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The point here is to remember 5 acres.... The balers you list are way overkill. Work fine, but why spend $1-3000 when $3-500 will do just fine. I have a NH 270,good baler, slightly slower through-put. I bale 12-15 acres of alfalfa & 15 acres of ditch hay, 2000 bales of straw with it every year. No need for a bigger faster baler for small acreage! Any NH baler from the 68 on up will do you fine, if it is in good serviceable condition. JD also made good older balers. I am not familiar with them, as the NH270 has put out about 100,000 bales in my lifetime, with very few parts needed. Both JD & MH figured out the knotters fist & best, so these are often the best older balers to buy. Do _NOT_ concern yourself about packer forks and such, as on guy suggested. It's a non-issue for less than a full-time hay operation. Basically, any NH baler that is newer than the wad-board system will do well for you on under 15 acres of hay. Side rakes, any of those will do you fine. If it were me, this is the area I would skimp on if I were on a budget. Sometimes you can pick up a cheap rake for $50. They don't have the speed or capacity a real hay producer needs, but they rake 20 acres of hay just fine. The very old 4-wheel rakes work, but are a pain to back up with & manuver. I have a NH 55, they go about $300 here, and work fine, any part you need is available. The NH 56 has the right wheel tucked in behind the basket, it would follow ground contures a bit better, that might be worth an extra $200 to you, but don't worry about it on less than 20 acres. You do not need to spend over $1000 on a side rake unless you do a few 100 acres of hay, that would be a waste of money. Look for one that is solid & will work for years, and buy cheap for 5 acres. I'm not familiar with NH mowers, but it seems you got good advise on those. If you are putting up grass or a grass mix, you could very, very easily get by with a simple bar mower, they sell for $150-450. There may be a time or two when your hay doesn't dry down as quickly & catches some rain, but really, for 5 acres, you are looking at way overkill on the hay mowers. But, if you got the money, you are looking at good ones. Now please, don't tell us you were planning to pull all this with a Ford 8N..... ;) ;) ;) Just joshin' with you. :) But, mower conditioners & the bigger balers do take a bigger tractor, you'll need the horses & weight to pull those if you go big. Oh, locally people HATE wire tie balers, metal in the fields & in the feed, no one here wants that. It would be hard to sell wire-tied here. I have never even seen a wire-tie, and do not see wire available to make the bales. Good old sisal is king here. Plastic is not liked either, as it never, never, never goes away. It stays in the environment, plugging up your mower, wrapping around your wheel bearings & wrecking them, etc. You can run plastic in a twine baler, but might take a bit better settings on the knotters. (Plastic is used a lot for big round bales, stored outside...) On 15 acres or less, any good-condition older NH or JD baler, a sickle mower (or conditioner if you can afford & have alfalfa), and a NH 56 (or cheap if you are on a budget) rake will make your hay year in & year out. --->Paul
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