suggestions for haying equipment

Small area (20+ acres) in northwest Oregon, mostly flat, Ford 841 tractor, lots of determination. We want small 60-70 pound bales.

Question: What is your suggestion for equipment? Brands, sizes, and any helpful input? We would be quite happy with used equipment so any information would be greatly appreciated. Worst case scenario is we screw up a year"s worth of hay and best case is we actually get to keep more than a third of what gets baled!!!

Thanks in advance.

Addy

If youbuy high dollar equipment for that small amount of hay crop, you might as well buy it from someone else.

Simple equipment that you can work on yourself.

The more common you equipment is, generally, the easier it will be to find parts or find people that can help you. Stay with brands that you see frequently.

My picks would be;

Mower(s) New Holland 451 sickle bar (or JD 350) A haybine would be nice, but hayin' was done for years without them. They're money pits when they get old. Just plain expensive when NOT old.

Rake;Again, New Holland 56/256 ect. You'll pay a few bucks to get a good one, but it'll last AND do a good job. There's a good reason why they sell high. They're about the best you can get.

Baler; I had a New Holland 273. Good to better than average, but I like Deere balers MORE. Find a nice 336 and you'll have a baler for life, no more hay than you're baling.

A tedder if you can find one will help a great deal. It'll make up for the shortcomings of not having a mower/conditioner somewhat.

Wagons; The more the merrier. With enough wagons, you can unload at your leisure instead of while you're in a rush to get hay off the ground.

If you're working alone, or short on labor, look into a bale basket. (Poor mans accumulator)

You can't beat the new Holland rakes (256 or 258), but where I'm from they still bring 1200. or more..I bought a JD 640 side delivery for $250.00 greased it and went raking, it works great!....spent $1000 on a 1219 MoCo Deere, still getting the bugs out learning to set it correctly to cut properly, otherwise an OK machine, 4 wagons @ $800.00 / wagon, and $1200.00 for an 851 NH round baler which works great. I do @ 25 acres too, and can get it mowed in 6 hours, raked in @ 2.5 ( my son @12 years loves to rake with his 1939 JD H ) and baled in less than 3 hours. Just for my own cows, it is still cheaper than buying hay. It goes for $30.00 for poor stuff to $50.00 for good grass hay. I bale @ 60 bales a year, not much but I paid for all of the equipment in what I would have spent for hay in 3 years. I enjoy too...Good Luck & have fun! Bruce

Drum mowers are simple and give the operator the cutting technology of a disc mower at 40-60% of the cost of a disc mower. Any MFG's drum mower is more durable that their disc mower. PZ & Deutz Farr designed the first drum mowers in the 1960's. Some current MFG's selling drum mowers in the USA are CCM, Vicon, Fella, Reese, SIP & Agrostrov. They start brand new from $2,300 and up.

1. Go with a mower/conditioner vs a sickel bar mower and a rake.

2. Drop the small square bale idea and think big round.

Allan

1: Cut 5 acres at a time. No more. I have 20 myself, I do currently have 8 acres down, but I always have problems with more than 5(I work an 8-5).

2: the key to a $300 baler is being able to fix them. They are $300 for a reason. They break(not that $5000 balers don't). make sure you have the wherewithall(sp?) to be able to fix one. My $300 baler got ebayed for $250, and I was happy.

3: Oregan is differnt than Indiana, but I bought a Hesston PT10 for $150. 9'3" moco. It works..err well until yesterday when a bearing went out. Two years of cutting for $150, not bad.

4: Wagons, 2. I got mine for $200 apiece. Try picking up 5 acres of hay. First cutting say, 60 bales * 5 = 300. I know 150 sucks, don't want to think of pickingup 300. 150 on a wagon would be really loading a $200 wagon, but(see #5) just unload in short order. Me I have 3 back them in the barn and unload before the next 5 acres is due.

5: Help. You'll need it. My 62 year old mother drives the tractor most of the time. Would be hard to do it without her. I did find some neighbor boys, (when available) who like to stack. I have to pay $9 an hour though. Without pushing it, you can put up 120 bales an hour, well worth it(then I drive..).

I'm sure I could think of other tid bits, but it is late...

The guys that are making hay for a living are forced to march to a different drummer.

Mowers. for 20 acres a good non-pitman sickle bar mower will work and will cost about $300 to $500 and you can also use it to keep the farm neat as well. Just slow down and get it done. Do the maintenance often and sharpen the sections frequently. For all the guys that tell you that you need a haybine or a disc mower ask them how the hell we mowed ten million acres in America for the last hundred years without them? Models .. try a MF 41, NH 450, 451 or 452, or JD 350.

Rakes an old side delivery rake will work fine. Expect to spend $300 to $800. They continue to bring good prices.

Balers. You have lots of choices. JD balers bring big premioum prices around here. NH are good solid units that work well and parts are very available. A NH 273 is a fine little baler. If you are on a budget, Massey, IH and Ford balers go for nothing at auction, but they are workable and should be able to zing thru your 20 acres if in good shape. To bale hay you need to be a decent mechanic.

Finally, You need a bale thrower about as bad as I need a super model and a Ferrari.

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