I was lent a New Holland Rollabar 57 Hay Rake by an older neighbor. He still bales but no longer cuts nor windrows. I understand he bought this rake new. After seeing it working behind my Massey Ferguson 50 the neighbor was a little misty eyed and suggested it should stay at my small farm. A day later he came by and sold it to me for $400 worth of bartered hay I had cut and windrowed and he had baled. The frame is New Holland Red and the five rollabars and inner frame is a pale New Holland Yellow. I bought and replaced 25 broken or mising tangs ($2 each at the local dealer), and it is not the pull type I see most normally but is one that attaches to the three point hitch for lifting and pulling. It has two rear drag wheels, and is PTO driven, with a left hand delivery. I am on a very old and (now)small Missouri Ozarks farm (20 acres/was 160 acres) with similar small farms of up to 80 acres surrounding me, some cut over the past 30 years from this place's original hay fields and pastures. All have 5 to 20 acre hay pastures and the old tyme bailers that once came by to cut and bale no longer come by or are interested in the neighboring small fields of fescue hay. Most of my neighbors are older and retired and no longer farm and have given me the right to hay their fields. I have the original homestead which included when I bought it last January all the original horse drawn equipment (some with trees growing up through them) and some newer tractor drawn stuff from the 1920's. I have augmented the antiques with a Massey Ferguson 50, A Ford 501 Snake Charmer Sickle Bar mower, the Rollabar Rake, and a New Holland 273 baler (PTO driven, twine tie), an old and dangerous woods brush hog, and a Ford 917L Flail Mower. I am told this place with no outside hay will support 10 Cow/calf uints. I am building a small barn, 20x60 equipment/loafing shed and small shop. (I suspect the previous ones either fell down or blew away in some Tornado.) The sale of 10 yearlings per year at auction would (I think) support me, as I have a simple life with no debt. What problems am I going to encounter as a middle-aged novice (who is rather handy) with the above equipment? I am told that bailing in Missouri is rather tricky because of the humidity. Any suggestions or tricks that a seasoned person can give me concerning the equipment that I have asembled? Thanks!
Eaglewerks (Bill)
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