hardtime
Member
Like many others I am toying with the idea of doing my own hay. I will be going with a used square baler . my question is which balers are repair parts still available and those that are not.
Thank you for your reply. I have been kicking this around and I am aware used gear will need attention and don't want to make this any more difficult or costly than possible.In most cases, you can get baler parts for almost any baler. Even ones long ago discontinued have parts availability from AG scrap yards, which are all over the country.
Generally speaking, Deere, New Holland, Hesston, Case-IH, etc. are balers with better parts support.
Not a guarantee, but more common than long gone balers like International Harvester, Ford, New Idea, etc.
As I have limited acres, (50) my intentions are to concentrate on as high quality forage as possible.Any reason not do do rounds? The round balers are actually MUCH simpler.
My square baler was in storage for the last 12 months due to my job and I’m getting ready to bale. I’ve put in almost 12 hours over the last four days getting it all ready and have final timing and chain tensioning still to do. This is a two year old basically new baler, hasn’t even broken 10k bales yet. In 12 hours you can replace all the bearings and belts on a round baler. Just food for thought.
My square baler was in storage for the last 12 months due to my job and I’m getting ready to bale. I’ve put in almost 12 hours over the last four days getting it all ready and have final timing and chain tensioning still to do. This is a two year old basically new baler, hasn’t even broken 10k bales yet.
Profit would be great, but I think the best I can really hope for is to break even and pay for the new used gear, supply my own fodder, and eliminate unnecessary cliping.Not surprised your guy didn’t show. He’s probably overextended himself, or has insurmountable equipment repair costs.
Probably not a bad idea to do it yourself.
Hay farming is difficult to make a profit in unless:
1. you are a very large operation.
2. you inherited all the equipment and barns so you have low equipment costs
3. you are a small timer/hobbyist with a full time job or spouse has nice income.
Inflation and high interest rates from the last few years is causing farming operations to go under in numbers this country has never seen.