Making hay with 30hp tractor

[flusher]

You can do it. People have used small tractors like a Farmall Super A to pull a 2-twine small square baler like a JD 14T or like the one I have--a Massey Ferguson 124.

Here's what I use on my 10 acres (flat pasture)

Baler--MF124 2-twine small squares - $2000 (bought it right out of the field-previous owner baled 30 acres the day before)

Sicklebar mower--MF 31 (7 ft)- $550 at auction plus $200 new parts

Rake--JD 350 pto driven, 3pt hitch style - $800

Here's a YouTube video showing a Farmall Super A operating a small square baler. The baler sequence starts around the 5 minute mark in the video.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvz8-Sw1ntA]FARMALL Super A - YouTube[/ame]

Pretty impressive considering the Super A has about 16 pto hp. I would guess the fellow in the video has an over running clutch (ORC) installed in the pto drive line since the rear pto is driven directly off the transmisson.

You should have no trouble haying with your 30 hp tractor.

Good luck

[Doyle670]

You can do it. People have used small tractors like a Farmall Super A to pull a 2-twine small square baler like a JD 14T or like the one I have--a Massey Ferguson 124.

Here's what I use on my 10 acres (flat pasture)

Baler--MF124 2-twine small squares - $2000 (bought it right out of the field-previous owner baled 30 acres the day before)

Sicklebar mower--MF 31 (7 ft)- $550 at auction plus $200 new parts

Rake--JD 350 pto driven, 3pt hitch style - $800

Those prices aren't far off from what they go for at the auction near me.

[Doyle670]

Here's a YouTube video showing a Farmall Super A operating a small square baler. The baler sequence starts around the 5 minute mark in the video.

That is impressive. I looked at quite a few videos of baling on youtube, but never seen that one. There was an 8n with a new holland baler on youtube that was also pulling a wagon...and doing a heck of a job too.

[piller]

Yes you can make hay with a 30hp tractor. If you have time and want to you can make hay manually with a scythe and a rake, or you could use a horse drawn implement, or ...

Now, I'm going to suggest that you don't make hay. Look at a real hay budget analysis and you will find that you can buy hay for less than you can make it.

If you buy hay and feed it to your cows on your farm you will increase the fertility of your land, because you are bringing in nutrients and minerals.

Fence in your hay field, double the number of cows you have, rotate the cows between your fields, buy the hay if you need to.

[Doyle670]

Yes you can make hay with a 30hp tractor. If you have time and want to you can make hay manually with a scythe and a rake, or you could use a horse drawn implement, or ...

Now, I'm going to suggest that you don't make hay. Look at a real hay budget analysis and you will find that you can buy hay for less than you can make it.

If you buy hay and feed it to your cows on your farm you will increase the fertility of your land, because you are bringing in nutrients and minerals.

Fence in your hay field, double the number of cows you have, rotate the cows between your fields, buy the hay if you need to.

Well the problem here is the price of hay is very high. If I buy the 600 or so I need i'm at a cost of around $2000. I have free use of the 13 acres down the road that I could put my manure on(which right now I don't have a spot to put it). Then if I could get even 1,000 bales off of it keep my 600 and sell 400 at $3.50/bale, that's $1400 profit instead of paying $2000. That's a difference of $3400/year. So it would take a year for the equipment to pay for itself, then i'll have fuel, supplies and general maintenance costs, so by the 3rd year it will be more than worth it. I understand i'll have time and labor associated which my father is eager for and my son is getting near the age when he can help and loves to.

Or keep all the hay for myself and triple my number of cows which will increase my overall dollar.

As you can see it appears that I have alot more options if I do hay myself.

[flusher]

Those prices aren't far off from what they go for at the auction near me.

Righto.

You really want to check out very carefully any baler you're considering buying.

Stay away from balers that have been "field stored" for any length of time unless you or someone you trust with baler experience can estimate the cost of getting it running properly. Your best bet is with older balers that have been carefully serviced and shedded.

Parts for some old balers can be expensive and hard to find. That's why you often get advice to stick with used JD or NH balers. For example, the linings on slip clutch on the pto drive of my MF124 baler were shot. Fortunately I found new parts from an MF dealer in Maine and the price was reasonable.

Get the operator, service and parts manuals for whatever baler you finally purchase. Setting up the knotters is a lot easier with that documentation.

[Doyle670]

Righto.

You really want to check out very carefully any baler you're considering buying.

Stay away from balers that have been "field stored" for any length of time unless you or someone you trust with baler experience can estimate the cost of getting it running properly. Your best bet is with older balers that have been carefully serviced and shedded.

Parts for some old balers can be expensive and hard to find. That's why you often get advice to stick with used JD or NH balers. For example, the linings on slip clutch on the pto drive of my MF124 baler were shot. Fortunately I found new parts from an MF dealer in Maine and the price was reasonable.

Get the operator, service and parts manuals for whatever baler you finally purchase. Setting up the knotters is a lot easier with that documentation.

Great info, thanks again.

[Doyle670]

Not to hijack my own thread but what's your opinions on using a 1 row corn chopper with a 30hp tractor.

I plant corn every year(about 1/6 of an acre), usually to sell as sweet corn, and then let the cows eat/trample down the stalks. I have in the past cut the stalks by hand and sent them thru a chipper to then store and feed out a little here and there.

I have the equipment to plow and plant but am also considering growing between .5-1 acre of corn. My problem is cutting by hand. If I could run a chopper and not pull a wagon, do I have enough HP? I would chop and blow into an open wagon pulled by my dad's tractor or my truck. Again it would be all perfectly flat ground.

We have used my dad's(he's 3rd generation owner) TO20 to chop hay stationary after planting grass seed. It worked pretty well, and would bog a little with big wads of hay. Now the TO20 is around 25hp at the pto. I'd be looking to chop the .5-1acre of cow corn plus the leftover stalks of my sweet corn. Storage is not an issue, i'd use my method i've used for the past few years.

The cows absolutely love a lb or 2 each of the silage everyday.

[rankrank1]

According to Tractor Data, your Ford is almost exactly the same weight as a Farmall H and it tested at 26 PTO HP, the same as the belt horsepower of he H....

Tractor data is not even a remotely reliable source of information - it is very frequently wrong as is this case.

A Ford 1900 weighs 2589 lbs empty or maybe 2900 lbs or so with full tanks of fuel, oil, hydraulic oil, operator, etc. In short it is a compact tractor albeit towards the larger end of the compact spectrum.

A farmall H weighed in at 5550 lbs when tested at Nebraska tests in 1939.

[flusher]

Great info, thanks again.

One of these days I'm going to hook up that MF124 baler to my 1951 Farmall Super A just for grins.

MF124 baler and my 2008 Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto)




The 1951 Farmall Super A vs the 5525