The yarn knotter for knotting and cutting a yarn strand, guided by a press needle, during the tying of bales in agricultural baling presses has a knotter hook (30) with a movable tongue and a clamping and cutting device (60). This consists of two parts (64, 66) movable relative to one another in a tong-like manner and having interacting clamping faces and cutting edges which, in the operative position, are arranged in or right next to the plane of movement of the yarn strand guided up by the press needle and which are to be opened temporarily each time after a knot has been formed and can be closed again after the yarn strand has been introduced into the gap between the cutting edges and between the clamping faces. To achieve an even higher operating reliability of the yarn knotter, in the opened state of the clamping and cutting device (60) the cutting edges and clamping faces form a gap widening outwards in a scissor-like manner. <IMAGE>
