Whats a good 60 horse tractor?

We've baled about 300 round bales with the M this year.

Pay attention to the guys talking about hills. We hay pretty gently rolling fields so hills aren't a problem. But with a good windrow coming up out of a steep bottom even first gear is not slow enough for the M. And I can't stop going down a steep hill with a full bale so if it is time to tie I have to pull out of the windrow and hit bottom to let out the bale.

You can vary the size of your windrow. We've been baling three nine foot cuts. Smaller windrow=less hp required. A 4x6 baler will take less hp than my 5x6 if it is an efficient baler. If it has it's own hydraulic pump, etc, it takes more hp.

Obviously I agree with Hugh that cheap can be the way to go, even if it is a little slower. It is a LOT cheaper. The pickup on my Vermeer 605 Super C came apart and the dealer put me on to a guy who had one for sale. He was a custom baler who had just quit using it in 1999 when he got a new baler. Bought it for $200. It is in better shape than the first baler I got for $1300. So now I have two sets of belts and almost a spare baler for $1500. Vermeer made the first large round baler, and this is an early model, so it is about like the M, new enough to have the bugs worked out but old enough to be simple, no electronics (or electrics!) and takes low HP.

A neighbor I trust told me to get rid of the 605C and get at least a 605K. Said it would not start a bale. It was too worn for that to be true. Somebody had figured out how to do it. I'm not there but am getting better and can make money the first year at $15/bale custom baling.

I'm not in an IH area so I don't know anything about IH round balers but from what I've seen I got real lucky buying the Vermeer.

Newer balers are faster, as is net wrap, but you have to have something else to do when you get done or it is a waste of money to go faster. Ever seen the guys with the big tractors sitting around the coffee shop because they got done early? I don't drink coffee.

cattle/dairy guys sure could use the help. esp with 2nd or 3rd cuttings as they are starting to get real busy with other things. The real busy part takes away any willingness to go small square bales. No time to mess with them things.
Thats where me being able to do some big uns comes in. As this is really just a hobby right now for me. I cant (wont) go big bucks on the equipment.

Now if I can get my 300 to make big uns for a year or 2 till I get a customer base and some cash.
( I buy hay stuff only with hay money)
That would be great.

Oh, if you want a real 60 hp tractor..... Get an M-TA(Grin ;-p)

When you started this thread you did say money was an item, and I do know where your coming from on that one. I said on another thread a few days back, if I go back over my finincial statments, I always made more money in the times I was under powered. When I think back to the years my dad and I milked 40 cows and baled 30,000 bales of hay per year with nothing more for power than Farmalls 300, 130 and Cockshutt 540. Then came silage and the years with 560D trying to do the job of an 806. Man those were the good years, always had a new car and pickup every 5 years.

No your not going to set the world on fire round baling with the 300, but you will get some hay rolled up. Roy made a good point, some of those round balers suck up a lot of power, while others seem to run very easy. That IH 241 I had was a 5x6 baler and I thought it turned very easy. I only made the bales 5' dameter as we were handling them with skidsteer loaders. Had the hay stored on floor 16" spaced floor joists and 2" flooring. With 6' bales those little loaders would break through between floor joists.

Doing it this way just gives you a bit more time to buy a larger tractor. If your like me you always pay too much when you buy quickly. Take your time on a used larger tractor, they are not going up in price. Little ones might but 60 to 100 hp aren't.

In 1983 Gramps got a great deal on 600 acres near by. He paid cash for the land.
He then found that his AC all crop 66 was to small for the work to be done. He found a used Massey Ferguson self propelled combine at a sale for $1000. He used that for 4 or 5 years. Then sold the combine for $2000. He then sold the land for a tiddy proffit. Dumped the cash into CD's wile interest was at 18% in those days. He locked it in for as long as he could and went back to farming his 80 acres.
Not sure of the exact years of this as I didnt really care what was going on at the time. I was to busy farting around. But I did catch some of what he was doing.

I know a couple of guys who lived through the thirties and took advantage of the times. They are just hopeing they live long enough for another kick at the can.