Bought the MF-124 baler today

flusher · May 24, 2008

Found this one locally (about 25 miles away) in the weekly supermarket ad rag.

Here's the ID tag

Any info on year of manufacture is appreciated.

It's in top condition. The owner used it two days ago on his 35-acre hayfield. He installed the single-action hydraulic cylinder on the pickup. Don't know if the lights are standard equipment or if he installed these also.
The pickup is in excellent shape.

Twine box holds 4 rolls

Bales look OK. He baled the marginal stuff last time he used it (goat food)

The knotter mechanism looks a lot simpler than JD or NH designs

Paid $2000 for it. Figure it was worth it since it's in such great shape and it's a perfect match for both my MF-135 diesel and my new Mahindra 5525.
Hardly any rust, owner took good care of it. I've seen 124s sell on eBay from $700 to $3500. One big advantage buying locally is the opportunity to eyeball the baler before writing the check.

chh · May 25, 2008

Congrats Flusher, it looks like you found a pretty straight one. I am always reluctant to buy anything just by looking at the photo's. Looking in person always tells you more than the pics do. I'm glad you mentioned that was goat hay, it sure is some fuzzy looking stuff. What kind of grass is that?

flusher · May 25, 2008

chh said:
Congrats Flusher, it looks like you found a pretty straight one. I am always reluctant to buy anything just by looking at the photo's. Looking in person always tells you more than the pics do. I'm glad you mentioned that was goat hay, it sure is some fuzzy looking stuff. What kind of grass is that?

The Seller said he planted orchardgrass. The stuff in the chute is what he cut along his fencelines. He bales it for his neighbor who feeds it to his goats. The baled orchardgrass is in the barn and looks OK.

ddivinia · May 25, 2008

flusher said:
Found this one locally (about 25 miles away) in the weekly supermarket ad rag.

Here's the ID tag

Any info on year of manufacture is appreciated.

It's in top condition. The owner used it two days ago on his 35-acre hayfield. He installed the single-action hydraulic cylinder on the pickup. Don't know if the lights are standard equipment or if he installed these also.
The pickup is in excellent shape.

Twine box holds 4 rolls

Bales look OK. He baled the marginal stuff last time he used it (goat food)

The knotter mechanism looks a lot simpler than JD or NH designs

Paid $2000 for it. Figure it was worth it since it's in such great shape and it's a perfect match for both my MF-135 diesel and my new Mahindra 5525.
Hardly any rust, owner took good care of it. I've seen 124s sell on eBay from $700 to $3500. One big advantage buying locally is the opportunity to eyeball the baler before writing the check.

Looks good. I "need" a square baler.

D.

Mickey_Fx · May 25, 2008

Hope it serves you well. Way back when, I was givein consideration on one of these bailers. Was impressed how simple the knoter was as compared to the JD bailer I ended up buying.

Farmwithjunk · May 25, 2008

ddivinia said:
Looks good. I "need" a square baler.

D.

Wish you were a little closer. My old reliable Deere 336 AND it's potential replacement (an even older, but WAY less bales) MF24 met their match today. I spent the day using my son's Vermeer 5400 Rebel round baler

SWEET!

flusher · May 25, 2008

Farmwithjunk said:
Wish you were a little closer. My old reliable Deere 336 AND it's potential replacement (an even older, but WAY less bales) MF24 met their match today. I spent the day using my son's Vermeer 5400 Rebel round baler

SWEET!

Interesting. The guy who sold me the MF-124 has replaced it with a JD 336, which looks to have a larger pickup width that the 124.

So you're into round bales now?

Farmwithjunk · May 25, 2008

flusher said:
Interesting. The guy who sold me the MF-124 has replaced it with a JD 336, which looks to have a larger pickup width that the 124.

So you're into round bales now?

We baled at my sons place today. I ran his tractor and baler. I sell all my hay, and my buyers want small squares. In all likelyhood, I'm keeping the 336 which I've owned for quite a few years. The MF24 was a possible replacement for the 336. I don't do much hay anymore and the 24 would have been big enough.

mike194 · Jun 13, 2008

What do you think the minimum PTO hp is needed to run a baler like this. my father in law has one and i was wondering if my 24 PTO hp tractor can run it.
i suppose it would take some power to get that flywheel spinnin.

flusher · Jun 14, 2008

mike194 said:
What do you think the minimum PTO hp is needed to run a baler like this. my father in law has one and i was wondering if my 24 PTO hp tractor can run it.
i suppose it would take some power to get that flywheel spinnin.

My guess is 35 hp pto. I have a 1964 MF-135 diesel that has about 35 hp pto and I understand that it can handle the MF-124 baler OK. I've run it with my Mahindra 5525 (55 hp engine, 45 hp pto) with no problem. The 5525 weighs 5400 lb without filled rear tires so the flywheel on the MF-124 doesn't jerk it around very much at all.

I've heard of folks using Yanmars with 20-25 hp pto running balers like the MF-124, but I've never seen it done myself.

My neighbor has an old IH 57W baler that's roughly the size of the MF-124. He ran it with his Ford 8N that is a 27 hp gasser but found that it's tricky because the 8N doesn't have a live clutch. Also in the lowest gear with the pto running at 540 rpm, he says that the 8N still moves too quickly for effective baling. He borrowed a neighbor's JD 2640 to run that 57W baler with success.