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JD68: To start with I never said you could bale for hours on end putting out 1000 to 1200 per hour. I suggested that on numerous ocasions I have seen my S-69 tieing every 3rd stroke of the plunger. I believe if I remember correctly that baler did 72 strokes per min. Now that would be 24 bales per min or 1440 per hour. Now I realize you will not maintain a bale every 3 strokes of plunger on a consistant basis, nor will you do this baling on a wagon. I also never suggested that I did bale 1000 to 1200 per hour. I merely suggested it should be possible on short term and I still believe that. If you are asuming that the 4500 bales per day on the wagon with thrower was my basis for suggesting 1000 to 1200 bales per hour that is not the case. The 4500 bales per day happened about 6 times in the 17 years we owned the S-69, and I can tell you they were 9 to 10 hour baling days. Not often you get those kind of days. I suspect our average baling with thrower onto wagon was in the order of 400 to 500 bales per hour. We had 22' wagons that held between 150 and 175 bales. Three loads per hour quite normal including hitching time. I did say 2500 per day was a slow day, the average was 3000 to 3500 per day. I will give you another little tip. My dad maintained that baler. every morning he serviced it and one of the tasks was removing the plunger knife every morning for sharpening. He also adjusted if necessary. Until the big roll baler came along hay making was never a high horse power job. You can go all the way back to pitching it on by hand, the hayloader, baling on ground, slide shutes, stookers, acumulators and bale throwers. Anyway you look at it your big demand was man power. If you have the manpower to handle the hay, a 40 hp tractor will bale all your going to do.
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