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Equipment for small hay-making operation

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G

Good Dog

Member
I am 74 years of age and will retire at the end of this year. I am retired USMC and will retire as an EE. I have about 40 acres of hay on the place that the neighbor has been making. i want to make it next hay season.
I have 4 tractors: 1937 J D Unstyled 'A', 1946 J D Styled 'B', 1953 FARMALL Super 'C', and a 1953 FARMALL Super 'H', all in good to excellent condition.
I also have a New Holland Mod #66 baler in good shape. I just purchased a nice 16 ft hay wagon. I am looking at a nice New Holland hay rake that I will most likely purchase.
I don't want to cut the hay with a sickle-bar mower and turn it. I would like to purchase a small mower-conditioner (prefer a New Holland). What model do you all recommend?
Thanks, I am all excited about making the hay next season.
Joe, South-Central PA
 
JD 1207 M/C,if you want used equipment. If you have a tractor with 3 point hitch, and want zero problems with your mower, google carter and carter, in TN, and look at their drum mowers. The Drum mower can run twice as fast, as the M/C and the 5-1/2' one I got, was about $3K, 3 years ago.
 
Since you already have some New Holland equipment, you obviously like them. I just cut my first hay with a Mower/conditioner. (Been using a sickle bar for the last 40+ years) I found a good deal on a VERY low use New Holland 489 moco. That may be old technology, but it does an excellent job and only set me back $900. (spare parts, manuals included)

I've pulled it with a 40hp tractor with great results.
 
Little problem with the 1207. The little Farmall is too small to pull it easily, and none of his bigger tractors have enough hydraulic pressure to lift it. That style of JD mower 1207,1209, and later versions of those models used a skinny little single acting cylinder that looked like something off a snowplow. They required a high pressure hydraulic system to lift them. I tried to use my neighbor's 1207 with my Farmall M, and found that out the hard way. Other brands,NH, Hesston,etc. use a standard agricultural cylinder, and you can use a larger diameter cylinder to make up for the low pressure in an older tractor.
 
Honestly, making the hay is the easy part, if you have a thrower for that baler. And one wagon is a little light, as you're not going to be able to make much time with that 66.

It's getting it stacked in the barn that is getting to be the rough part. Hard to find people that don't mind a little sweat and hard work. Don't know what your current yield is, but for 40 acres it'll probably be north of 1400-1600 40# bales.
 
That Super H will handle a 9' mower-conditioner (pulled a Case that is the same as the Heston PT-10 with a 1941 H) I would prefer a 7' unit tho. And make sure what ever model you look at the hydrolicks just lift the header and not the complete machine as The John Deere mentioned does as you do not have enough hydrolicks to handle one like that. That baler is a very good model and your SH will handle it with no problem. What would make it even better a baler is if you could find a kicker or thrower for it, No need to have heat stroke or a heart atack because of loading all those bales by hand. Had the heat stroke back in 79 and can still tell it to this day (Grandpa and cousin both were hit with heat exaustion same year) (Next year we had a kicker and pulled it and wagon with a JD B that is the same power as the 41H) and just now being able to get back to using the computor from a heart attack with 5 bypasses. I know of a kicker that I think could be put on that baler that is for sale. Either way plan on getting at least 5 wagons for the hay and any 2-3 ton capacity wagon is heavy enough for the baling. Used a lot of the wood frame-axle gears so wagons that will work good are on the cheap side. If you could get ten wagons then that would be good so that you could tarp them till you could get them unloaded before the next cutting at a rate of perhaps a load every other day so you do not overdo yourself. That 37A will handle that baler with ease, just need to use the sleeve adapter to change from the 1 1/8" pto to the 1 3/8" pto, do not try to use the extension adapter as that will bust up the PTO driveline.Grew up with a 38 JD A, 41 Farmall H, 46 JD B, 49 JD B and a 44 2N Ford.
 
I agree with the others- 7' MoCo is probably about all the H will want, and I'd stick with New Holland.

The big problem- 40 acres is a lot of hay. Can you get a crew? 3 guys, and you pulling the wagon, could probably get it up and stacked in 3 days. Or better yet, are you in an area where you could sell it out of the field? That can be kind of fun- all the horsey gals come with their horse trailers and attractive friends, and you stand by the gate and count bales and $$$.
 
I am SE Pa. 40 acres should make 4000 bales or more in the first cutting. I think that much hay will be too much for your equipment. I would try a few acres first and see how it goes.
Josh
 
When I farmed my Case baler had a Wisconsin hand crank motor for power.no pto worries that way.Worked real good if you take good year around care of the motor. A self propelled New Holland mower/conditioner should not be hard to find.Lots better than a sickle mower and a wheel rake. You're about 4-5 wagons shy I think.I would find an out of the feild market if you can.40 acres is a lot of hay.You are not young and health issues would be a posibility I would think. Better think this deal thru.Good luck to you.JH
 
I pull a 9' NH 461 haybine with my Farmall H with no problems in 1st or 2nd gear in grass hay, haven't tried to go faster because the haybine is old and I don't know if it could take it. The H has enough power even going up a pretty steep hill. It seems to me like the baler gives the H more work than the haybine, mostly.
Zach
 
Do you have a market for it? That's a lot of bales to stack if you can't sell it off the wagons. Then you still have to sell them, and handle them again.

We tried the horse hay business for a few years. No thanks. We are going to try steers now feeding them pasture and hay.

I will make little bales if someone orders them, but the rest is getting round baled. My wife and I are 40-50 years old. I can't imagine doing small bales in my 70's. Good on you if that's what you like to do.
 
I agree with CJK, we only do enough squares to meet our own needs and fill orders for squares ordered in advance and picked up on haying days. Just don't have the space to store them and don't like to handle them. I round bale the rest. I sort the rounders into horse hay and cattle hay. Lot of horse folks around here going to rounds in the winter, just easier to feed/manage. I am 55, and cannot even think of being 20 years older and handling them in the heat. Way too much work for not a lot more money.

John
 
Not knocking you but have some old small equipment & a lot of hay. I cut with a new holland 451 sickle & bale with JD 620 & NH 273 baler. My stuff is old too & I'm 28 years younger, it's tough in the heat lifting heavy hay bales & you can't wait because of t-storms. I'm only doing a few acres, not 40, hope you realize what your taking on??
 
I live in north central MD about 12 miles south of Gettysburg PA. I also do small squares and round hay bales on about 40 acres. No offense intended as I do not know your level of experience in hay baling, but that is a LOT of square bales of hay for you to do using a NH 66 and a wagon, and the hard labor needed to stack in the barn may be too much for you unless you have several young hands that will be there when needed and can handle the heat and hard work. It seems every year I do my squares it's record heat, like this past year around Memorial Day it was close to 100 F. You should really plan out your farming goals and understand that square bales are a lot of hard labor and not all fun. Not trying be a bummer here or preach, I enjoy hay baling, but you should consider round baling too, or just square bale maybe 10 acres and see how you can manage. You will need a pretty large barn also to store the squares. Not sure the quality of your fields, but a typical mixed grass hay field in S PA usually approx 75-100 squares/ac. With rounds you can place end to end in the field and they will keep all year just fine. I find it easier to sell rounds to the "cow people" than than squares to the "horse people" IMHO, no slight intended to anyone -- we have both kinds in my family and friends. But, stacking and transporting rounds requires trailer/loader, at least no hard labor and storage is easier.

You can find good used NH mower conditioner like a 489 pretty easily in S PA. good luck.
 
We have in younger days put thru a 40 acre hay cutting 3 times a year and it is a lot of hard work even if you are young. If you have different types of hay that don't come on at same time it is a lot easier Like alfalfa to start then Red Clover-timothy, then back to alfalfa then red clover and back to the alfalfa. That is why I said to find a thrower for the baler and at least 10 wagons. If he could get 20 wagons that should get him about halfway thru the first cutting. He should be able to find decent wagons for $500 or less that would work for him and one load not rained on and spoiled would pay for one wagon and a tarp to cover it as I dought he has that much barn room even if he could sell it off the wagon. And remember I said about the heat stroke in handling the hay. I was in my 20's when I hot it and grandpa was in his 60's and the cousin was still in his teens.
 
If you have the help, squares is the way to go, problem is old tractors and old balers. I round bale everything I got, and sell to both horse and cow people. If I had help, I would square bale the best, and round the rest. Horse people generally have an attitude about round bales, but I find that if you make little bales, like a Hesston 530, and Sleeve them with slip on bonnets, you can sell all you make. If you explain to them, that once a horse gets a mouth full of round bales, with no cut stems, to poke them in the nose, like square bales do, they will generally try one. Very few walk and don't come back. When the Horsey set look down their noses at me, and say I can get those bales for $10 cheaper in Westminster, I just give them directions to Westminster, and wish them luck!
 
In SE PA, there ain't no such thing as a decent wagon for $500 or less. I've watched steel-sided thrower racks with rotten wood floors bring $1800+!
 
My hay making equipment is mostly museum vintage and we baled around 10k bales last year.This year may be down a bit as couple more fields into grain.Most of the time it was just my son and I,sometimes the wife helps if she is not working. When Dad was alive I dont think there was too many jobs he enjoyed more than making hay. Did it right up till he was in his mid 80's.In my opinion you need enuff wagons to bale what you have cut without having to unload. It is nice if you have enuff shelter to push all your loads in once they are on the wagons, as usualy around here we run pretty late getting last load baled, so you dont feel much like putting hay off! Our main baler is a compact 65 NH which I think is the same vintage as your 66? It is one hell of a baler, I have had John Deere 24T, 2 different 273 NH and presently have a 310 NH which does not get used unless we have enuff help to run 2 balers.I would not trade the old 65 for a brand new baler, and I am serious! It not only works good and rarely misses a knot,but the slightly smaller bale it produces is so much easier to handle, it makes the difference between being tired at the end of the day v/s done right in! One thing I would suggest to you is invest in a decent tractor with power steering and a good seat. When you are doing that much hay old tractors become real old real quick if you know what I mean. I run a 2-70 White on the 479 hay bine, and a John Deere 710 on the little baler. On real Hot days we put a sun shade on the tractor and trade off driving v/s building the load every few rounds. Also keep lots of cold lemonade at the end of the field, and sometimes even set out some barrels of water to cool down with if heat is extreme.Heat stroke is a real possibility if you are not carefull.Good luck. there is not a lot of things more satisfying in the farming profession than baling up some nice hay.
 
I also have a 65. Bale thousands of bales per year. You are right. Best baler there ever was. My customers like the small bales. And I have more bales to sell. I heard that Ford use to make a compact. Anyone know?
 
in NY $1800 is a great deal for a rotted-floor steel sided kicker wagon
seen rough 8X16 wood sided kicker wagons bring $1200 at auction recently
 
I am not talking about those kind of wagons as the loads they haul are way to much for behind that tractor and baler. I am talking about the running gears of the 30's and 40's and early 50's that will hold stacked 165 bale from that baler that can be had for from if he can do a little work $150 each and he could build a wood bed rack on top of the old grain bed and have wagons that would be the size he would need for that baler and for 3 or 4 loads a year they do not have to be anything fancy. I have a wood wagon gear here that I had to just put a toung and coupling pole in and skein wheels that would work good for him and I paid $35 fore at a consighment sale, have anouther just like it a friend got given to him just the pole and toung and a tire that I had here. Gears that would work can be had made out of old auto axles for less than a hundred dollars. Not feeling good enough or I could figure out the exaust of the bed of the size and type he would need to make them new. Las year buying for the Amish friends bought a very good lighter weight gear on very good tires that they will throw away for $165. Two other complete gear and beds for $250 each, needed a bit of work but if he cannot handle that work then he cannot handle the haymaking.
 
I had a N.H. 65.. after I rebuilt it I used it for many years. smaller bales...sale barn manager use to call them "woman" bales.. I laughed all the way to the bank cause I"d get same money for smaller bales. Folk liked tossing them..esp woman folk..I gave it to a buddy of mine and bought a 273. Which is also a great baler.. Its funny that when people call up wanting a 75 lb bale.. I have to laugh.. I tell them they havent thrown many 75 bales to know what 75 bales feel like... ha ha mine usually are 60-65 thats a good bale.. 18x18x36..
 
You definitely need to consider wear on your equipment. Depending on your yield, you will probably make anywhere from 6000-12000 square bales a year. That is figuring 75-100 bales per acre, and 2-4 cuttings per year. You don't want to strain your tractor pulling something huge for that long a period.

SF
 
Leroy, wagons like that don't show up much anymore back east. We also don't get the low prices on stuff that you might see in the midwest. I watched an old David Bradley running gear with 5-bolt 16 inch wheels, fair tires, some weld repairs, sell for $450 at a consignment sale this past winter. A Central Tractor (probably made by UFT) 6-bolt with bad 15" tires and a half-rotten 8x16 flat deck went for $750 same sale.
 
Joe,

Are you talking about bringing your equipment out to the hay field and "helping" your neighbor/tenant with the haying, or do you mean replacing your neighbor and putting up all fourty acres yourself?

As you already know, cutting and raking hay are two of the more enjoyable jobs on a farm. Baling and stacking hay on a hot day are two of the worst jobs. You may be able to negotiate something out with your neighbor where you cut and maybe rake the crop for a fee or a higher percentage of the crop while he continues to bale and stack it.

You may need a larger tractor with a live PTO and the power to handle a larger mower/conditioner to get the crop down in a timely manner. Say a Farmall 400, or Oliver 77 or 88, or John Deere 60 or 70 or newer. A sunshade or an umbrella on your tractor would make cutting and raking even more pleasant.

At 74 how much longer do you want to do heavy stressful work like throwing hay bales around? Do you have willing and reliable labor to help you? Fourty acres is alot of hay to put up in square bales, 6,000 to 12,000 bales at 50 to 75 pounds each is 150 tons to 450 tons of hay. Those hay bales all need to be handled twice if you can sell it off the rack and five times if you have to store it before you sell it or feed it. It takes a crew of four and reliable equipment to put up 1000 bales in a long afternoon. Heat, impending storms and equipment breakdowns add a lot of stress to a job that isn't much fun to begin with.

I don't doubt that you can do it, but why risk a heart attack or worse for a hobby. Talk to your tenant to see what works best for both of you.

Good Luck and enjoy your retirement.
 
Thanks for the reply. I have learned a lot from all of the responses that I have received and have changed my approach to making 40 acres of hay. Even at age 74 some of us think that we are 10 foot tall and bullet-proof. ;-)
J. R. Greathouse, ColUSMCRet
Just a dumb-stubborn U.S. Marine
 
Thanks for the reply. I have learned a lot from all of the responses that I have received and have changed my approach to making 40 acres of hay. Even at age 74 some of us think that we are 10 foot tall and bullet-proof. ;-)
J. R. Greathouse, ColUSMCRet
Just a dumb-stubborn U.S. Marine
 
Leroy,
Thank you very much for the detailed answer to my inquiry abut baling hay. I quess that the last thing that we "Marines" like to admit is that we have gotten to old to keep up with the troops! ;-)
I talked with the farmer that is making hay off of the 40 acres now and he very pleasantly said that he would rig up some equipment to my FARMALL 'H' and my JOHBN DEERE 'B' and let me get into the fields and "play" (awful nice of him). I mentioned to him that you knew of a kicker for the New Holland #66 baler that was for sale. He thought that I should inquire more details about it. Where are you located (State, town) and what is the price of the kicker?
Looks like you grew up with some of the tractors that I grew up with. The 38 JD 'A', FARMALL 'H', JD 'B'. We also had a FARMALL 'BN' that I used to use to rake and haul small hay wagons. Those were the "GOD OLD DAYS, I LOVED THEM"

You can call me at 814-269-9300 xt215.


Respectfully,
Joe Greathouse, ColUSMCRet
 
Glad you listened, we want you around a while and you just may be able to help some other person. Don't think I will even make it to 74 as at 67 just had after aperently several heart attacks 5 bypasses.
 
We have 20 acres of hay and the wife has 5 horses and 2 ponies. As a retiree with heart issues I do note the following:
Smaller bales are easier to handle than bigger bales.
A MF 175 can haul a redone Hesston 1130 mower conditioner in good order, and handle a Deere 336 with a bale ejector and a kicker wagon.
Dry hay weighs less than almost dry hay and keeps better.
Proprionic acid can help almost dry hay not to mold.
If you're going to put up more than 200 or 300 bales at a time you better have some people there to help to handle all of that.

As they used to say in the Army, Drive On.
 
Leroy,
Thanks for the reply and the kind words. My Granpap would say "don't worry about your age, it just makes you older".

I had inquired about the "kicker" that you mentioned in one of your emails, is it still available and where on earth is it?

Have a Nice Day,
Joe
 
Leroy,
Thanks for the reply and the kind words. My Granpap would say "don't worry about your age, it just makes you older".

I had inquired about the "kicker" that you mentioned in one of your emails, is it still available and where on earth is it?

Have a Nice Day,
Joe
 
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