Thoughts and Questions About Round Baling My Hay

I'm not trying to go 'round the mountain again on this topic. I've read SOOOO much information the past few days, that although my head is spinning, I think I have a pretty good grasp on what it is I need to do. I'd just like some reassurance from the experts.

First, I own a DB/Case 885. A 43 HP, 540/1000 PTO tractor that weighs in the neighborhood of 3800 lbs. I plan to fill the rear tires w/ fluid for another 700 + or - lbs. I have (3) "30" series Case weights on the front that I would guess weigh 50 lbs each. I'm assuming when all is done, the 885 will weigh close to 4600-4700lbs.

I have approximately 15 acres of hay to bale, w/ another 12 acres to be likely added in a couple of years. Since my father-in-law's passing, the fields have not been taken care of and we put up 500-600 square bales a year. This past year, I was injured so the neighbor round baled for us. We ended up w/ (21) 5x6 round bales from only one cutting, as the neighbor felt it wasn't worth his time to do it again. The neighbor's attitude, the fact help is nearly non-existent and the fact I'm not getting any younger, has forced me to re-evaluate my haying process. I'd as soon "do it myself" than to have to ask for help.

My fields are mostly flat to rolling, however, I have a couple of spots where there's probably a 5ft drop in 10ft run.

The hay will be used to feed the horse collection of my wife, (3) daughters & (2) granddaughters.

My first inclination is I want 4x4 bales weighing in the 600lb range. I will handle the bales w/ the 885 and a 3pt scissor/bale spear. This should allow me to stack the bales (2) high in my barns.

I've read over and over again about the various small round balers available. It seems a used Hesston 540 would be my best option for the size bale I want, and for the size wallet I have. I could also go w/ the 530, if need be. Plus, there are (2) AGCO dealers within 15 miles of my house.

With the info I've provided, does it seem to you all I'm on the right track? Anything I've missed? Please feel free to correct or admonish me if I have.

Thank you all for your time. Sorry for the long post.
 
You're on the right track. If the 530 you mention is a JD it's a 5' long x 6' diameter bale spec'd at 1600#....course that weight is very very dependent
upon all the circumstances affecting that bale. Also the bale diameter can be set for something less than 6'....Texas Jim can probably tell you the range.
Per JD specs, my current 375 is a cut down 5x6 which stops at 4' diameter (5x4) and JD specs it at 1k#. I run a 57 PTO hp tractor (Branson 6530C) on it
and I can get it to grunt sometimes when I am overloading it trying to finish up a WW when the bale chamber is full. Flat ground.

I agree that for your hp a 4x4 is the way to go as you are suggesting. Hills matter because of tip over safety and load on the engine pulling all the weight
uphill, tractor, baler, and hay in the baler. On your hill, go down it vertically and return by some other route. The weight will push on you but not that
much. Otherwise I doubt you'll have a problem. Not familiar with your balers mentioned.

Another aspect of a smaller bale is ease of handling after baling and if fed out in the weather, it gets consumed faster and that reduces the opportunity
for weather contamination.....not poison, just that the "usually picky" horses won't refuse to eat it, or roll their eyes at you while they do.
 
A 4x4 baler would work good behind your tractor. I had a brand new Deere 335 that we baled thousands of bales with and never had a problem. We rebuilt the pickup three times, replaced drive chains twice and replaced belts once. We baled lots of corn stalks which doubles the wear on a baler especially the pickup. The only reason I sold it was because we wanted net wrap and a crop cutter for hi moisture hay. Mine had electric tie so only one hyd outlet was needed. The New Idea 483 and 484 bales are very good balers as well and can be bought very reasonable as well. We were going to buy a new Hesston but after seeing the neighbors bales were not impressed by it. That could have been the operater and not the baler? The 4x4 is a nice size bale to handle and haul. Dad sold lots of hay and we would put 2 in the back of the pickup and we could roll them off. Tom
 
How much hay can you buy for the price of a new(or used) round baler? Do you have inside storage for the bales? Have you contacted any local custom balers in your area? It "may" be better to buy a decent mower and rake and hire the baling done. I've had to do that the last 20 years or so and it worked out with cattle. I couldn't pencil out buying a decent baler for the number of cows and acres I cut twice a year compared to what I was paying for the custom guy(about 60 4x5 bales per year). Of course your mileage may vary ;-)
 
"[b:654c4848f0][i:654c4848f0]The hay will be used to feed the horse collection of my wife, (3) daughters & (2) granddaughters. My first inclination is I want 4x4 bales weighing in the 600lb range.[/i:654c4848f0][/b:654c4848f0]"

We made 4x4 bales for Nancy's horses for many years.

They were small enough for Nancy to move with hay hooks over a short distance.

They were also small enough to unroll for "[i:654c4848f0]hand feeding[/i:654c4848f0]" if necessary.

They are easy to push over to the flat side by hand for stacking in the hay barn.

Should be no problem for your "[i:654c4848f0]wife, (3) daughters & (2) granddaughters[/i:654c4848f0]".

Hope this helps.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7X1TPAUgf38" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
I personally like big big round bales for junkier hay, get it up fast and cheap, and then like small squares for good hay, can handle by hand and
seems to sell pretty good price.

The 4x4 round bale seems like a good compromise for you tho, and matches your tractor. I don?t know that I would want a bigger baler for that
hp.

Sounds like you have a plan.

Paul
 
He said the hiring and problems with that in not being able to even get the second cut made because no one would do the baling should have made you think twice about saying do something that made him want to go the other way. When you CANNOT get it DONE then the only option is get things and do it yourself.
 
A "neighbor" is not a custom operator in my opinion. I would think that putting up 5-600 bales before wasn't a one man job either. Doing it yourself is always a good thing up to the point you CANT do it on your own.
 
