Best "cheap" square baler?

[SwingOak]

Too bad you’re not closer to Wisconsin, I have a NH s68 and a JD 24T I’m looking to re-home.

The s68 is a good baler, makes a nice bale as long as it’s set up right which isn’t difficult, and is reliable. It will run with any low HP tractor, when I was a kid we had one just like it and we baled with an IH model H.

The 24T has the pan thrower, is easy to set up, easy to maintain, and makes bricks all day. Great baler.

Only downside to both of these classics is they are slower than modern balers and have narrow pickups.

 

[Flogger]

Ran Fords, New Hollands (one with a seat and steering wheel) and John Deere. Hands down the most consistent we ever had was a John Deere 336T. it’s been a few years but i wouldn’t hesitate a second to buy another.

 

[GrandpaSmurf825]

You might not agree with me and it doesn't matter one way or another. I handles 10's of thousands of bales from roughly 1970-1973. Every day it was dry I was baling somewhere from about 8th grade until junior in high school. Last year was on a commercial hay crew that did everything. Put it on the ground and put it in the barn. We covered a lot of miles. I didn't run the baler when baling but drove the tractor and baler and wagons from location to location. I did load the hay racks though. Anyway to the point I was intending to make. If a baler is only missing a tie 3-4 % of the time then IMHO it just needs fine tuned. I remember lots of days where we might have pounded out 16 or 17 hundred bales and had only a couple failed ties all day. Then it might be because of the new bale of twine not feeding right when the switch happened. I was always partial to John Deere square bailers because it seemed like they consistently made more uniform bales. Just my opinion and it is worth what you paid for it....

 

[lman]

Gord I'd love to agree or do just that.

We did make a hundred or so round bales on shares with the neighbor who has a great baler.

Problem is, there are so few farmers within a reasonable distance who either have a square baler or are willing to work. (Or work for somebody else). Some of it's the nature of the locals, and some is the fact that pretty much every other landowner is a millionaire now just from the fracking. They're allot choosier in what they do.

I hate to put it that way, but kinda how it is around here. I've seen allot of hayfields untouched, sometimes for years, because nobody wants to put it up. Before my dad passed away in August he went around begging a few farmers to put something in his bottom ground, just so he could claim agriculture status on his property taxes.

The guy that does my hay sells to a lot of Amish. They are too busy working in RV factories to make hay. I get one cutting and he gets the other three. I'm close to him so it works out.

 

[neilpaku]

We baled millions (literally - contractor) of bales with an IH 440. What's good about that baler is that every timing measurement is an inch, so it's very easy to tune. Agree about shiny surfaces for smooth operation. The other thing we did is mount a fan on the front driven by belt from the flywheel and directed the air over the knotters. Keeping them blown clean went a long way towards trouble-free knotting. We never used plastic twine - only ever sisal. Bought a Claas baler for more capacity - don't know what model or what our experience with it was.

 

[Lena]

I've been looking a bit for a "cheap" square baler. (We've been thinking about making an acre or 2 for small use).

I don't have a square baler and haven't actually owned one to date. Used, yes, owned no.

looked at an old ford "504", ford 530 and a New Holland 316 so far. The 316 would probably work best on the Ford 5000, but I want something a bit smaller.

I have a variety of smaller tractors available and would prefer to use one with my Zetor 5211.

I'm looking for a cheap machine that's (somewhat) easy to find parts for AND makes a good bale that doesn't look like a dishrag.

When I say somewhat easy to find part for, I mean on Ebay/Facebook Market place as well as some new parts here or there.

How do other balers like a Ferguson stack up?

I've bought a couple through auctions. Check the needles, A broken or missing needle is bad news. Also I checked to see if there was twine in the machine. if twine is there then it was being used when shut down. No twine I walk away.

 

[paulsharvey]

I only made it down maybe 10-15 posts, but didnt see it brought up yet. How about small round bales? 3x3 bales, even 2x3 bales; and then true mini rounds of 18"x 30", but even 3x3 are able to "handled" by hand. Not thrown, but moved by hand, the 3x3 are about 180 lbs. The 20"×30" bales are more like 60#, and are throwable.

Dont think there is a "used" market for them yet, but new, the smallest mini rounds balers are around $4000-6500. The 3x3 balers are more like $12-16,000.

 

[Hay Dude]

We baled millions (literally - contractor) of bales with an IH 440. What's good about that baler is that every timing measurement is an inch, so it's very easy to tune. Agree about shiny surfaces for smooth operation. The other thing we did is mount a fan on the front driven by belt from the flywheel and directed the air over the knotters. Keeping them blown clean went a long way towards trouble-free knotting. We never used plastic twine - only ever sisal. Bought a Claas baler for more capacity - don't know what model or what our experience with it was.

Yeah true, the big square balers I have both have extensive amount of pipes to blow high pressure air over areas that need to be kept clean.
Even with that, Baler is still a giant frickin mess at the end of the day and must be blown out or it can cause problems.

 

[slingworks]

I've bought a couple through auctions. Check the needles, A broken or missing needle is bad news. Also I checked to see if there was twine in the machine. if twine is there then it was being used when shut down. No twine I walk away.

That probably great advice. I made my money and living in manufacturing. Textiles/leather/technical materials. When I bought/buy machinery at auctions I always looked for fresh scraps in the machines or fresh looking thread in/on sewing machines.