A large round baler has a pickup including a tined reel mounted beneath an inlet at the bottom of an expansible baling chamber for picking up windrowed crop and delivering it into the inlet. The teeth of the tined reel are constructed so as to be in the neighborhood of at least two times stiffer than conventional teeth for the purpose of enhancing bale starting and diminishing plugging by effecting a constant smooth delivery of crop to the baling chamber. An embodiment is disclosed wherein ultra-stiff teeth, teeth which are so stiff as to be virtually inflexible, are used at selected areas across the width of the reel together with the stiff teeth.