Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hay balers

Unless you're Amish those are 40 years (being generous) obsolete!

That's when the NH's start throwing out bearings.


It's usually around 10k with the JD's.

If ya know anything about Thoroughbred horse racing ya might have heard of Claiborne Farms, Secretariat & all that. They are in the area. Them & many like them pay big bucks for square bales of alfalfa or clean wheat straw. Some guys around here still keep a nice square bailer just for this, & have another type for their own use.

OTOH, round bailers sized 4x5, 5x5 or up to 6x6 depending on the terrain are prevalent.. Brand preference might be a toss up. JD, NH & Vermeer always players. A few bale the large western type squares, but only on the flatter farms . They don't seem to be catching on here.

But, a bud of mine will sell a nice older IH wire tie square bailer if interested. It doesn't seem to get much attention here.

What if I want to go old school and do 60lb squared bales?

What about a bale wagon? Or do you hire high schoolers and pay them .10 cents a bale load them onto flat bed trailer?

The trauma lasts a lifetime.

15000 and no bearings yet!

Afraid, no. But it seems like anymore it's always about to rain and we're rushing to get the hay made before it's ruined.

Honestly the pickup head needs rebuilt and the belts are getting tired, so probably should put the money in a new machine. Rather than this one. Don't really want to though because it still makes a great bale

the BR series balers and this includes the 7XXX series the pickup is definitely the weak point. the new RB series a definite huge improvement in that area..

We run two older 7090's that we bought used. Both still under 10k bales but you have to keep an eye on them.

We always had New Holland pull behind balers. And pull behind bale pickers.

When hay mows came into useage, we bought a blue one. I can't remember the brand name. Being blue, was it a Ford?

We left the farm in 1979, so my info is quite dated.

A buddy has had one for a few years. They've put quite a few bales through it and are pretty happy. I'm not really sure what I'd look at besides a NH.



I think if we had the wider baler, we'd have less trouble with the head. It can be pretty hard on it when we 're trying to cram a bunch of hay through it. Especially wetter silage hay.
I have been keeping an eye out for a used 7060. But they are pricey or have a high bale count.

McHale

Around here, vermeers are pretty popular.

G23

JD baler, I believe.



Also JD perhaps

We road our balers to various hay fields that are around 20 miles from south to north.


Drive by all kinds of hay ground and by far the crappiest looking bales have a JD baler broke down out in the field.

You’ll find there are damn few bales in AK made at that weight.

SOP is “50#” bales that are 43-45 tops on a scale.

When I had to live in KS, the farmer delivered 30 bales of prairie grass stacked in a pickup bed that needed no tie downs. Those were nice bales!

What is the budget? Used? How used?

We have an old John Deere 336 which gets by on our little place. 40 plus years old.

If the budget is bigger, I would definitely go with a Heston/Ferguson/Case center line. They are all the same machine. Our local farmers usually run 3x4, or 4x4 square balers. But they also keep a small machine around to produce those 60 lb bales for sale to hobby horse farmers.

You want a 14"x16" bale chamber to make those small bales and still keep them dense and watertight. The centerline baler is much easier t o use in the field, as the tractor straddles the windrow. You seldom have to get off the tractor and move bales out of your path when using a center line.

We bought 50 small square straw bales. Stuffed 'em in the old barn and heifer calving shed.

$5 apiece delivered and stacked. Nice quality.

When I was in high school, our area grew a lot of seed corn and hay. About every kid I knew worked either bucking hay or tasseling corn. It was in the early 60's when we saw the 1st bale wagons. Within just a few years, the hay work for kids had completely dried up. 1 man with a bale wagon could do more in a day than 10 of us kids and still be more or less rested at sundown.