What is the smallest tractor that will pull a swather and then a square bailer?

[cassandraame84]

I just leased a 6 acre farmstead and I need to buy a tractor, swather and bailer, so I can bail hay for next winter. (Neighbor helped out this year) Can someone point me in the general direction of some good all round machines? Not looking for anything big, property is only 6 acres, but part of it is sloped.

Just found this one. Any good?
http://www.machinefinder.com/ww/en-US/machine/1985-case-ih-234-tractor-2667931

 

[tcreeley]

Might be cheaper to just buy the hay already baled -round or square either pick up in field or at their barn. Some will deliver. It is going to take sometime to pay back an investment in machinery - poor use of money for just 6 acres.

The tractor looks nice- always look it over in person, try it out. There are a lot of scams involving "delivery", pay 1/2 now, 1/2 later on delivery. You never see the vehicle and your money takes a walk.

Good luck. Tractors are fun!

 

[CalG]

15 hp might be a bit light balers are heavy. mowers and side delivery rakes you "might" be OK, they used to be pulled by a team of two.

 

[Ed of all trades]

You are going to want more than the minimum for what you are doing. For one thing you don't know what you are doing and a bigger tractor will give you some extra safety. Someone with years under their belt will know what to do with out having to think and will have done what needs to be done while you think about it. Hillsides and balers don't go well with small tractors. It is not a good feeling when the tractor breaks traction and starts sliding down a hill with very little control. (you don't have to ask me how I know.) Get a 45 or 50 hp tractor, NOT a compact and be at ease knowing you are safe. Someone has to be around to take care of the goats.

 

[tessiers]

hp doesn't have a lot to do with it, small haybine will use under 20 hp, small baler less than that. Weight and gears is what you need, Farmall H is about as rock solid a tractor you will find, around here under 2k. Heavy enough to mow and bale but old and slow. We used one for years on 25 acres of hay and it never let us down in the field. I would look for something 3500# or a little more regardless of HP, and low gear of 2 mph or so. My personal favorite for a small hay tractor is my Massey Ferguson 135 with the perkins diesel. About the same weight as my H but more gears, more hp and less fuel.

 

[Marveltone]

Square balers have plungers that can tend to slap lighter tractors around during use. Operating a light tractor under these conditions can be very tiring. I bought my Fordson E1A Major with baling in mind. It's considered to be around 40 engine hp (35 PTO) but it's a full sized farm tractor and heavily ballasted... My best guess is somewhere around 8640 lbs. This gives a stable platform that only gives a slight nudge with each stroke of the plunger. My raking duties can be handled quite nicely with my little Ford 1510, as my side delivery rake is quite light and the little Ford is very maneuverable. There's no way I'd hook it up to a baler. As for cutting, it all depends on what you're using for a mower. I've cut with both tractors, but with different implements.

Joe

 

[Larro Darro]

If you like the tractor, buy it. But with only six acres of grass, you are wasting money buying hay equipment. See if your neighbor will do the hay on halves. Or just buy what you need and use all the land for pasture. That would make the most sense. You can't run a lot of cows on six acres, anyway. It shouldn't take very much hay. And cows come with traction control right from the factory. The slopes won't bother them.

 

[Larro Darro]

Did you guys see the typo on the HP of the tractor? At the top it said 15.4HP. But lower down it said 51HP. They are doing a good job of stuffing that engine in there.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Yea, I baled for years with a Jubilee About 35 pto hp and it did good on flat land but on a hill off we would go sliding down the hill, and that was with "water" in the rear tires.

 

[tessiers]

Depends on your baler too, I have a new Holland 67 baler and it couldn't pull my NAA down hill if it had too, baled a lot of hay with that combination on some pretty good hills with no problems. I wouldn't hook a wagon on and expect much. Only reason I am still not doing it is lack of lower gears or lack of independent PTO, either one would have been nice. Same baler behind my Farmall H and I never had a problem because the gearing was much better. Same baler behind my MF 135 and I hardly ever use the independent PTO.

 

[petes]

I don't know about a swather, but I can run a 7ft New Holland 451 sickle and a JD14T and JD24T baler with my old 4x4 Kubota B7100 with not much problem. The tractor only weights 1000lbs, plus about 500lb for the loader, and has 18hp (I replaced the engine with a D950). Tires aren't filled. Baling uphill makes it puff a bit of smoke, but on flat ground I can run the baler at rated speed. As others have mentioned, be careful (or avoid) going down any hills with a light tractor and a baler behind.

I bought a bigger tractor this year, an old IH B-275, 38hp diesel, 2wd, live PTO, probably weights around 3500 lbs. Although the B7100 did the job, it's nice having more than "just barely enough" power and weight since I moved up from doing 8 acres to 20+ acres this year. If I was just doing our 4ac, I would have stuck with the Kubota.

