Kubota L5740HST - Hay making enough HP

GTR261510 · May 18, 2015

Hi Guys,

New to Forum. Based in NSW Australia and would appreciate some advice. Run a horse farm that requires a tractor for raking arenas, slashing, spraying etc. I have a New Holland TC33D Hydro that does it ok, little underpower.

We also make about 5000 bales a year of hay using a NH275 baler and a 7 disc mower conditioner. I have used an old FORD 5000 (70hp) for this. It has been retired.

Need a new tractor and would like to have one tractor do both roles. A narrow 6ft ish HST tractor is ideal for the horse side of our operation.

I have looked a the Kubota L5740 and it is pretty nice. Just wondering peoples experience with this tractor making hay. I am prepared to ditch the Mower conditioner for a lower hp alternative if required.

Thanks in advance

George

MHarryE · May 21, 2015

Our L5740 mostly stays out of the haying operation but it has been used some. It will handle out NH Discbine we use as a backup without difficulty but it won't handle the disc cutters of our JD MoCo, at least at normal cutting speed. Despite what some will say the L5740 will handle your baler with ease. Not sure why people say you can't run a baler behind a CUT. However we have not run a lot of hours preferring instead to use our JD 6230 for the small square bales. At least I have a little input covering what we have used our L5740 for in the way of haying but we are primarily a large round bale operation and only put up a few small squares each year.

bucktaker · May 21, 2015

I have a L5740 but never run it through hay. For what you describe it would work get the ag tires and wheel weights to improve the traction, But I would look at the 7040 series non hst if it was me buying a new tractor

GTR261510 · May 21, 2015

MHarryE and Bucktaker thanks for the input. If I had my way I would have a 6000 series JD doing the hay but just cant justify the bigger tractor for that one job. I was taught from a young age when we had cotton farms that if it isn't green it isn't a tractor. However given the job I have to do now I am looking forward to trying some orange paint. I think I will try the L5740. mainly because it is well suited to 90% of the other farm work it will be doing. Worst case is I will buy an old JD4240 or similar if the L5740 cant cut it. The other reason I am keen to upgrade is that we are seeing record low interest rates here in Australia and Kubota are offering a good finance package at 0.09%. (record low for us is 5.5% on the farm mortgage - I grew up with 18 - 22% on the cotton because we were high risk. Funny thing was we were only high risk because of the high interest rate?) thanks guys

wmonroe · May 21, 2015

I have a 5240 and have run an old baler with it with no problems. Because of my steep hills I just let the bales fall on the ground instead of pulling a wagon behind the baler but on level to gently rolling hills I would have no problem running a wagon and bale thrower on the baler. These small tractors really can do a lot of work.

RedNeckRacin · May 22, 2015

I think you need two tractors. The hst is very operator friendly but will take alot oh hp away from the pto. IMO, get the machine that works for the majority of your work and get a bigger older 2wd for the haying operations. The general rule of thumb I have heard for disc mower conditioners is 10hp/ft on the pto not the advertised crank hp. We used an 884 international with a 9 foot haybine and a NH baler I forget the exact number, but even with 70 pto hp in a gear transmission, loaded tires, and cast wheels with wei th ts, a baler and a full wagon would push it around on a bit of a hill. Nothing against a kubota, but haying doesn't seem to match up well in my mind with an hst tranny.