Opinions on New Holland 850 balers?

hey guys. Hope you can help me out.

I'm new to this stuff, I'm a generation removed from the farm and looking to get back in it. My family has 40 acres of hay land that we rent out but I'm wanting to invest in equipment and take over so I can make bales for my horses and maybe sell some of my extra without paying the middle man. Obviously I'm just starting out, I don't need anything two fancy.

Anyways, my brother sent me a link to an online auction in my province, and I found two 850 balers on there, unreserved and for dirt cheap. One is $50 but it says its missing a chain, the other is $120.

I wanna know how these balers are to run? Would I be in over my head trying to run one if I never ran baler before? Do they make good bales? Plug easily? Common problems? Are parts available for them? Easy to fix? Are there still manuals floating around for them?

Whatever information you can give me would be appreciated. Thanks!

They are 45 year old balers. There is 2 series of them. Early has single tensioner for floor chain and latches at top for apron chain later did away with latches and went to separate adjustment on floor chains Its highly unlikely that 2 would make one decent one because they wearout in same places.

40 acres is a sizable operation for hay.

Actually, it a little bit big for ‘cheap worn out old’ equipment and it’s kinda small for ‘reel new’ equipment.

You will have to be careful to be frugal but have reliable equipment, and the time to make the hay when it is ready, not when it fits into your schedule......


Those 850 balers are pretty old. They do a good job feeding, but those chain and bar balers do not make a very tight bale. They do well in grass, but they do knock a lot
of leaves off in alfalfa. There is a reason no one makes that style baler any more.....

If you are a handy mechanic you can probably keep them running forever, but if you are new to machinery you are taking on a big learning curve.

If I were looking at 40 acres and wanting to sell top quality hay, I would look for a newer baler that names a better bale. I think you might be in a $5000 budget area for a
good baler.

Now, I farm with an old Vermeer 605F baler, it is a belt baler but not much better than you are looking at. I bale about 25 acres of mostly grass hay and 5-10 acres of
straw. I also have a small square baler, do about half round and half square. My round baler cost $1600 quite a few years ago.

I’m looking for a better round baler, what I have is getting hard to maintain for the few acres I cover.

Good hat is about being right on time. A couple hours too soon or too late baling can really make poor hay out of good hay. Many the time in lucky to have both balers,
can pull out the other one if one breaks down, get the hay made. I’m in the humid north of minnesota, rain is always just around the corner you can’t wait to make hay
here and you can’t get the hay dry.

So, you need to look at your business model. Also what kind of hay, and your location - the more humid East, or the bone dry west. Do you get one, two, 4 cuttings of
hay a year. And so forth. These answers might change my opinion on what you need, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Scrimping on a very well worn baler might cost you a lot in the long run?

Paul

40 acres is a lot of hay to put up? I cut, rake and bale more than that in one day,, I put up 700 plus acres a year myself,, used to put up 3500 acres but I had two helpers then, lol to me a 850 was a good baler when new,, they will bale about anything and start a bale easy,, we sold them new,, that said they are a nightmare to keep the chains oiled so they do not wear fast, the floor chains in them poke holes all the way through the bale as they are being made,, no problem if you do not store them outside,, here you can buy a all belt baler for 500-1000 bucks,, and up of course,, I ran four different NH chain balers you could not give me a brand new one today just my opinion

I've been using a NH850 for over a decade now and like them. I have 2 of them one I used each year and a back up just in case I need it. If you buy one buy an owners manual ASAP. Need a 55HP tractor or bigger and even then some do not cut it. I pull mine with an Oliver S88 and it handles it just fine. I did have a Faramll 450 which is rated at 55HP but it could not handle the NH850. First year I baled with the NH850 I ran to slow and made bales my Ford 841S could not lift due to being to heavy. Not good when the rear tires come up off the ground.

Are those just the opening bids? They're worth more than that for scrap. But still, I'd consider them parts machines unless it's stated they're ready to bale. I know people like them, but there are so many other balers out there for similar money that will do a better job, with less head ache. There's a reason they don't make them anymore.
At the very least, don't buy an old chain baler without knowing that it's in usable condition.

Find a belt baler, those floor chains will
RIP so much hay out and throw it on the
ground behind you, would pay to get a new
economy baler compared to losing all that
hay plus the new is more of a chance of
getting baling done when it needs done not
breaking down and then having rained on
hay!

I'm all for using old equipment but when it comes to a baler I'd look for something fairly reliable. Of course anything can break, but the last thing you want to do is be at the shop trying to fix the baler while a rain storm is moving in on your hay that's ready to bale. One lost crop of 40 acres will pay for a pretty decent baler.

That is one reason I do only small areas at a time and also have a NH271 square baler and a 2nd NH850 as back up just in case

Find a worn out 4x5 round baler and make it work.