Balers and methods for forming high density bales

A method of crushing a crop material to form a high density bale, comprising:

• picking up crop material by a pick-up assembly;
• crushing the crop material by a compression assembly, the compression assembly positioned upstream of the pick-up assembly for receiving the crop material from the pick-up assembly and adjacent an inlet to a bale chamber or pre-chamber, wherein the compression assembly comprises at least one pair of opposing compression rollers configured to generate a pressure on crop material passed therethrough, the at least one pair of opposing compression rollers defining an adjustable gap between an upper crop engaging surface of a lower one of the at least one pair of compression rollers and a lower crop engaging surface of an upper one of the at least one pair of compression rollers, the compression assembly being configured to crush the crop material passed through the gap, wherein the pressure on the crop material defines an amount by which the crop material is crushed to decrease the structural integrity of and generally flatten a majority of the nodes of the crop material;
• sensing a pressure generated while crushing the crop material;
• automatically adjusting the adjustable gap using a controller based on the sensed pressure and a type of crop material to be crushed such that a crushing pressure is generally maintained on the majority of nodes of the crop passing through the gap;
• and
• baling the flattened crushed crop material by a bale chamber to form a bale comprised of the crushed crop material, the bale chamber configured to receive the crushed crop material from the compression assembly.