Haying Equipment needs 101

riptides · Dec 30, 2004

Well I need the basic list of equipment that I would be looking at to start haying 20-40 acres of land. I will probably trade-up the B7800 in class size to handle the acreage. So I am looking for a 35-50HP class tractor. But my questions are the basic equipment needs to start up with.

I am looking at square bales.

Obvious to me are a cutter and a baler. Of course a cart to haul the hay bales in.

Do the cutters these days just lay it out for the balers to pick up? Or do I have some other machine that comes along and does something before it is baled.

Do the class of balers depend on tractor size only?

Thanks for pointers. I peeked in the attachments forum but got confused, I'll go back there for specific equipment specifications.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

cowboydoc · Dec 30, 2004

First off I would get a tractor at least in the utility size and in the 50 hp range. With that size of a tractor you are probably going to be best served by using a disc or drum mower. This will cut the hay down.

Then come along with a hay tedder to get the hay spread out and dry quickly.

Next you will need to rake the hay into rows to be baled once the hay is dry. I would go with a side delivery rake. I wouldn't do a wheel rake because you are going to probably just want to bale one row at a time with a smaller tractor.

A 50 hp utility tractor will easily handle a square baler. Personally I like JD but New Holland is a good one too.

Next you will need a hay wagon to pick up the hay. Unless you have perfectly flat land I wouldn't take a chance with a smaller tractor pulling a baler and a hay wagon.

I would also get a moisture tester. If you are new to haying it's difficult to determine when to rake and bale. With a moisture testure it takes alot of the guess work out of it.

I'm also assuming two things. One is that your land is relatively flat. Second assumption is that you are doing grass hay. If your land isn't flat and you want to do alflafa I would change things.

One other thing. 20-40 acres is ALOT of square bales. I hope you have lots and lots of help.

professor · Dec 30, 2004

I have approximately 10 acres of Bermuda/Orchard grass mix. I square bale and usually sell to horse owners. I try to sell it in the field. This is a list of equipment that I use:
New holland 3930 FWD bought it with 456 hours $12000
Bushhog 9ft. disk mower-used for $2600
Hay tedder 10 ft. used $750
New Holland side delivery rake used $850
John Deere 24T baler used $1000
Trailer(wagon) $200

rambler · Dec 30, 2004

We do not live in a perfect world. You will need a hay rake to move the hay to dry out in rainy conditions at least.

A mower-conditioner will make windrows, and crimps the hay so it dries out quicker. For that amount of hay in a damp climate, you will want something with condioning rolls on it - not just a simple sickle bar or disc cutter. These things are big, & you will want at least 50 hp & the weight of that large a tractor to run them.

For 40 acres of hay, you will maybe want 2 tractors, not just one. That is a lot of swapping. You may be cutting hay, raking what you cut yesterday, & baling what you cut the day before - all on the same day......

You can hope for more than 150 bales per acre, I hope you are prepared for the time & work involved in this. Hay is exptremely time sensitive, a couple hours can make or break a crop, and 40 acres is a lot. You will not get top dollar hay hoping to miss rains on just weekends......

Just things to think about.

--->Paul

Robert_in_NY · Dec 30, 2004

To add to the other post, I would look at getting at least a 60pto hp tractor. 50 will work but 60 will work a lot better. With the proper tractor haying can be fun. If you are undersized you will have headaches.

Doc runs green, I run blue and red. You will not go wrong with either John Deere or New Holland hay equipment and they are very easy to find parts for. If you are doing 40 acres and going to sell for profit I would look at getting a kicker on the baler and a few wagons as it will speed up things a lot. You can bale by yourself and fill all your wagons then get some help to unload them all. You can put around 130 bales in a 8x18 kicker wagon (14x18x36" bales) and 150+ in a 9x18 kicker. If you stack the wagons you can get a lot more in but then you have two people to bale and whoever is in the wagon had better be on his toes or he might catch a bale up side the head. Another idea is to drop the bales on the ground with a quarter turn chute on the baler so that you can get a used New Holland bale wagon to pick up the bales and unload them in one big stack at your barn. This requires you to have a decent size barn to unload into. The older NH stack wagons can be found for $1-$2k in good working order.

