Wahoo... made my first bale!

[F350Lawman]

Well I got my first tractor a JD 790 about a month ago and being a city boy from Brooklyn, NY never envisioned myself baling hay!

Today a friend of mine asked me for a hand baling hay, he knows I have the tractor so he let my use his. It was a IH 2444 with a Case 220 baler. I watched him for awhile and then he let me try. It was fun and not really much different from running my 790.

No kicker so throwing the bales onto the wagon wasn't as much fun but was better exercise. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I have another offer to help the dairy farmer near me bale hay later this week. He mentioned he might need help. His machines are much bigger so this was a good start. He has a JD 4020 and another JD about 1 1/2 - 2 times as big along with a JD630 and a few others. Controls look pretty much the same the size is a little intimidatig for a greenhorn like me /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Woodbeef]

Enjoy!! Haying is one of the more fun aspects of farming I find.

 

[5030]

I don't mind rounding, it's basically a one man job which I do myself. I cut it, rake it bale it and haul it and store it. Squares are a different story. Being in my fifties, I prefer to run the tractor and leave the manual labor to those much younger and able to consume more beer than I /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[5030]

Lawman:

After about the 1000th bale, it won't be Wahoo!! anymore, it will be UGH!!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[F350Lawman]

I got to rake and haul hay with the JD 3020 yesterday and that was fun too. Biggest tracto I ever used by a long stretch. When I used my 790 today I almost took out some poles because it is so much quicker to respond and accelerate.

I am sure making bales gets to be less fun, sort of like riding around playing cop /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[5030]

F350Lawman:

You could bale grass hay in Central Park. You'd probably bale up some wino's too!!!

 

[slowzuki]

5 years ago I used to work on a farm that put in 10-20 000 square bales a season! All square bales off the ground! We had a crew of 8 people normally and it took a few weeks.

The wagon had 4 pickers, 2 pilers and a driver. The other tractor was busy baling/mowing/tedding/raking.

Another farm I worked at had a bale thrower, there was normally only 3 guys and that covered everything. Did about 6000 - 9000 bales a season there.

A school friends farm had a round baler, so there was never any work there! He and his father did about 300, 400 lb rounds as fast as we did the squares.