Bought a Hesston 1160 from an interesting farmer

Looking to upgrade from a 9' sickle bar machine to something that will cut hay a little faster for us. Hesston 1160 came up for sale locally. 12', 1 rubber, 1 steel roll, looked well cared for, recently rebuilt wobble box and new sickle bar.
Have a NH 479 and 488, have tractors of 50, 60, 80 and 100 hp. Discbine ( need the conditioning aspect) is not the answer for us without another, higher HP tractor. If we did more tillage, that might be the route, but this higher HP tractor's only role would be to run a discbine. Plus, the used discbine market scares me more than a sickle machine - might just be the unfamiliarity but it seems like there is more of a chance to buy a worn out machine with the discbine.
So, went to look today, gave $500 down, he is delivering, $3,000. I feel good about it, will probably sell the 488 for roughly that much, which is what we paid for it a few years ago. Never been thrilled with the way it cuts anyway. Bought to be our #1 machine, and it is the 479's backup when we havce two of us available to mow.
So, we are happy with our purchase. The guy we bought it from was interesting.

Last year was his first year baling hay. Baled 120ish acres - 80 of a neighbor's field, 40 of rented ground all over the county. Must have been happy.

THis year has bought a brand new 8350 Deere for mowing, brand new JD round baler, and was just taking delivery of a brand new JD 100 hp tractor (didn't catch model). He has 400 acres he will be baling and has partnered with a hay broker. His plan is to round bale at rented fields, bring it back to his place where he will unroll and square bale the hay to be shipped out of state.

I see why he needed the mower upgrade but it is just a different way of going about business than I am used to.

Lot of labor to make idiot cubes. might better just have several cheap wagons an accumulator with a grapple on the loader. Just load then unload with the grapple. For what all that new equipment cost could build a polebarn to hose the hay and load unload with the loader. One man band.

His plan is to round bale at rented fields, bring it back to his place where he will unroll and square bale the hay to be shipped out of state.

I'll bet he only does that once. That's a lot of hay to unroll and rebale in squares. A lot of lost leaves, unless it's just grass. Would have to keep moving bales coming off the back. Hugh mess left behind. And it would likely make odd shaped, inconsistent bales without feeding a steady consistent windrow.

You can buy an unroller that the bale sits on and unrolls into the square baler . It would take 5 or 6 little square balers to keep up with one round baler . I was picking up 32 feet of heavy hay last summer at 8 mph with a new holland round baler .

Yeah, it's also going to take 5 or 6 square balers to keep up with the unroller.

Plus, you waste 3X as much fuel.

The small squares still have to be hand stacked, so what does it matter if you're stacking them off a kicker rack or out of the back of the unroller/baler?

I think you'll be happy with it. Those newer Hesstons are a good machine. In my experience,you were wise not to buy a used disc machine. I bought two used ones and never cut enough hay with either one to hardly get the tractor warmed up. I finally sprung for a new one and love it,but those used ones put a bad taste in my mouth for 20 years.

Wish I could watch this interesting farmer's checkbook for the next year. I have no idea how on earth he could possibly make this plan pencil out. New equipment and what appears to be a labor intensive plan. Double whammy. Almost positive the hay broker will be the only person that makes any money in 2018.

Rrlund - thanks. I think this will be a good move for us...I was gung-ho for a discbine a few years ago but the more I looked at the used market, the potential pitfalls etc..., I realized that the only way to go is new...or lightly used. This is what led us to the wider, center pivot sickle route. Hopefully the machine is as nice as it seems. Like I said, the other things with the discbine is it would mean a 2nd bigger tractor (I hate having anything on the farm that I can't have a backup for (i.e. - more than 1 option to run it)).

Everyone else...I truly have no idea how this is going to pencil out...i can't imagine it will...we are in upstate NY, local market on nice 1st cut is $3-4/bale, 2nd is $4-5/bale. He plans to send it to the cape cod area which I think is more of a $6-8 and $8-10 market for first and 2nd. We have struggled the last few years with the weather to get our first cut in early....so perhaps round baling will allow him to attack his first a little faster.

I was thinking maybe he will have a long pole barn, setupt a massive conveyor belt with an astroturf surface...stationary high capacity square baler, a stationary rake and a round bale on a spool at the far end. Conveyor takes hay off the round bale, fluffed/merged by the rake into the square baler, dropped on the conveyor behind it to the waiting stacker...lol. Other than that setup...I can't imagine this not being a labor intensive method...

I am interested...wish the guy was a little more local to me so I could watch from a close distance.

I am going to talk to a buddy at the local JD dealer to see if he knows the scoop. I assume he is a fan of this guy...at least right now when the payments are coming through.

We have a 10 bale grapple. And accumulator. Works pretty slick. But needs a hydro loader tractor and a GOOD operator,to load the trailer square.

"His plan is to round bale at rented fields, bring it back to his place where he will unroll and square bale" Everybody I know who has done that including myself, only does it once.

How much does a grapple ang accumulator cost ?

this is interesting steve, first let me say looking at 1160's for sale you did well, (we need pics when you get it home steve) rereading your post I see a few problems that this fellow could run into here, 400 acres is a lot of hay to put up, cut, rake, and bale on rented fields (scattered over how big an area?) i'm thinking his move to buy all new equipment is to try and eliminate any breakdowns? (no guaranty there) haying 400 acres on one place is one thing, now you add in all the time he's going to be moving field to field, (is he by himself or hiring some help?) IF he gets all these fields baled up now he's bringing them all to one place to unroll and rebale into squares? (why not just square bale them?) WEATHER and time, your constantly looking for window long enough to get the hay cut, cured, raked and baled, I know i'm no different than anyone here that puts up hay, you are constantly looking over your shoulder (here i'm looking to the west) for any big black clouds heading your way! last year I got lucky and both cuts where in the hay shed before the rain (2nd cut beat the rain by 4 hours) year before got rain on both cuts, now add in the time to go back and turn your swaths to dry. it will be interesting to see how he makes out, keep us posted steve if you hear how he makes out.

You can put a 100 acres a day through a round
baler pretty easy bale up a field and haul it and
unroll it and square bale it . Here we can only bale
at night and the early morning usually from about
midnight until ten am the spend the rest of the
hauling and stacking and get the baler and tractor
greased up for the next night . Making round bales
and then turning them into square wouldn?t be a
one man job no matter how you look at it