I guess a lot of what you want to know will depend on what you want to do. If all you want is to bale grass hay for your own use and cost is a concern then you will have different equipment. If you want to bale grass hay for sale then you will have some more equipment and if you want to bale Alfalfa then you need to talk to Doc and buy the right equipment at the beginning.

As for cutters, if you plan on doing Alfalfa then look for a disc bine. They are much faster then a haybine (sickle bar with conditioner rolls) which is a big plus if you are doing this for profit or dealing with Alfalfa as time is money. They also take care of woodchucks if you find them (I killed at least two woodchucks with my discbine last fall).

The most popular rake is a side delivery rake and you can find them fairly easy and they are simple to work on if needed. Wheel rakes are good for some people but not others, all depends on your operation. Rotary tine rakes are quickly replacing the side delivery rake on farms as they are faster, do a better job and you can get almost any size rake to fit your farming needs. Kuhn makes some nice ones.

Balers are fairly simple and the first time yours breaks down you will learn a lot about them in a hurry. Try to buy the best baler you can afford. Older balers will work but if you don't know anything about them find someone who does as you don't make money if your hay is laying in the field getting rained on while your baler is in the shop. The best thing anyone can do who wants to bale for profit is get the best equipment they can afford at the start because it will pay for itself.

You can find wagons at a lot of auctions. If you go with a kicker then you will want to look for kicker wagons. The wood rack wagons go cheap, the metal rack wagons will run you around $1500 or more for a decent rack on a good gear. With the running gears you will want to check them over good. Check for any frame damage on the running gears as I have seen them where the bracing has rusted right off. Also check to see how much play is in the linkage on the front axle. You don't want a lot of play as it will make roading the wagon fun if you need to and eventually something will break while you are baling. If you are going with flat racks then you only really need to worry about the running gears as the wagons bed can be rebuilt quite easily. For kicker racks I like the Pequea companies. Meyers also makes some nice ones.

Let us know what your plans are and hopefully we can clear some things up for you

Charolais · Dec 30, 2004

Since you're in Va. I have one suggestion to add here. You might want to use a rotary rake. I use a NH 254 and that rake will cut drying time by one day. The last two years here have been wet and most cuttings had about 3 days to get it cut, dried, raked and baled. When it's in the 90's I can cut one day and bale the next with this rake. It lifts the hay from the bottom of the windrow and stands it up on top. We cut hay here like a race. The faster you can get it baled the better the quality. Just a suggestion or something to think about.

Keith_B · Dec 30, 2004

(
Well I need the basic list of equipment that I would be looking at to start haying 20-40 acres of land. I will probably trade-up the B7800 in class size to handle the acreage. So I am looking for a 35-50HP class tractor. But my questions are the basic equipment needs to start up with.

I am looking at square bales.

Obvious to me are a cutter and a baler. Of course a cart to haul the hay bales in.

Do the cutters these days just lay it out for the balers to pick up? Or do I have some other machine that comes along and does something before it is baled.

Do the class of balers depend on tractor size only?

Thanks for pointers. I peeked in the attachments forum but got confused, I'll go back there for specific equipment specifications.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )

Mike, I see that you want basic equipment. The most basic equipment would be a baler of your choosing, either round or square. My father-in-law put up hay off of 40-50 acres a year for decades, until his age caught up with him (he is now 89 years young), and he did it with the basics.

The basic equipment consists of a mower, a rake, and a baler.

The type of mower you use is basically left up to individual preference, available funds, and what kind of time you wish to devote to cutting your hay. In my area the sickle bar mower is king. Most of the farmers are farming part-time, and aren't concerned about spending a couple of more hours cutting down a field, as opposed to saving a pretty good chunk of cash by using the sickle bar mower.

This page gives you a pretty good idea of costs for the new mowers: http://www.ccmachinery.com/disc%20mowers.htm

6' Sickle Bar Mower --$1400
75" Drum Mower -- $2650
Disk Mower -- $4000+

Prices for used equipment has a great variance, depending on brand, popularity in a given area, condition, etc.

In regards to a rake you can purchase a new four or five wheel rake for <$600. http://www.ccmachinery.com/Hay%20Rakes.htm

I prefer the old Roll-O-Bar rakes from NH. The ground driven units do a great job raking, and they are very low maintenance. You can pick up a used one in good shape generally for less than $1000.

