Baling with a compact - minimum size?

[slowzuki]

Soundguy, you've got a big batwing don't you? I've seen guys rake up the remaining of clipping and bale that up just cause it was there. I've heard of people who do it on purpose to save buying a mower but it wastes a lot of hay.

 

[zzvyb6]

When my haybine was down for repairs, I used a 5' Bush Hog to cut a hayfield. The hay dried faster than usual because its been thrashed around. I used a NH rollabar rake to rope it into windrows instead of the Kuhn rake's tendency to hedgerow it. If the baler pickup will grab it, you get decent hay bales. The bales are easy to disassociate because the stems are short, but the horses loved it.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

For many a year, Woods sold a rotary cutter with a removable side skirt. It was intended to be used as a hay mower with the side off, and a brush cutter with the side panel on. It was essentially an early attempt at a disc mower of sorts. Never really caught on.

A rotary cutter will "get by" in grass hay, but not such a hot set-up in alfalfa or clover.

 

[LAWALLSTRACTOR]

My tractor gets rocked pretty good and it's more than big enough for the baler. Or for any other haying implement there is. It's nearly 100 hp and is pretty heavy. Even more so with the tires loaded like they are.
I thought that bouncing back and forth was just a fact of life when baling no matter what you are driving.

As I remember baling when I was a kid, the baler always rocked the tractor. (Just a fact of life) It never bothered anything. I can see, if to light a duty compact had prolonged use on a baler, it could have some ill effects on the drive train.

 

[Rara Avis]

With all this talk of bailing.. I may actually try my hand at it this year. I've helped out before.. but never personally owned any of the specific hay equipment.. Guy down the road is selling an old but good looking IH square bailer.

Now I just need to find a good sickle or disc mower and rake!

soundguy

Well, if you want to get away from all your heat...
You can come up and hay with me...
Free training and everything...

 

[Soundguy]

Soundguy, you've got a big batwing don't you? I've seen guys rake up the remaining of clipping and bale that up just cause it was there. I've heard of people who do it on purpose to save buying a mower but it wastes a lot of hay.

i actually knew a guy that had an older stationary bailer.. he fed it bahia grass clippings he raked up after drying. AFAIK.. he cut ti with a plain old rotary cutter. Short fiber for sure.. but he made a few bales for his animals.. etc.

soundguy

 

[pitt_md]

When I was first old enough to help bail hay my dad had an old dull-red POS bailer that had its own engine on it. You had to start this thing with a crank that would sometimes get stuck and not pop off like it should. It had a fly wheel that needed two men and a boy to take off to replace the brass sheer pins that it would eat at a constant rate. The knotter on this thing would humble the best of mechanics. To my knowledge there was only one grumpy old man that could keep one of these things running in the entire state of MI. To make it around the field more than once without something going wrong was a true blessing from God.

I'll pay to have my fields bailed into large squares that I can pick up and stack with the tractor.

 

[zzvyb6]

You will be gratified to know that today there are men and women who have graduate degrees (even some on multiple subjects) in Baler Mechanics. They got them from the School of Hard Knoxville, the Redneck Yacht Club and the University of Chicago's School of Relativity. Since Horsemanship is driving up the economic viability of prismatic organic food additives and raw materials, worker skills in welding, fabricating, visualization, photography, eBaymanship, Website Navigation and biomechanical upgrading have become valuable skills. Bring by your old baler, we can schedule an appointment for you. We are currently booking in the 3rd week of December. There is a 25% restocking fee for cancelation. Payment in Full is expected at time of ordering. Have a nice bidet.

 

[RalphVa]

They do make small round bale balers for mounting onto the front of tractor like the Gravely. I've seen pictures of them. Think they were in Europe.

Doubt they've made any so small for compact tractors here. Now, with the high price of fuel and maybe people going back to smaller farms (small organic farms can be profitable), this may drive the manufacturers into maybe providing some smaller equipment.

Shoot! We'll probably see lots more people gravitating back to small country plots as the price of fuel goes up, to raise a lot of their own stuff. Might even see people living in small villages and having small farms outlying the villages like in many other parts of the world.

Ralph

 

[rankrank1]

For many a year, Woods sold a rotary cutter with a removable side skirt. It was intended to be used as a hay mower with the side off, and a brush cutter with the side panel on. It was essentially an early attempt at a disc mower of sorts. Never really caught on.

A rotary cutter will "get by" in grass hay, but not such a hot set-up in alfalfa or clover.

I believe King Kutter still offers the removable skirt option called "hayside" as well, although TSC usually does not have them in stock. TSC should still be able to order them. If I was looking to buy a new King Kutter, I would opt for the "hayside" option just for the added flexibility as the price was pretty much the same as the standard rotary cutter the last time I checked (roughly 4 years ago).
My old square back bush hog actually kicked the grass out rather well without shredding it. I think the whole backside being open helps get the grass out quickly before it is chopped up into little pieces. Also, I do not have suction type blades so that helps not chop the grass up as much too. The downside to the non-suction blades was that I did leave quite a bit of hay in the field where the tractor tires mashed down the tall grass in front of the bushhog. Everywhere my tractor tires mashed the tall stuff down it was not cut by the bushhog.
On the plus side, the hay did dry fast so it is a kinda like a poor man's haybine/moco substitue. I will continue to use my bushog as a viable option in the future (even once I get the sickle bar going) if quick drying time is critical for my allotted weather forecast. I have very little alfalfa mixed in my field so I can not say how it would do on it as I imagine there would be some leaf loss, but I would think that there has to be some leaf loss with a haybine/moco too. I do have some clover and did not notice excess leaf loss on it from my bushog.