 

[hophornbeam]

To the original poster. As others have said, either buy hay or get someone to take off your hay on shares. Sure you can find a smaller tractor that will operate the haying equipment that you need. What you have to consider is the maintenance and repairs to the equipment. At the lower end of the budget are older machines that are difficult to find parts for. A baler is one of those machines that can be a real head ache. It takes about 4 acres of baling to get the rust off the working parts to get everything working nicely. Add in the timing of nice weather to get the hay baled in good condition. If the weather turns then you are stuck with all your hay as crap. Buying it you can have better quality control. For what it is worth, I have used JD 14T, 24T and NH 269s in combination with IHC W4, IHC Super W4 ( neither with live PTO), MF 35, MF 50, JD1120 ( with 2 stage clutch) and Ford 4000's with independent PTO on hills and flat, with or without wagons and manual stookers. Run, don't walk from a tractor without live PTO as the baler plunger and flywheel with affect the engine rpm's - everything runs "stiff". Independent PTO is really the way to go. You need the mass of a full sized ±40hp tractor. Just my experience and somewhat fuzzy memories.

 

[flusher]

I just leased a 6 acre farmstead and I need to buy a tractor, swather and bailer, so I can bail hay for next winter. (Neighbor helped out this year) Can someone point me in the general direction of some good all round machines? Not looking for anything big, property is only 6 acres, but part of it is sloped.

Just found this one. Any good?
1985 Case IH 234 Tractors - Compact (1-40hp.) - John Deere MachineFinder

A baler like my Massey Ferguson 124 (small squares,two-twine, 14"x18"x30 to 50" long bales) weighs 3000 lb, twice the weight of that little tractor you're eyeballing. You'll be able to tow it on level ground with that tractor but slopes may be a problem. Also, the pto on that little Case may not be up to handling a baler the size of my 124, which will jerk that little Case around pretty good.
You'd be better off looking for a baler that has it's own on-board engine if you really are going to buy that small Case tractor.
You need to find a heavier tractor with at least 30 hp pto.

Good luck.

 

[buickanddeere]

Going to the bare minimum in anything results in a wreck when the unexpected occurs.

 

[Larro Darro]

What kind of livestock are you going to run? I still think buying hay and using the 6 acres for pasture is the way to go. And since you are leasing this land, you don't want to spend too much on equipment you might not need in a few years.

 

[hophornbeam]

Going to the bare minimum in anything results in a wreck when the unexpected occurs.

well put !!

 

[coondle]

Tractor baler mower combos are interesting
TRACTOR there are ascending considerations and of course price (I don't know your market$) but relativities are I think universal)
! needs pto obviously independent: either dual position foot clutch of independent hand clutch which came out in about 1949 with the Allis Chalmers WD and WC models
2. Three point linkage multiplies the utility of tractor
2a. Power steering is a nice option on heavier tractors and essential on FEL equipped tractors unless you have arms like popeye
3. Front end loader a small FEL can lift much more than me even though the older I get the better I was!!!
4. Front wheel assist or better unequal 4WD improves safety on slopes out of sight so too does roll over protection

Small balers have a rated plunger speed 60 72 92 and 100 are usual
60 needs about 20 engine horsepower Fergie TE 20
72 needs about 35 EHP
92 likes80 EHP
100 can soak up 100 EhP
That gives margin for tight moments
I pull a 92 stroke NH 570 with a 50 EHP Foton (chinese) unequal 4WD in hilly terrain but have many years exp and tractor has balls like an Angus bull but it is heavy for its hp about 5000lbs and I wouldnt go lighter EG a Shiboura SE4040 40 EHp with 4WuEd woudnt run a 72 stroker once i got to hills but only 3000lbs so jheed what others say of weight
Sickle mowers use less HP than MOCO eg i have run Heston PT10 ie 10 foot sicle mower conditioner in heavy oaten hay (WE grow cereal oats and cut for hay) producing about 6 tonnes to the acre dry hay with 47EHP but a 10 foot NH discbine needs 100 modern EHP or say 90 oldEHP such as a Case 930 but the hydraulics were low pressure ie 1250psi against modern 2200 upwards psi and once oil was hot couldn't pick up the modern machine
The message is match your machines to either the task ie EHP weight features of tractor to the task and terrain and safety
Implements need to be matched to the horse you put in front
You can put a small implement behind a big horse........You get the idea!
A margin now gives flexibility in future
I have progressed from 28EHP Fordson E27n and A chalmers WD, through 64EHP MF175, to 74 EHP Chamberlain3080b (Australian tractor Co then owned by JD, to 90hp Case 930 to 125HP Case 1070, to now 156 EHP Case 2290 supported by 2 4uwd Fotons 50hp and 60 hp plus some odds and sods in between