Most rakes take very little hp. I know of a farm nearby that used a Farmall Super A to rake with, and then baled behind using their Kubota. Personally I prefer using something with a little more get up and go to rake with.

Tedders aren't really a hay basic, especially for 20-40 acres of hay. If you were operating a big haying operation where you had to get the most efficient use of your time then a hay tedder is great, but obviously 20-40 acres isn't something you are going to make your living off of, and the time savings and potential earnings on that small an acreage isn't going to be be large enough to justicy the addition of a tedder right off the bat. After a year or so you may feel the need to add a tedder, but initially if you are looking for just the basics then it is not a necessity.

I wouldn't dip below the 40-50 hp range with a square baler, as any smaller a size is hard on both the baler and the tractor. There are a lot of people with small farms who have spent decades baling with 30-35 hp tractors, but it isn't big enough. On the other hand there will be some that will advocate 60-90 hp for the tractor, but in some cases that tractor won't be as nimble in the hay field with a square baler as it needs to be, depending on how the field lays.

If you square bale you will need a wagon or a trailer, on which to haul the hay.

In general you can get used wagons in pretty good shape for $500 or less. Sometimes you can get just the running gear, and add your own wood bed and come out with a better wagon to fit your needs. Wagons are great for in the field hauling, and take very little hp to pull.

Dual axle trailers are becoming more popular in the hay fields, as they are everywhere else. If you get a trailer it serves the added purpose as being a means to get your new equipment home as you purchase it.

New Holland balers are tough to beat for availability and interchangibility of parts and reliability. You can expect to pay as much as $2500 for a good used one, perhaps more in some areas. You may also consider hiring someone to bale for you initially. Operating a baler has its quirks, and takes some getting used to in regards to making minor adjustments that impact the bales in big ways. The guys I know that bale all charge by the bale.

HayDR · Dec 30, 2004

riptides,
First it would be helpful if you could tell us what you want to do with the 20-40 acres of hay? Feed your own livestock? Are you going to sell hay if so what variety of grasses or legumes are currently planted on the property? Horse hay, dairy hay, beef cattle or some of all these markets. Do you have a full time job other than the farm? You will get in mega great shape doing 20-40 acres of square baled hay by yourself or it will kill you. How much money do you want to spend to automate this process? I can think of many more questions, but if this doesn't frighten you off you may love grassland farming.
Mark Carter

Keith_B · Dec 31, 2004

( I wouldn't do a wheel rake because you are going to probably just want to bale one row at a time with a smaller tractor.)

Richard, In our area we see a lot of four wheel rakes, and these rake a single windrow. The bigger operations will run a tandem set of roll-o-bar rakes and get two windrows, or set them up and get a double windrow (twice as much hay per windrow). How are the wheel rakes set up in your area?

It's kind of interesting to learn how different areas do much different things to accomplish similar tasks. When I grew up in Ohio the farmers all used square balers with kickers on the baler, which threw the bales into a wagon where one person stacked the hay (about the time I moved from there in '78 they had gone to round bales in a big way). Where I now live in Eastern Kentucky I haven't seen a kicker, and square bales dump out on the ground and are picked up and loaded by hand. I can see where a kicker would be problematic on a lot of the fields, due to hills, and turns. There isn't a lot of hay baled where the windrows are a nice row that stretches a long way across the field.

Robert_in_NY · Dec 31, 2004

The newer kickers (like the NH 72) will allow you to throw the hay into the wagons on any slope or turn you can encounter. I know the older kickers were a little hard to use but the newer ones allow 30 degrees of turn on the thrower itself both directions. You also have the thrower speed control mounted on the operator platform so in a tight turn you can slow the speed down so it will land in the wagon and not go over the side. I baled a lot of hay this year on some steep hills and the only time I missed with a bale was when I had a lapse in concentration or if I put too much speed on the bale trying to fill a hole in the back of the rack.

Very few people use wheel rakes here anymore. All the big farms have gone to Kuhn Rotary rakes. The smaller farms use the side delivery rakes. Some guys do have big wheel rakes but they are few and far between. I have tried a 5 wheel rake as well as a 8 wheel v-rake and did not like either very much. I think wheel rakes would do a lot better if they had a power drive system.