Haying

RichNJKubota · Jun 26, 2005

Picture of the L4310 baling hay.

slowzuki · Jun 26, 2005

In the ag forum I have some pics of our L5030HSTC mowing hay with a 9 ft haybine. I have some shots with the tedder to get uploaded soon too.

DLMaine01 · Jun 26, 2005

Great pic RichNJKubota! We are finally getting some haying weather here in the Northeast.

RichNJKubota · Jun 26, 2005

Sure would be nice to have a few more HP like on your L5030. Wanna trade?

Rich /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

slowzuki · Jun 26, 2005

Baled some today too, just a few bales (50) as we are getting the equipment running.

slowzuki · Jun 26, 2005

Green and orange go together well I think

slowzuki · Jun 26, 2005

Hay is not bad, baled a bit early as storm clouds were coming. This will be fed out in the next few months. It is probably a couple % off for mow storage.

In the previous pics I should point out the poor cutting and raking. I'm short a few teeth on both pieces, and short of driving skills!

The L tractors are a bit short for raking, I find it a bit bouncy for my taste when raking.

It was a dream baling! The hydro pedal was awsome!

milkman · Jun 26, 2005

Evidently you haven't read this forum, you cannot pull a baler with a thrower and a wagon behind a tractor that size, it can't be done!!! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Well I guess the Kubota don't know that so we'll have to let it slide this time /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

riptides · Jun 27, 2005

Very timely post, that is, not the haying. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Nice shot, is that you on the machine?

As milkman pointed out, most posts have reflected that one needs at least 50HP to pull and baler, thrower and wagon. Then in your posting, you want more HP. Can you elaborate?

Your land looks pretty flat, so we can take HP on hills out of the question.

Thanks!

Did you get it all done, or was this a warm-up?

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

RichNJKubota · Jun 27, 2005

Yeah, that's me on the tractor.
Last year I got my neighbor(retired farmer) to drive the tractor while I stacked in the wagon. With a full load of hay on the wagon the Kubota was maxed out on power. Thank God for the hydrostatic trans. You can adjust your speed to make the best use of the engine's power. Going faster where the hay rows are light and slowing down where the hay is thick.
I would say that having at least 50hp is best if you are doing alot of hay. For me it's just 10 acres and so if it takes another 10 or 15 minutes because I'm going slow - it's not a big deal.
Even though my land is fairly flat it does have a slight slope and going uphill is harder with alot of hay in the wagon.
I keep the FEL on the tractor for the additional few hundred pounds of weight on the tractor. At no time have I ever felt there was a safety issue.

Rich

jlbash1 · Jun 28, 2005

I too did the impossible yesterday. I tried out my L2650 using a New Holland 268 baler. This was my first experience with a baler on any tractor, so I have a question or two. My tractor RPM's are at approx. 2300 when the PTO reaches 540. The fellow helping me out yesterday had me run the tractor at about 1500 RPM while baling. Does this sound too slow? I guess you shoot for a certain plunger speed? Maybe a little less than 60 strokes per minute?

The tractor did fine, the engine did loose a little RPM's when the plunger stroked, but not much at all. I was worried about the tractor being jerked around, but that was not an issue at all.

Jarrod

RichNJKubota · Jun 28, 2005

Congratulations on doing "Mission Impossible". I was worried that my Kubota would have problems baling but my neighbor told me he used to run his NH311 baler with a Ford 8N. He said it was too slow but it worked.
I find that 1500 to 1800 RPM on the engine is about right for the baler. The baler manual has some recomendations about the plunger speed but don't recall at the moment.
The main thing you want to avoid is feeding too much hay into the baler too quickly. You can either jam up the plunger or break the shear bolt on the main flywheel. You should have a supply of shear bolts available and the tools needed to change the bolt out in the field.
If you loosen the bale tension setting then the engine won't be so stressed when the plunger strokes. But then you end up with loose lite bales. One of my neighbors prefers the small, loose bales because his small kids can lift the bales and help out feeding the cows.

Rich

slowzuki · Jun 28, 2005

If you want to stuff hay through your baler use it at PTO speed. Running a 540 baler at 300 rpm is a sure way to start breaking shear pins. I've done it by accident after disengaging the pto and lefting the baler coast out and I drove through a wisp of left over hay. Ker thunk, doh!

The MF baler our neighbour has is rated for 500- 610 rpm. Our JD is good up to 540.

Our JD 336 at PTO speed self-limits it self via the feeding. The packer fork just won't keep up if you try and stuff too much. You'll get like 4 flakes in a 3 ft bale and the hay will pile up in front of the pickup.

jlbash1 · Jul 1, 2005

i haven't seen anyting in the baler's manual that even talks about PTO speed. they mention that it operates well between 60 and 75 strokes per minute. i had the baler at around 60 strokes per minute while i was baling and the tractors RPM's were around 1800 as i mentioned before. i would think that if i cranked it up to 2400 RPM to achieve the 540 PTO speed that the baler would really be humming. got to think it would be greater than 75 strokes per minute.

jarrod