Agricultural baler with knife overload mitigating system

An agricultural baler, comprising:

• a chassis;
• a pickup carried by the chassis and carrying a plurality of tines, the pickup being configured to rotate the tines and pickup crop material;
• and
• a cutting unit carried by the chassis, the cutting unit comprising:
• a plurality of knives;
• a knife guard comprising at least one opening;
• a knife tray carrying the knives, the knife tray being movable between an exposed position where the knives extend through the at least one opening and a retracted position where the knives are shielded by the knife guard, the knives being configured to cut crop material picked up by the pickup when extending through the at least one opening;
• and
• an overload protection assembly comprising a first slide member coupled to the knife tray and comprising a first engagement surface and a second slide member comprising a second engagement surface that is engaged with the first engagement surface, the first slide member and the second slide member being held together and linearly slidable relative to one another such that the first slide member slides relative to the second slide member to move the knife tray from the exposed position to the retracted position when an overload force is applied to at least one of the knives.