 

[Sully2]

I cut, ted, rake, bale and now bale with a 180 bale wagon behind using a Kubota L5030HSTC. I am about 1000 lb light and 10 hp short for the baling with the wagon given the hills I have. On the flatter fields it is fine.

For that little amount of land, I would contract it out. There is a lot of money to be tied up into equipment to bale. Read in the ag tractor forum the "I Quit" thread.

Ive watched a farmer buddy using a square baler behind his 5030. The baler shakes the living h**l out of it. Id say about 2000 pounds more to keep it from walking around like a wild squirrel.

Kubota are light!!

 

[Rara Avis]

Pre-Owned Hay and Forage Equipment Special Offers : Agricultural Solutions : John Deere Credit

 

[slowzuki]

Well, mine with cab, loader and loaded tires is pushing 6500 lbs, its certainly not light for a compact. Its a lot more comfortable / less shaking around than the Case / IH 584 and 585 I used to use, or the Ford 3000 my neighbour uses. I suppose because its about 1500 lbs heavier than those ag tractors.

The problem I have is not quite enough power to get up the steep hills with the wagon behind and not enough weight to safely bring the baler and wagon down when loaded. The 10,000 lb tractor we had before was perfect for that though. BTW it also got shook around pretty good.

Ive watched a farmer buddy using a square baler behind his 5030. The baler shakes the living h**l out of it. Id say about 2000 pounds more to keep it from walking around like a wild squirrel.

Kubota are light!!

 

[Soundguy]

I would not classify a ford 3000 as an Ag tractor.. not even a utility. It should fall in as a larger CUT.. etc.

A ford 4000 is moving towards utility.. etc.. Ford 7xxx and up Ag, etc..

soundguy

 

[schmism]

My old square back bush hog actually kicked the grass out rather well without shredding it.

thats what mine does. It leaves it windrowed nicely. infact ive had to go back and kick the "pile" to make shure i had cut the grass there as it just looks like clippings sitting on top of uncut grass.

I should go snap a pic...

 

[slowzuki]

Well, I guess it has a longer wheelbase, is quite heavy compared to most CUT's and is used for farming in eastern parts. One of the farmers I worked for used one as his primary tractor from 1960 something until he sold his milk quota in 2003. He put up nearly 20,000 bales of hay a year with it. He mowed, tedded, raked and baled with big kicker wagons behind it the whole time.

He used to tow a corn silage chopper with it when he did silage.

They did have a backup tractor, a Ford 5000 with a loader, but the power steering had been broken and all the wiring burned out of it in the late 70's.

BTW A Ford 4630 would be considered a farm tractor around here too.

BTW 2, the neighbours dairy farm, about 600 acres total, ran on two IH 484's until the mid 80's when they went to a 584 and 585. The 484 is the same size as a Ford 3000.

I would not classify a ford 3000 as an Ag tractor.. not even a utility. It should fall in as a larger CUT.. etc.

A ford 4000 is moving towards utility.. etc.. Ford 7xxx and up Ag, etc..

soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

Farm tractor yes.. but scut, cut, util, and AG are more or less tractor size designations, with some overlap.. 'farm' is a chore denotion.. much like 'industrial'.. etc.

soundguy

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I've owned a couple 3000's. One was bought new in 1973 and stayed with me until 2 years ago. They were (a) "pre-compact tractor" era, (b) adjustable track width to accomodate row cropping to a degree, (generally NOT a feature emphsized with a traditional "compact tractor" of today) and (c) considered a mid-sized utility tractor in their day. Ford touted them as a general purpose utility tractor for small or large farms in sales brochures of the day. In the 60's and 70's, many small farmers still used 35 to 45 hp tractors as their primary "big tractor". The 3000 wasn't even the smallest of Fords utility line-up "back in the day". Long and short, they were marketed primarily towards small farmers as "farm tractors".

A 3000 may compare in hp and to some degree, in physical size to some of todays bigger compacts, but they are a tried and true utility tractor from a past era.

 

[Sully2]

Well, mine with cab, loader and loaded tires is pushing 6500 lbs, its certainly not light for a compact. Its a lot more comfortable / less shaking around than the Case / IH 584 and 585 I used to use, or the Ford 3000 my neighbour uses. I suppose because its about 1500 lbs heavier than those ag tractors.

The problem I have is not quite enough power to get up the steep hills with the wagon behind and not enough weight to safely bring the baler and wagon down when loaded. The 10,000 lb tractor we had before was perfect for that though. BTW it also got shook around pretty good.

Id have to be sitting there watching the scales to belive a 5030 with FEL and cab and even loaded tires goes 6500 lbs!!!! My buddy has an OLD Ford..I think its a "601 PowerMaster"..? ( automatic tranny thingy) and it doesnt move around like the 5030 does with the sq baler and Im mighty sure it dont even get close to 6500 lbs ( no cab on the old Ford...just lots of old cast iron)

His other tractor is a late 80's International ( 80 HP turnbo charged job) but it dont have a cab and the "pansy" ( thats my nickname for him..lol) wants to ride in that AC....lol

 

[R W]

John Deere web page states the minimum HP required to run a JD348 Baler is
35 @540 RPM.