Baler on a 350U Wheatland

Thanks in advance,
Sean

Until big bales round and square came along haying always had more to do with man power than horse power. That never changed all the way from the pitch fork to the loose hayloader to the small square baler. I had a neighbor in the 1950s 60 cow holstein herd plus replacments. He baled all his hay with a Super C, 200, 230 or 240 and standard pto. I list all those tractors as I think he wore out one of each. Man were they hard on those little Farmalls. The grandfather in his 70s did all the baling. The old guy would get on put everything in gear and go until the tractor stalled. He would then dig the baler out by hand and do the same all over again. This was in Nova Scotia so with that many holsteins and length of feeding season there they had to be doing 25,000 bales per year.

I am VERY happy to hear that I should be fine, HP-wise. Right now I am just leasing out my land to a cattle farmer who cuts and bales (big round bales) the crops and gives me a reasonable amount of $$ for the bales. I have had a few offers from horse ranchers in the area who would be willing to pay quite nicely for small square bales. I only have 18 acres so I am not talking about such a large task that I will have to quit my day job to get it cut, raked and baled.

The big investment was getting a New Holland swather with conditioner at an auction and then getting it back in running order. Apparently these old cast iron engines do not like sitting with the fuel system half filled with water. That cleaning job took some time.

Now, I just have to hope that everyone else in the area doesn't also want that baler. There was a reasonably good condition square baler at an auction I went to last June and the darn thing sold for $7,000.00 The farmer who sold it was over at my place last week and he is still laughing. TAn identical baler was for sale at the JD dealer (also used) for less money.

Thanks again for everyone's help.
Sean