Tiny tractor hay.

[minnesotaredleg]

I am purchasing a Massey Ferguson gc1725mb for land scraping and chores on my hobby farm. As I approach retirement the farm will transition into my full time gig (men tend to die when they quit working). I have about 9-10 acres of hay and am looking for the best way to take over the haying (currently have a deal with a farmer a few miles away) with my small tractor. I have been looking at sickle mowers and belt rake/tedders. No idea for baling. I’m all ears.

 

[RjCorazza]

I am not a hay guy, but your question peaked my curiosity. The cutting and windrowing should be easy enough, but I was skeptical about your machine running a baler.
Tractor Time With Tim (YouTube) demoed running an older square baler with his John Deere 1025 , and it seemed to handle it. I don't think I would want that kind of load on a sub compact tractor on a regular basis though. I would also be concerned about the weight of a full size baler behind a sub compact on any type of slope.

There are mini balers made specifically for sub compacts, but I suspect they are mostly Chinese manufactured (just a guess).

 

[minnesotaredleg]

Funny, I just got done watching that exact same video. I think his 1025 has a couple less hp than the Massey. Spent some time looking at some of those mini round balers too but I’m always afraid to drop a bunch of cash without having a good idea about how something will hold up/ perform over time. Thanks for the response.

 

[CobyRupert]

What is your hay handling and storage situation? Alone, have help, lots of time or short on it, have a 1st floor mow, or 2nd floor etc?
That is, you seem to have the capacity to cut and windrow hay, but as mentioned, baling can demand a bigger machine.
Your horsepower might work at slow speed, but I think a 1725lbs tractor running a baler is going to get pushed around, if not be overwhelmed.
But a 60 year old tractor of the same horsepower, but heavier, might not have a problem.

…but back to handling and storage. For more years than not, hay wasn’t baled. Putting a string around it was only because it reduced the amount of time and labor to move it from field to barn. The conversion to round bales handled by diesel power has reduced human labor more.
Look at what some Amish do using 1 or 2 horsepower to get hay to the barn. Found this picture on the internet:

 

[ultrarunner]

This is how we did it with single cylinder 15hp diesel tractor.

Sickle Bar mower and Hamster collector for grass, hay and straw...

When I was not driving I was firmly attached to fender seat.

Previous to the Hamster it was tractor pulling hay wagon loaded with hay forks!

 

[5030]

There are mini balers made specifically for sub compacts, but I suspect they are mostly Chinese manufactured (just a guess).

I believe they are Itallian not Chinese.

 

[5030]

Issue is, tiny tractors produce tiny bales too.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

I looked at one of these, see link below.

Hay Balers | Tractor Tools Direct | Small-Farm Haying Independence

TTD makes baling hay with a compact tractor easy! Mini round hay balers and compact square hay balers for small-farm haying. Call 260-BALE-HAY today!

tractortoolsdirect.com

But decided I would continue using the buck rack and putting up the 2 to 3 tons of loose hay in the barn.

 

[5030]

In reality you could purchase an older New Holland square bailer that is self powered. They made them with Wisconsin engines to be pulled with tractors that lacked a pto....

 

[Smokeydog]

Seen nice kept old square balers going cheap. Bring hay to baler would save some hp. Big old tractors are cheap too.

Bale hay made a tremendous difference in keeping rats and mice out of hay storage. Significant cost savings to the farmer. They will harvest every seed out of loose hay and subsequent population explosion.

 

[Jchonline]

Your original post brought a few questions to mind.

1. What do you plan on doing with the hay?
2. What machine is your farmer friend using today to bale it, what type of bales, what is he/she doing with said bales.

10 acres isnt much, and really if you think a profit of any sort can be made baling 10 acres you are sorely mistaken. Equipment cost, upkeep will far, far outstrip the income from such a small operation. You need to cut, rake, maybe ted, bale, stack, and transport. If you have money to burn by all means go for it...but it is a cost center at that size for sure.

If I had a hobby farm I would do something else with it...grow special crops/organics and sell. Livestock of any sort and haying just isnt worth it on 10 acres. Not if you care about balancing the books.

