Does haying really take that much power ?

[f2000ez]

I just use my Bale Barron.

 

[Hay Dude]

I just use my Bale Barron. View attachment 4319200

A neighboring farmer to me has a Bale Baron. Like my Krone baler, it’s always broken. lol

 

[f2000ez]

A neighboring farmer to me has a Bale Baron. Like my Krone baler, it’s always broken. lol

Haven’t had any major problems with mine. It only jams when the bales are over 35 inches Then it’s a pain in the butt to clear.

 

[RayIN]

We used to bale hay with a John Deere B- 28 hp

Yep, and the baler has no electronics to cause problems.
Now if you used that rig to bale for money, a bigger HP tractor would be used; of course the bigger tractor would break things easier.

 

[Hay Dude]

Yep, and the baler has no electronics to cause problems.
Now if you used that rig to bale for money, a bigger HP tractor would be used; of course the bigger tractor would break things easier.

“Bale for money”. That’s an elusive process.
No way in heck you can make small squares with a slow rig and pop them on the ground to make any kind of serious money.
But that’s fine for feeding your own horses cows, or selling some to a neighbor.

Feels like it’s taken me forever to find the “sweet spot” between automation in equipment and tonnage produced to make an acceptable profit.

 

[Bentrim]

When I was a lot younger dad had a New Holland 76 and then a Super 77 baler it was power with that ****** Wisconsin V4 engine. He pulled it originally with a JD A and then a 70d when he up graded even with the 70 you could feel everytime the plunger went back. Sitting still the whole rig would rock back and forth. I have seen some literature with what appears to be an A Farmall and a 8N Fork pulling a 77. Something I would NOT do on hills but might consider it on perfectly level land.

The 77

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/556898310171267784/

The 76

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/556898310171567070/

 

[Hay Dude]

When I was a lot younger dad had a New Holland 76 and then a Super 77 baler it was power with that ****** Wisconsin V4 engine. He pulled it originally with a JD A and then a 70d when he up graded even with the 70 you could feel everytime the plunger went back. Sitting still the whole rig would rock back and forth. I have seen some literature with what appears to be an A Farmall and a 8N Fork pulling a 77. Something I would NOT do on hills but might consider it on perfectly level land.

The 77

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/556898310171267784/

The 76

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/556898310171567070/

That still happens.
After a long day of baling with a big square baler, I can still feel the baler pushing my body sort of forward & backward.
If you get out of my tractor, and leave the PTO to the baler on, it’ll sit there and rock forward & back.

 

[LouNY]

The small square balers baling at low speed don't take much power at all for the baling. The power need increase with ground speed increases, larger windrows, towing a hay rake either for a kicker baler or flat stacking, then start throwing in some hills and it just keeps going up. When I starting having to stack bales on a flat wagon my father was baling with a WD Allis Chalmers, then he got the 400 Farmall just to make me work harder and to handle bigger loads on steeper ground. Then the Farmall 560 and the first baler with the thrower (belt). All of a sudden we had to have 3 wagons for him to bale with so we could haul and unload into the mow and stack without him having to stop. At that time we were doing 10,000 to 18,000 bales a year.
Times do change now with beef cows my nephew just does a few hundred small square and several hundred big rounds.

 

[RayIN]

“Bale for money”. That’s an elusive process.
No way in heck you can make small squares with a slow rig and pop them on the ground to make any kind of serious money.
But that’s fine for feeding your own horses cows, or selling some to a neighbor.

Feels like it’s taken me forever to find the “sweet spot” between automation in equipment and tonnage produced to make an acceptable profit.

Small sq. bales of hay for horses are selling for $8 ea. around my area, shoot ordinary straw is selling for $3.50 ea., and it's a byproduct of combining wheat/oats.
When I was in high school there were 5 of us neighborhood boys working as a team making 10 cents a bale for picking up small sq bales and stacking them in the hay loft of the barn. We could put up as much as 2,000 bales a day. We thought we were in the big time making $5/day each. I was the only one not on the HS football team.

 

[zzvyb6]

I think the comment was working under a power line. But, I think that may also be a bale thrower... I'm not sure I'd want to be the bale catcher.

The big lines are high enough up that one can't really mess with them.

Just to clarify, A dozen years ago, I was baling with 2 wagons behind the baler, the idea being to kick them into the rear wagon and then fill the front wagon. While turning around under my 4400V service lines, a bale kicked up perfectly and snagged in one of the lines. It caught fire from contact with the ground line. I let it burn out, making sure the field didn't catch from the ashes dropping down, but the black marks on the wires are still there after all these years..