows | Keep — this is what it's for |
| Strong crosswind, light windrow | Keep, raised to max float |
| Short, dry 2nd/3rd cutting; fines building on top | Remove (factory-sanctioned in JD manuals) |
| Rotary-combine straw, short swathed wheat | Remove |
| Fine, dry alfalfa where you can see leaf stripping | Raise it, or remove for that field |
| High-moisture grass for baleage | Often fewer jams without it |
| Cornstalks and heavy stringy crop | Keep; consider powered feed |
Crop-by-crop switching is normal, not indecisive. As one operator put it: "In real heavy long stuff I run without it. In fine short stuff I use it. In real fine straw again I run without it or it tends to plug just going into the bale chamber. It all depends on what I am baling. It takes about 5 seconds to remove mine and 10 seconds to put back in" (hog987, HayTalk thread 26165). If yours takes 15 seconds to swap, treat it as a per-field setting.
Don't forget the pickup itself
The windguard only works if the teeth below it are healthy. Missing, bent, or worn-short teeth leave gaps that light crop slides straight past, and the windguard cannot compensate. Walk the pickup before blaming the guard: look for missing teeth, bent tine bars, a plugged stripper area, and pickup height set so the teeth just tick the stubble rather than digging.
Damage to the guard itself also shows up in the bale. One operator traced frayed bale ends to a single missing part:
"I lost a windguard tine on my NH 853, and it just so happens it started putting out bales that were kind of 'frayed' right in line with where the windguard is missing."
— Hokelund Farm · HayTalk thread 26165
Uneven feed across the pickup width is also the root cause of bales that finish lopsided or won't hold shape — see round bales not holding shape. Weaving the windrow across the full pickup width matters more in light crop than heavy, because there is less material to self-distribute.
Field checklist: bale won't start in light hay
- Stop and look on top of the rack. Crop sitting on the windguard rods is your answer.
- Check PTO speed. Low rpm starves the pickup — see round baler speed and PTO rpm.
- Walk the pickup teeth. Missing or short teeth, bent bars, packed stripper.
- Raise the windguard to maximum float and lighten the spring.
- Still piling? Remove it for this crop, per the operator's manual.
- Slow down and weave across the full pickup width to build a core.
- Re-check the net path — with the buildup gone, the duckbill usually starts behaving.
- Put it back before heavy first cutting or a windy day.
Where net wrap fits
Once the crop is feeding cleanly and the bale is forming uniformly, the wrap has a fair chance to do its job. A consistent, well-made net holds a uniform bale to the edge and starts reliably when the duckbill isn't fighting a pile of chaff. Our XES Extreme Bale Net Wrap ships factory-direct with free shipping across the continental US, in the standard widths that fit John Deere, Vermeer, New Holland, Case IH, Krone, Kuhn, and Massey Ferguson balers. If your net is reaching the bale but not covering the ends, that is a separate adjustment — see net wrap not covering to edge.
Frequently asked questions
What does a windguard do on a round baler?
It holds the windrow down so the pickup teeth can grip it, and shields light crop from wind so it isn't scattered before it reaches the pickup. John Deere calls it a compressor rack; others call it a windrow compressor. It matters most in heavy, fluffy windrows and in crosswinds.
Can I run a round baler without a windguard?
Yes, in the right crops. John Deere's own operator manuals state that in short, dry, slick crops it may be necessary to remove the compressor rack when material builds up on top of the rods, and warn that belt damage may occur if buildup is allowed to continue. Many producers remove it for second and third cutting and refit it for heavy first cutting.
Why won't my baler start a bale in light second cutting?
The most common causes are crop packing on top of the windguard instead of feeding under it, worn or missing pickup teeth, and low PTO speed. Check the top of the windguard first — if hay is piling there and blowing back out the front, raise or remove the guard for that field.
Is a roller windguard better than a tine windguard?
In heavy, fluffy first-cutting windrows a roller generally feeds better and lets you drive faster. In light or low-volume crop, operators report little practical difference. Tine types are more aggressive and can strip leaf from dry alfalfa, so rollers are the gentler choice for leafy legumes.
Can the windguard cause net wrap problems?
Yes, indirectly. On balers where the net duckbill inserts near the top of the pickup, fines that accumulate on the windguard sit in its path and stop the net from starting. If net problems appear only in fine, dry later cuttings, clear the top of the windguard before diagnosing the net system.
Should I remove the windguard for baleage?
Often it helps. Several operators report noticeably fewer pickup jams running high-moisture grass without a windguard. Wet, heavy grass has enough mass to feed on its own and is more prone to wrapping and plugging when pressed into a mat.
The bottom line
The round baler windguard is a crop-dependent setting, not a permanent fixture. Keep it for heavy first cutting, crosswinds, and stringy material. Raise it or take it out for short, dry, slick crops — second and third cutting, rotary-combine straw, short swathed wheat — where the manufacturer itself says buildup on the rack is a reason to remove it. Before you pull it, lighten the spring and raise the float; before you blame the net system, look on top of the rack. Most "the baler won't take hay" mornings end with a five-second adjustment rather than a parts order.
Forum quotes are reproduced with attribution and linked to their source threads; follow the links to read the originals. Always follow your baler's operator manual, and shut down and lock out the machine before adjusting the windguard, reaching into the pickup, or clearing a plug.
Featured photo: Baling Machine in Billinge by Gary Rogers, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
