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Sorry for the multiple postings down below -- I kept hitting the "send" button because nothing seemed to be working. Rurns out they all "took." Here's some back-and-forth on hay baling from the Massey-Ferguson site about a month ago. It suggests a few additional issues to be aware of... ===== Adam:
I have a Massey 35 and I'm looking to use it to hay a small hill farm. (100 acres- currently done by contract hayer). I'm looking for recommendations on haying equipment.
I've seen MF 8's for $800 but I'm not sure I'd have the power to drive it. Would I be able to pull a wagon in addition to the baler? Should I look for a small round baler? Doug in OR:
When I was a kid *many* years ago, we used a MF35 Deluxe. You would be surprised at what that little tractor could do! We farmed 100 acres on a dairy farm in hilly Wisconsin, and there was nothing that tractor couldn't do. We even pulled 3 bottoms with it. It does not lack horses. Just my input, but I'm certain you can pull a square baler and wagon with it - no problems. Jack M in UK:
I have used an MF 20 baler on my TEF-20 (25HP)and it pushes a bit each time the plunger "packs" but it does ok. The MF 35 should be just fine, but the trailer will have to be less than 20 feet long though, or I THINK it will be too heavy. Good luck, and hope you get lovely smelling hay, it's raining here at the moment, so I'm still waiting for the sun..... .... Don:
Last year while my 285 was in the shop i used my 165 on my 12 baler and it worked great. All my wagons are 16x8 ft. stacked 7 high she would still pull the wagons with extra power. this year the governer went out so its gotta go to the shop to get fixed, but its a great tractor. I imagine a 35 will work fine. The neighbor's use a few 35's on their apple orchard for cutting the grass and other small jobs. Rusty:
We used a Fergie 20, then 30 and finally MF-35 on a 100-acre dairy farm in Penna. in 50s and early 60s. 3-bottom plow was fine, as was PTO-driven baler, including pulling wagon behind baler on which we stacked up to 96 bales of approx. 45 pounds each. Our tractor also surged somewhat on packing cycle of plunger, but a weighted wagon behind it reduced this, and was never strong enough to loosen tightly stacked bales. The MF-35 was plenty powerful enough to handle it, never any problems even on sloping field (we didn't make hay on really steep hills). Don:
This year I managed to stack about 180 bales on a wagon; I'm not sure but I'd guess they weigh about 35-45 lbs each. Our hay got extremely dry this year so they were a little lighter than normal.The tires on some of the wagons still damn near blow out, and a few have, but thats the reason you always have a spare on hand;) Only got about 25-35 acres of hay but it'll last long enough. Rusty:
180 bales? Incredible! We used to stack three bales across the back, one in the middle running fore and aft, the others running sideways with the ends hanging off the
edge. We'd get three groups per layer like this, or 15 bales. The 2nd and 3rd tiers would be just as wide, but with one bale front-to-back on the
outside, and the others running sideways, with the 3rd tier having the fore-aft bale on the other side. Tiers 4-6 would have two bales running sideways, then two outside bales fore-aft with a middle one sideways (alternating again); then tier 7 and sometimes 8 would be just 1½ bales wide. Thus we'd get 96 or 111 bales per wagon load. Damned if I know how you got nearly double that, if you're talking about the same sized bales I am (twice as long as wide, about 12" high). The biggest challenge sometimes was getting it to the barn without spilling part or all of the load, especially on rutted, rough or hilly lanes, or when rushing to beat an impending rain storm. When it dumped, we always had an "animated" debate: was it the fault of the driver of the load, or he who had stacked it, if it tumbled? Worst case was when the entire wagon tipped over; lesser but still a huge mess was when most of the
load (bales all tied together went swiftly from an asset to a liability) came tumbling off; best of a bad situation was when just one corner or side would come down, with no bales busted... right!). The person deemed at "fault" had to re-stack the load. Everyone else present (usually just one or two others) would invariably help, but the hardest work would go to whoever lost the argument about responsibility, and who would suffer considerable ribbing and loss of face. The real tricks were to know who the best stackers were in order to drive their loads in, to recognize a loose load in advance, and to find something more important to do when it was time to drive an exceptionally loose load to the barn. Me, I became real "adept" at baling so I'd be otherwise engaged! But what does any of this have to do with Adam's original question?!
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