Back in 2005, the harvesting division of Lely purchased established baler maker Welger, the company continuing to produce Lely branded balers at the factory in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. AGCO subsequently acquired the harvesting division of Lely in around 2015, essentially selling former Lely branded balers in Fendt green from 2017.
Although this is a bit of historical shorthand, the key point is Fendt balers may be relatively new but underneath they have a long and established design heritage. As a used buy this has a number of plus points. Initial Fendt Rotana 1125F, Rotana 2125F and Rotana 2125 Profi F fixed chamber balers are pretty much the same as their Lely branded equivalents, with good spares support.
Know the basics
The balers we consider here all produce a 1.25m diameter bale from a 1.23m wide bale chamber, with core specs and models listed separately. The first Fendt fixed chamber baler models, which will be the more likely used find, are essentially the same as Lely RP245 models launched back in 2011.
It is worth noting that Lely RP245 itself replaced the Lely-Welger branded RP235 in 2005 and this model in turn succeeded the Welger RP220 launched back in 1999. Of course, these baler generations did have a few development and spec differences but the pedigree of the Fendt line-up is well established. All models stick to the same basic design, with key developments focussing upon the pre-chop system.
A late model Lely RP245, incidentally, is a decent buying alternative to a first gen Fendt
