Calling the Hay Dr...............

CumminsLuke · Jan 18, 2008

Hay Dr, with your vast knowledge of everything hay, I wanted your opinion on whether or not I can pull a Case-IH 8450 4'x6' baler with my Kubota M7040 that is putting out 62pto hp. I would not make a full 6' bale, I'd stop at 5'. My fields are mostly flat except for one, and it is not to bad. This baler is in my price range, and I know it is in good shape as it belongs to a dealer friend of mine and his son in law has been using it on their farm, and he has replaced every bearing in the thing as well as some other stuff. We are just not sure if my 7040 will have the umph to pull it? I'd like to find myself a nice 4'x5' but everything I can find that is decent is priced too high. I don't want to give more than about $5,000 for a baler.

CumminsLuke · Jan 19, 2008

Bump.............

Retired Iron Peddler · Jan 19, 2008

I'm not the Hay Dr, but I may be able to help.

The farmer who mows, rakes, and bales my hay has the same baler you are considering. He uses an old JD 3020 to run his baler. The JD works pretty hard when the chamber is full, but it does the job. If I remember correctly, the JD 3020 is about a 60-65 HP tractor when it was new, but I doubt it's producing that kind of power now. He rolls 5' bales instead of 6' bales. Last summer, he rolled 200 round bales in three cuttings on my 30 acre hay meadow.

Bill

chh · Jan 19, 2008

Not a Dr. either but,
Couldn't find the specs on the baler you are talking about so compared the Vermeers 504M and 604M off the website for reference. They recomment 55hp pto for the 504 and 70 pto hp for the 604. It may not be exactly apples to apples but it sounds like you could get the 5' bale ok. Your post had me curious and I checked tractorhouse for a price comparison. Most were $6500 or so that I saw listed.

CumminsLuke · Jan 19, 2008

chh said:
Your post had me curious and I checked tractorhouse for a price comparison. Most were $6500 or so that I saw listed.

Well, like I said, this dealer is a good friend of mine, he is my sons God Father actually, so he is gonna make me a pretty sweet deal. I think I can get it for around $4,500. He also has a nice 2005 NH BR740 4'x5' that calls for 60 hp. I think it would make a good mate to my tractor, but it is around $11,500 to me. I only bale about 300-400 bales a year so I am having a hard time justifying $11,500.

CumminsLuke · Jan 19, 2008

I have a guy who works for me who used to pull a JD 530 with a 3020 diesel to a 5'x5' bale. It'd make it grunt a little but he did that for years. Beings a 3020 diesel was 65 pto hp and I have 62, I'd think I could pull a 4'x6' to 4'x5'?

I am considering these machines, Case-IH 8450/Hesston 550, NH 640 or 650, or a JD 430. But I'd probably stick with the Case-IH/Hesston or the NH as those are the brands my friend sells and services.

CumminsLuke · Jan 19, 2008

This one looks pretty nice..............

http://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/detail.aspx?OHID=5211844&guid=E71EDDF833844E81AA987219B1AF8006

Ad says 60 hp min. Maybe it'd work?

chh · Jan 19, 2008

I'm not sure of the model numbers, but somewhere in the year ranges your looking Case-IH(New Holland??) offered a fixed chamber/soft core baler. The advantage of those is you can bale hay a little wetter if you need to, but the big disadvantage for you would be that it makes a lousy bale if you have to tie if off short of full size. With the regular hard core baler you can have a decent bale even if you end up closer to 4x4 than 6x4 on the bale size.

The one you had in the ad looked clean.

HayDR · Jan 19, 2008

CumminsLuke said:
Hay Dr, with your vast knowledge of everything hay, I wanted your opinion on whether or not I can pull a Case-IH 8450 4'x6' baler with my Kubota M7040 that is putting out 62pto hp. I would not make a full 6' bale, I'd stop at 5'. My fields are mostly flat except for one, and it is not to bad. This baler is in my price range, and I know it is in good shape as it belongs to a dealer friend of mine and his son in law has been using it on their farm, and he has replaced every bearing in the thing as well as some other stuff. We are just not sure if my 7040 will have the umph to pull it? I'd like to find myself a nice 4'x5' but everything I can find that is decent is priced too high. I don't want to give more than about $5,000 for a baler.

The Case-IH 8450 should pull with 55 HP for dry hay and 65 HP for haylage.
You can pull this baler with a M7040 but may have to change some gears when you get to a hill.

The HayDR

Robert_in_NY · Jan 19, 2008

chh said:
I'm not sure of the model numbers, but somewhere in the year ranges your looking Case-IH(New Holland??) offered a fixed chamber/soft core baler. The advantage of those is you can bale hay a little wetter if you need to, but the big disadvantage for you would be that it makes a lousy bale if you have to tie if off short of full size. With the regular hard core baler you can have a decent bale even if you end up closer to 4x4 than 6x4 on the bale size.

The one you had in the ad looked clean.

The 8450 is from when Case-IH still was tied in with Hesston. The NH/Case-IH balers started just a few years ago.