Pine straw equipment suggestions

As to pine straw the long leaf pine is a heavy producer of needles each year. In the South the needles are used for mulching shrubs and beds. A small bale runs about $5 and they get hard to find by mid-summer. A well planted pine field will generate as much money from pine straw if harvested properly as the timber will bring.

Therefore a planted stand of timber produces income for the years it is growing. The numbers I was running have it close to $100-$300/acre annually. This is net profit. All the costs are only harvest costs, no planting and little maintenance each year.

I have my pine stand (25 acres) setup on a three yr. rotation where I will harvest every third row for pulpwood. The remaining rows are one pulpwood and one saw timber. The harvested pulpwood rows will be replanted the following winter with new bare root seedlings. Seedlings average .10/tree and the planter can be borrowed from either the local State Forest office or Nat'l Forest office is one is close. NOTE: it takes approx. 10 yrs. to get the timber to pulpwood stage, longer for saw timber.
HTH

I looked into this at one time and it is way on the backburner for me.

I finally settled on NH Model 268 with Super Sweeper. That way I could use it both for pine straw and regular hay. From what I could determine and learn it's a dern good baler. Parts and manuals are still readily available from NH.

Biggest problem I think you run into with baling pine straw is getting the windrow heavy enough to bale. If the trees are properly planted you should be a get a rake thru there. If not you are looking at some very manual efforts or figure out something to do with an ATV. Either way the pine straw will most likely still have to be moved out for baling as the 268 is a typical baler NOT an "in-line" baler.

I have no real experience with owning a baler but I recommend that you check the plunger for slack around the sides of the plunger. On the NH 268 this can adjusted to remove the excess. Check the knotters and bill hooks for excess wear and slack. It takes new parts to get the slack out of them. Trip the baler and spin it over a few rounds by hand to check the timing and for hard spots. With no hay in it the baler should turn over and go thru the tying motions with just hand pressure. Others more experienced than I can speak to best balers.

Also check www.agriquip.com for small equipment.

HTH

• Shep's Pinestraw post