The next major innovation began in 1965 when a graduate student at Iowa State University, Virgil Haverdink, sought out Wesley F. Buchele, a professor of Agricultural Engineering, seeking a research topic for a master thesis. Over the next year, Buchele and Haverdink developed a new design for a large round baler, completed and tested in 1966, and thereafter dubbed the Buchele–Haverdink large round baler. The large round bales were about in diameter, long, and they weighed about after they driedabout 80 kg/m3 (5 lb/ft3). The design was promoted as a "Whale of a Bale" and Iowa State University now explains the innovative design as follows:
