Vermeer 7030 Trash?

[mml373]

My local Vermeer dealer told me it would be about $12,000 to repair my 7030 cutter. It was in a field for years, not used, and has some welding repairs made by previous owner(s). The cover, alone, was thousands for just the part, and given the welding done wouldn't really fit well anyway.

The cost of new cutters is somewhere around $16k for something similar (9' disc).

So the question becomes what would be an affordable cutter for a 35-acre small farm. A $16k expense for a farm this size cut 2 to 3 times a year just doesn't make sense to me. I could hire out the work but, honestly, had hoped to go into small hay work myself someday. There is some room to justify the $16k expense but it is a steep entry price and I'll have to hire out this year's cut, for sure.

Interested in folks' thoughts.

 

[Jim.ME]

My local Vermeer dealer told me it would be about $12,000 to repair my 7030 cutter. It was in a field for years, not used, and has some welding repairs made by previous owner(s). The cover, alone, was thousands for just the part, and given the welding done wouldn't really fit well anyway.

The cost of new cutters is somewhere around $16k for something similar (9' disc).

So the question becomes what would be an affordable cutter for a 35-acre small farm. A $16k expense for a farm this size cut 2 to 3 times a year just doesn't make sense to me. I could hire out the work but, honestly, had hoped to go into small hay work myself someday. There is some room to justify the $16k expense but it is a steep entry price and I'll have to hire out this year's cut, for sure.

Interested in folks' thoughts.

Are you planning to run it with your MF 135 or do you have a bigger tractor?

 

[mml373]

Are you planning to run it with your MF 135 or do you have a bigger tractor?

Workmaster 120. That said, wondering if I could go with a smaller cutter, sell the WM120, and just use the MF135. I love the New Holland, but that payment every year....sheesh. It does a lot but I could do "most", and without a payment.

Perhaps a new sickle bar cutter for the MF135? Then cutting, raking, and baling could literally ALL be done with that 135.

This stuff is ALL so expensive as to be, literally, embarrassing. It's like they don't want anyone to become a farmer...quite seriously.

 

[paul]

It’s a shame farm auctions have dwindled away so rapidly the past 5 years. They were a wonderful source of good used farm machinery as I started farming, and until a few years ago.

Can still find a few auctions now and then, and of course Craig has his list, but it’s not like it was.

Much like buying a used car or truck, you can get a good value by buying farm stuff that is used but still in good shape.

I just bought a Tedder for 3/4 of a new one. Mine was never used, the fella bought it and passed away the pto is still coated in plastic. Need to look for deals….

The NH disc mower I bought a few years ago was similar deal, 9-10 foot, new they were going 12K, this one was less than 9k the owner bought it and passed away, he cut 5 acres with it. Paint was on the blades yet.

Found a Vermeer 5x5.5 round baler for 13k 2 years ago, a 2013 model, sharp paint not many bales through it. It was traded in to a NH dealer for a baler with net wrap, it is in great shape the fella just wanted net wrap he wasn’t getting rid of a lemon…. I’m fine with twine.

The 75 NH Workmaster 3 years ago was 32k, 1100 hours, nice economy tractor, it can pull all of the hay equipment above and can load the bales.

Found a 6 bale round bale trailer on the list of Craig, for $1700. You can pull it to the field drop the 3pt load the bales on it back in raise the hitch and go with the bales.

Pretty nice hay setup. I could sell most of it for close to what I paid for it, well within reason. Not too bad on cost. If you shop careful.

Paul

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

My local Vermeer dealer told me it would be about $12,000 to repair my 7030 cutter. It was in a field for years, not used, and has some welding repairs made by previous owner(s). The cover, alone, was thousands for just the part, and given the welding done wouldn't really fit well anyway.

The cost of new cutters is somewhere around $16k for something similar (9' disc).

So the question becomes what would be an affordable cutter for a 35-acre small farm. A $16k expense for a farm this size cut 2 to 3 times a year just doesn't make sense to me. I could hire out the work but, honestly, had hoped to go into small hay work myself someday. There is some room to justify the $16k expense but it is a steep entry price and I'll have to hire out this year's cut, for sure.

Interested in folks' thoughts.

Is all 35 acres in hay? It's going to be a bit of work to get it done with a 7' sickle bar, but it has been done before & done a lot. If you want a new mower, Rowse makes a good one. You get a choice between New Holland tech & IH..... 7' or 9' bar. Or you can go with an all Massey outfit, keeping the equipment the same "vintage" as your 135. MF did make some decent balers at one point.

I don't have a new mower from them, but a new cutter bar on my old IH mower. The thing cuts like a dream & they're great to deal with.

Also.... what type of hay & what you intend to do with it?

It's like they don't want anyone to become a farmer...quite seriously.

And yeah.... it's shaping up to look that way.

Mike

 

[rrlund]

Is all 35 acres in hay? It's going to be a bit of work to get it done with a 7' sickle bar, but it has been done before & done a lot. If you want a new mower, Rowse makes a good one. You get a choice between New Holland tech & IH..... 7' or 9' bar. Or you can go with an all Massey outfit, keeping the equipment the same "vintage" as your 135. MF did make some decent balers at one point.

I don't have a new mower from them, but a new cutter bar on my old IH mower. The thing cuts like a dream & they're great to deal with.

Also.... what type of hay & what you intend to do with it?


And yeah.... it's shaping up to look that way.

Mike

Who are "they"?

 

[mml373]

Is all 35 acres in hay? It's going to be a bit of work to get it done with a 7' sickle bar, but it has been done before & done a lot. If you want a new mower, Rowse makes a good one. You get a choice between New Holland tech & IH..... 7' or 9' bar. Or you can go with an all Massey outfit, keeping the equipment the same "vintage" as your 135. MF did make some decent balers at one point.

I don't have a new mower from them, but a new cutter bar on my old IH mower. The thing cuts like a dream & they're great to deal with.

Also.... what type of hay & what you intend to do with it?


And yeah.... it's shaping up to look that way.

Mike

I am leaning toward buying a new sickle bar cutter. I can fix it, myself, and it is a lot more reliable than a disc cutter/turtles and a heap of a lot less expensive to own.
The tractor that will run it is 60 years old and runs just fine. The balers are 55 years old as well as the rake. ALL of these work just fine and will hay my property just fine.

We need to get back to affordable and reliable ag. The fact 60 year old equipment is more dependable and gets the job done on a farm, for a lot less cost, is an embarrassing testament to what ag has become these days. Dealers and manufacturers think we're all suckers and, to a large extent, they may be correct.

I'll talk to the service tech tomorrow about the cutter but it seems evident to me that modern ag is just a business designed to break anyone but the well to do, large farmers who don't have to worry about building their farm from scratch, completely out of pocket.

 

[paul]

I am leaning toward buying a new sickle bar cutter. I can fix it, myself, and it is a lot more reliable than a disc cutter/turtles and a heap of a lot less expensive to own.
The tractor that will run it is 60 years old and runs just fine. The balers are 55 years old as well as the rake. ALL of these work just fine and will hay my property just fine.

We need to get back to affordable and reliable ag. The fact 60 year old equipment is more dependable and gets the job done on a farm, for a lot less cost, is an embarrassing testament to what ag has become these days. Dealers and manufacturers think we're all suckers and, to a large extent, they may be correct.

I'll talk to the service tech tomorrow about the cutter but it seems evident to me that modern ag is just a business designed to break anyone but the well to do, large farmers who don't have to worry about building their farm from scratch, completely out of pocket.

I understand and often sound about the same comparing modern ag machines to the more dependable years of past……

But there are trade offs in sickle bar vs disc mower.

Maybe we kind of forget how much more mowing we do with the disc mower. It doesn’t plug much, and you drive a lot faster. That’s getting so much more done in an hour. End up mowing more acres, or better time to get the hay raked timely, etc.

Sounds like yours was already beat up and abused before you got it? Not really fair to say a machine that was already broken and welded up poorly isn’t dependable?

Paul

 

[rrlund]

Have you considered a drum mower? Same concept as a disc mower, but cheaper.

 

[mml373]

I understand and often sound about the same comparing modern ag machines to the more dependable years of past……

But there are trade offs in sickle bar vs disc mower.

Maybe we kind of forget how much more mowing we do with the disc mower. It doesn’t plug much, and you drive a lot faster. That’s getting so much more done in an hour. End up mowing more acres, or better time to get the hay raked timely, etc.

Sounds like yours was already beat up and abused before you got it? Not really fair to say a machine that was already broken and welded up poorly isn’t dependable?

Paul

Nope, totally understand what you're saying about time savings with the newer stuff but there are concerns about durability with the disc given design and the abundant presence of rocks in my area. The sickle bars flex and are more tolerant, more easily fixed by owner vs having to transport the disc mowers, from what I gather.

My main gripe is cost. I don't have anyone to guide me on buying used, so wary of buying used equipment for reasons such as described here (I knew this machine would need work and perhaps not be salvageable, up front).

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Have you considered a drum mower? Same concept as a disc mower, but cheaper.

My suggestion as well. The prices have gone up in recent years but there are still a lot of Eastern European machines being sold by small dealerships. You just have to find them.

Drum mowers have low HP requirements, are simple, and you can move right along with them just like a disc mower.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

It’s a shame farm auctions have dwindled away so rapidly the past 5 years. They were a wonderful source of good used farm machinery as I started farming, and until a few years ago.

Can still find a few auctions now and then, and of course Craig has his list, but it’s not like it was.

Much like buying a used car or truck, you can get a good value by buying farm stuff that is used but still in good shape.

I just bought a Tedder for 3/4 of a new one. Mine was never used, the fella bought it and passed away the pto is still coated in plastic. Need to look for deals….

The NH disc mower I bought a few years ago was similar deal, 9-10 foot, new they were going 12K, this one was less than 9k the owner bought it and passed away, he cut 5 acres with it. Paint was on the blades yet.

Found a Vermeer 5x5.5 round baler for 13k 2 years ago, a 2013 model, sharp paint not many bales through it. It was traded in to a NH dealer for a baler with net wrap, it is in great shape the fella just wanted net wrap he wasn’t getting rid of a lemon…. I’m fine with twine.

The 75 NH Workmaster 3 years ago was 32k, 1100 hours, nice economy tractor, it can pull all of the hay equipment above and can load the bales.

Found a 6 bale round bale trailer on the list of Craig, for $1700. You can pull it to the field drop the 3pt load the bales on it back in raise the hitch and go with the bales.

Pretty nice hay setup. I could sell most of it for close to what I paid for it, well within reason. Not too bad on cost. If you shop careful.

Paul

There are very few small farms left to have auctions.

 

[flying belgian]

A hundred years ago I bought a slightly used 5 and half ft Vicon disk mower. 4 yrs ago I bought a new Vicon (Kubota) 8 ft. disk mower. Other then blades I have spent 0 dollars on either mower. If I had to go back to a sickle mower,,, I would quit.

 

[trackrat]

disc mowers will cut almost anything but take horses to pull my 46hp deer does not like my 7ft kuhn will run hot in the upper 90s

 

[mml373]

Appreciate the replies. I've not looked at this thread in awhile... Since April, I have had a successful first part of hay season on my small farm with a 7' sickle bar mower and the old MF135. My old square baler has gotten better and better with use and is tying nice and tight square bales virtually 100% of the time, now (third area I've cut with it, so it has gotten some work to get the rust off.) Honest truth is...the old and small equipment works good enough and there's no payment associated with it. The larger tractor has a payment and new implements to go with it involve more payments. Thinking about my operation, scale, and am concluding there's no rush for the disc mower setup. <haha> I may find myself parting with the larger tractor and its associated payment...still thinking about the pluses and minuses of that.

 

[G1000VISTA]

We mowed 25/30 acres of hay growing up every year with a 451 NH sickle and a ford 631. Key to a sickle bar mowing nice and fast is the set of the bar, sickle and hold downs. The 631 would mow medium crop hay in 3rd gear. Just zip along. Real heavy growth ran second. We have a local spring auction here that always has mowers here. But most times the go back home with the original owner and get stuffed back into the shed to get more pigeon poop on them till next sale when they try again. Quote" I ain't giving it away"

 

[Rystoltenberg11]

Is all 35 acres in hay? It's going to be a bit of work to get it done with a 7' sickle bar, but it has been done before & done a lot. If you want a new mower, Rowse makes a good one. You get a choice between New Holland tech & IH..... 7' or 9' bar. Or you can go with an all Massey outfit, keeping the equipment the same "vintage" as your 135. MF did make some decent balers at one point.

I don't have a new mower from them, but a new cutter bar on my old IH mower. The thing cuts like a dream & they're great to deal with.

Also.... what type of hay & what you intend to do with it?


And yeah.... it's shaping up to look that way.

Mike

MF still does make decent balers

 

[mml373]

We mowed 25/30 acres of hay growing up every year with a 451 NH sickle and a ford 631. Key to a sickle bar mowing nice and fast is the set of the bar, sickle and hold downs. The 631 would mow medium crop hay in 3rd gear. Just zip along. Real heavy growth ran second. We have a local spring auction here that always has mowers here. But most times the go back home with the original owner and get stuffed back into the shed to get more pigeon poop on them till next sale when they try again. Quote" I ain't giving it away"

The owner of the Vermeer cutter happened to have a sickle bar mower as well. We worked a trade/credit/help getting me started this first year and all is well. I love this little Ford 515 sickle bar mower. We might work on fixing the Vermeer but the sickle bar did great and will do even better once I learn a bit and adjust it better. I can run low/third and light/medium but 2nd or even 1st in heavy stuff first cutting after a very rainy spring/early summer.

 

[mml373]

MF still does make decent balers

I am running old MF12s. One needs some adjustment work on the needle position but the other didn't miss a beat when I baled a few days ago. Still have to finish that job.

Love these old balers. Just beautiful, tight bales... No bananas this time, just perfect.

 

[G1000VISTA]

The owner of the Vermeer cutter happened to have a sickle bar mower as well. We worked a trade/credit/help getting me started this first year and all is well. I love this little Ford 515 sickle bar mower. We might work on fixing the Vermeer but the sickle bar did great and will do even better once I learn a bit and adjust it better. I can run low/third and light/medium but 2nd or even 1st in heavy stuff first cutting after a very rainy spring/early summer.

Nice!Maybe you know this already but we learned to make the far end of the bar lead by a few inches. Somewhere we found a tech book on setting sickle bar mowers up and I remember we spent a day or so setting it . Then it ran!!