You can make a 4x4 with the same baler that can make a 4x6 bale. The Hesston 540 baler would be a great baler for you, we have the bigger Hesston 560, it's the first round baler I ever ran, its a easy round baler to learn how to run if you never run one before.
 
I don't think you'll ever regret owning your own baler. Be careful on the slopes until you get the feel of things. A light tractor and a loaded baler on a slope can sometimes give you an unpleasant surprise.
 

Thank you all for your replies and comments. I've really put some thought into this for the past couple weeks and I see a lot of advantages to this plan.

To answer a few of your questions.

No, 5-600 square bales was not a one-man job, however, things have changed over the past couple years. My Sons-in-law have aquired jobs @ the local GM plant (YAY!!) however, they both work 2nd shift and are most times unavailable for haying. My 2 older daughters are in their child-bearing years so that puts them outta commission every so often. The wife had a serious shoulder injury a few years ago and, w/age, it continues to weaken her. She is now relegated to driving the tractor to pull the hay wagon when we put up squares. That leaves me and my 17 year old daughter to load, unload and stack.

The neighbor, is actually my wife's cousin. Up until a couple years ago, there was a "community" haybine, rake and square baler used on both farms. He had taken care of most of the hay work and equipment since my F-I-L's passing. The equipment was getting older and he talked my M-I-L into letting him trade the older haybine in on a newer one that he purchased. He then bought a new rake, and round baler. Now, our side is no longer worth his time, although I pay him the prevailing rate, buy twine and fuel and he takes half the hay from our largest field. Others in my area are either busy w/ their own fields, trying to make a buck selling hay, or want to put your hay into the largest bale possible so they can get in-get out and move on to their next job.

The going rate to buy round bales around here is $50, no matter the size. I've bought (4) already this year and have (6) more on hold. There's $500. We paid that, plus hay to have our own cut, raked and baled. Plus, I've bought another $500 worth of squares. So I'm in $1500 already this year and I'm probably going to need more squares if the winter is as bad as they say it's going to be. Doesn't take long for that round baler to pay for itself @ this rate!!

I know where there's an old wheel rake I can pick up for $2-300 and a haybine for around $1000. I hope to be in the equipment for $5000 or less. In 3 years time, I'll have spent that in hay. Not to mention, I'd have to mow these fields anyway, why not put it into hay?

Once again, thanks for the comments and the bolstering of my confidence in this plan. I'm really looking forward to taking control of it.
 
A neighbor is the only custom operator there is. And he just does it to help out somebody, not because he wants to.
 
My neighbor had a small Hesston round baler that made a 4X4 bale had a rope to let the twine arm move as it wrapped the bale,did a good job and he pulled it with a NH tractor thats about
50 HP.
 
We have had a Case International 8430 which is the same as Hesston and makes a 4x4 bale. It does have electric tie and we like it awfully well. Makes a good bale that we sell to horse people who usually come and get 1 at a time with a P.U. truck. Ours has the arms in the rear that let the bale roll away from the baler when the rear gate is opened for ejecting the bale so it's pretty important to be sure where you're baler is pointing when you eject the bale. We've had some roll down into the woods (exactly where it didn't need to go), but with those arms you don't have to back away from the windrow every bale. We have some pretty good hills here in S.E. Ohio, mostly strip mines that have been reclaimed. I don't think you'll be disappointed getting your own round baler, just make sure they aren't worn out and someone wants to get rid of them because of it. Check the chains and have them at least operate it for you, and if it has a floor belt in my experience RUN don't walk away from it. Keith
 
Generally I think you're on the right track. I've never run a Hesston 530 but if it's a 4x4 hard core baler
it should be fine. The Brown will be shy on power to run any round baler but as long as you go with a hard
core baler you can tie the bale off and dump it at whatever size you find the engine lugging hard... Fixed
chamber balers dont allow you that option and generally take more power than you have even for a 4x4 baler.
I'd just suggest you try to find something that looks fairly serviceable without breaking the bank.

Rod
 

I run an NH 630, makes 4x4 hardcore bale, they can be bought somewhat cheap now, book calls for 35 PTO HP, I ran it on 42 PTO HP for years.

I had looked at the 530 / 8420 size machine and would lean to the 540 / 8430.

Your tractor will be fine for 27 acres of hay, especially 4x4 rounds. We did 110 acres one year all square bales with one 42 PTO HP tractor.
 

An 885 should handle a Hesston 530/540 or most other 4x4 balers fine. I've baled with a Cockshutt 30 (30HP) and a Hesston 5500 which makes a 5x5 bale, but I just made them smaller, about 3x5. Were it me I'd avoid a baler with a lot of electronics and go for a manual (electric) tie. I make over 200 5x5's a year, plus squares, and while the manual ties are slow, it sure beats square baling that much hay with very limited help.
 
i thought the new ideas and hesstons were the same? CaseIH too.. Forage Equipment made them for a few different companies.
 
(quoted from post at 14:16:24 11/05/18) i thought the new ideas and hesstons were the same? CaseIH too.. Forage Equipment made them for a few different companies.


New Idea &amp; IH had a partnership, some models carried over to CaseIH

CaseIH &amp; Hesston had a partnership "Hay &amp; Forage Industries" that carried on until New Holland and Case IH merged.

AGCO owning the Hesston brand brand engineered Hesston hay equipment to other agco names like Massey Ferguson &amp; Challenger.

You could buy the same basic round baler in CaseIH, MF, Hesston, Challenger colors/name, but not all at the same time.

Basically CaseIH has had New Idea, Hesston and New Holland equipment painted IH red.....
 

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