Haying

[cowboydoc]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Fred,
100 bales is about how long they are good before you have to work on them. Balers are the most tempermental beast in the world!!! Mine started breaking flywheel pins after about an hours work. Flywheel was too tight from the factory and one of the bushings had fallen off. It is a constant job to keep them working if they are brand new or 30 years old. They will last a long time but you are always working on them.

 

[Bird]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

100 bales? You must have a really good one. I think there was only one day that I baled over 100 without stopping to fix or adjust something./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif And that was using an almost new baler./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif I think everyone I know who has a baler spends as much or more time maintaining or repairing it as they do running it. If anyone ever invents one that'll run all summer with no repairs he ought to make a fortune./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[cowboydoc]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Bird,
That was 100 bales on the brand new baler that I just bought!!! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[jdkid]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Hi ya's
funny thing my grandfather had a old B45 inter baler missed the first bale and snaped the shear bolt with out fail each year (rust on plunger stop)after that it never missed a beat.the guy i worked for had a newer NH and used to give me heaps bout this old baler and tractor (IH B250) but end of day 1 broken bale out of 500 V's 50 odd out of 1000 i know what baler i'd still like to have
catch ya
JD Kid

 

[Phred]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

wow! That sounds like a great investment!

Anybody reading this thread should have their head examined
for even thinking about haying for profit.
But then again it sure bets driving a desk.

You know if you buy a new baler then you can use it as a good excuse to convince the CFO that you need a complete set of new tools just to keep it runnning so you can make all that money on hay!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[jdkid]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Hi ya
frist what is a CFO??? ok yea it was a good baler but long gone i'm looking at hay gear as we type,, a disc mower 7 disc kuhn (?) and a claas65 baler with grab and bale accumulator just got to find a good rake that i can tow with a 4x4 (if windy i can get someone to rake just infront of baler)alup cost 16000 kiwi bucks (give or take)now if there was someone doing baling close then i may not have even though about buying but where we live we are poorly serviced by contractors with most people buying in each year with high carting costs ie 4.50-6.00 per bale ex farm and 1.50-2.00 carting (kiwi bucks cut in 1/2 for rough USD's)also haveing hay gear we could sell stuff to people next door etc etc .another point about haveing ya own gear is "you"control what happens getting time off work maybe the hard part tho but if ya got time on ya hands or can catch up lost work (ie work over time or weekends) only thing is a lot of small tractors now are getting to light to tow balers the B250 my grandfather had was running 7.50-16 front and 12.8-24 on the back (same as MF 35)and i would not want to go much smaller
catch ya
JD Kid

 

[Bird]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

CFO = Chief Financial Officer (usually "wife")/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Bird

 

[Phred]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Bird your a wise man.

Jdkid:
You do bring up a good issue and that is HP / tractor size. How much do you think it takes to run a small hay operation?
Clearly 20Hp won't do. But how much is realistic?

I figure 60pto HP for a round baler and a little less for a sqaure baler. Something on the order of a TN75 or a M6800 is probably about right. (or what ever is the JD eqiuvalent).

Fred

 

[cowboydoc]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Fred,
I can run my square baler on the 4600 although it does bounce it around a little. It has a category 4 hitch though! As far as round balers you have two things you need to consider. #1 is the hydraulics. That vermeer needs a minimum of 25 gpm for hydraulics and 90 hp tractor. JD makes a 750 lb. bale round baler that you can run with a 45 hp utility tractor though. To do big bales though I would say you would need at least a 90 hp tractor.

 

[Bird]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Fred, I thing Cowboydoc has about defined what's needed. I know of one guy doing some hay baling with an M6800 and most of what I did with a neighbor was using an 85hp Oliver, but most of the hay baling I see done around here is being done with tractors in the 100-120hp range. However, I don't personally know any of the few people with square balers; just the round balers.

Bird

 

[Phred]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Bird & Cowboydoc,

Probably depends on bale size. I think the 75 hp is probably good enough for 4x4 round as well as the square bales.
For the larger round bales you probably due need a bigger tractor.

I hope to eek by with the 75 hp since the cost of the larger tractors is significantly more.

Fred

 

[Bird]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Fred, I think you're right (no personal experience to say for sure). The baler I used so much behind that 85hp Oliver is a Gehl that makes bales 5' wide and part of the time I was making 5' diameter bales, part of the time 6' diameter, and never had a lack of power. Of course, the guys I was talking about with the 100-120hp tractors also have air-conditioned cabs on them, and I haven't the foggiest notion of how much additional load that puts on them (or whether it's even enough to consider). And of course, part of the reason for them using tractors that big is because they also use them for pulling some pretty big plows, planters, and mowers.

Bird

 

[jdkid]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Hi ya
sorry i did not see ya post to today i looked up a book or two and here are some base Hps
small square 35-45 hp for run of the mill balers with some needing 70 odd (high out put baler)
mid-big square 100 +hp
rounds 60 hp +
with the bigger balers rounds and squares things like crop cutters ,baling silage ,hill's and even brakeing ya need more hp or in some cases wieght
i know of a guy who had a fixed baler 4x4 with crop cutter knifes behind 90 Hp with doing chewy alfalfa silage he run out of power just before full bale size and it was even worse on hills but doing hay no probs in fact i use to drive a 70 Hp JD with a 4x5 fixed baler and had no probs a MF 35 or around that size (full size not compact)will handle a small square it may not be as fast but will do the job for ya
catch ya
JD Kid

 

[Phred]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Guys,

I had thought that 75 hp net was a little on the large size but now that I read your feedback, and look at the baler specs, I think its probably the minimum.

Maybe I can get a deal on a 90-100 hp, otherwise, I suspect that the 75 hp will do.

Thanks for the info.

Fred

 

[jdkid]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Hi ya
can ya give me a run down on what ya realy want to do.if only needing bigger Hp for 10% or less of the time i don't think new would be a good deal and damm hard doing ya lawn with 100 hp i'll re read this whole post and look at ya stats and try and work out something for ya
catch ya
JD Kid

 

[fractal]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

Of course, the guys I was talking about with the 100-120hp tractors also have air-conditioned cabs on them, and I haven't the foggiest notion of how much additional load that puts on them (or whether it's even enough to consider).

<hr></blockquote>

I seem to remember automotive air conditioners using between 5 and 10 hp.

 

[Bird]

Re: Haying (Hobby)

Yeah, Fractal, I know about the cars, and suppose it would be similar on a diesel tractor, but don't really know.

Bird