Ill give you a parallel for my forest ag stuff. Cutting trees and selling normal firewood is a loss. Selling bundled wood with no bark and calling it premium, or better yet selling some special byproduct I can produce is much better financially. The obvious stuff just doesnt make money in these small operations.

 

[Jstpssng]

How much can you expect off from 9-10 acres? I have no idea but am throwing it out. It seems like it would be "more than a few." My father used to bale a little 6 acre field with a 25 HP Kubota, pinwheel rake and old JD baler. I want to say he was getting 150-175 square bales but could be mistaken. He didn't fertilize or do anything else to the fields, he just wanted to keep it from gorwing back to bushes.

 

[5030]

Seen nice kept old square balers going cheap. Bring hay to baler would save some hp. Big old tractors are cheap too.

Bale hay made a tremendous difference in keeping rats and mice out of hay storage. Significant cost savings to the farmer. They will harvest every seed out of loose hay and subsequent population explosion.

Not only that, they deficate in it and whiz in it as well...

 

[2manyrocks]

I don't know anything myself. One of my friends baled bermuda grass in Tennessee. He said he had customers come from as far as Texas. My understanding from what he told me is bermuda is a specialty item and he was able to charge much more than regular hay. But it also took more care. He said he got some johnson grass coming up and had to use a wick with herbicide to kill the johnson without killing his bermuda. He was also making square bales because his customers wanted those kind of bales to feed their horses.

 

[Tx Jim]

Driving from Texas to Tennessee is a very long drive to get Coastal Bermuda small sq bales. If I desired which I won't I can get Coastal Bermuda small sq bales from numerous hay producers within 20 miles of my driveway.

 

[Paystar]

This is how we did it with single cylinder 15hp diesel tractor.

Sickle Bar mower and Hamster collector for grass, hay and straw...

When I was not driving I was firmly attached to fender seat.

Previous to the Hamster it was tractor pulling hay wagon loaded with hay forks!

That is cool. Never seen a Hamster before. I assume it feeds from the bottom and just pushes the hay up as it loads?
Nice old tractor too.

 

[Paystar]

For the OP.....look in the Yanmar forum. A member here has the small Yanmar compact hay equipment. There is You-Tube videos on it also.
Only catch is determining if the purchase price of this stuff is worth it for your return.

 

[super55]

I own a mini round baler and keep it now as my backup and certain situations. First off it is very simple design since there is no timing or knotters to worry about but it has limitations.

Limitations:
1. 30" windrow width and you have to drive over windrow. Eventually you will push a bunch of hay especially if its a heavy cut.
2. Pickup chamber is very small. If you are running a heavy cutting it is tediously slow
3. Since it is a soft core round baler on a tall cutting you will end with a very soft core.

benefits:
1. Virtually no hp required and internal hydraulics allows it to be used with any tractor with a live PTO and 3 pt. hitch
2. Very easy to maintain. Just wraps twine around the bale thats it. no knotting. From my experience, running sisal twine for small square balers works the best. Feeding is merely from the arm dropping the twine into the chamber and the friction from the bale will catch it and start twining the bale.
3. On very short cuttings it works extremely well. I recently had a second cutting where I was loosing a lot trying to raking it into the windrows. I let it set a few extra days to dry out and just baled in the cutting windrows since my drum mower puts it in rows after cutting.

I would recommend a drum mower over a sickle bar. They aren't as finicky and you can cut just as fast as your tractor can go. Small scale equipment haying can be done but it is very time consuming. If you invest in late 50s through early 70s equipment including tractor you will probably have about the same amount of $$$ invested and be able to get the chore done in easily 1/2 time pending the equipment doesn't break. But then again breakdowns are just a part of farming..

 

[ultrarunner]

That is cool. Never seen a Hamster before. I assume it feeds from the bottom and just pushes the hay up as it loads?
Nice old tractor too.

Yes… it has tines and a type of conveyor that reverses for unloading…

 

[sea2summit]

Seen nice kept old square balers going cheap.

There's a lot of reasons nice old square balers go for cheap...they're the same reasons that I dropped over 20K on a new small square baler last year and have no regrets.