Hello & questions

sweetwater · Aug 28, 2011

Greetings from South-central KY. We have 13 acres, about 9 in hay & trying to get our fruit trees & garden up to speed. We also have a 1949 Massey Ferguson TO20 & we're wondering if it's worth buying a square baler for it. It's been maintained & repaired but it's hard to keep the hydraulic control for the drawbar height in one place. We bang up our brushhog PTO & broke the PTO for a fertilizer bucket once. We got 320 bales for our first cut this year but the fellow who did the second cut had pin shear problems, & I think about 50 bales got left in the field.

Is it worth it to buy a baler? We're at the mercy of who ever we can get to cut for us & the amount of hay lost last time was a big frustration. Thanks for your comments. Great forum site.

Muhammad · Aug 28, 2011

Welcome to TBN.

johnandrew · Aug 28, 2011

Welcome to TBN.

Briana03 · Aug 29, 2011

Hello & WELCOME to TBN!

I moved your thread to the Ag Tractors & Machinery Forum.

Verticaltrx · Aug 29, 2011

If you find an older/smaller baler your tractor might be able to do it, but not very well. I have a Ford NAA which is about the same size as your tractor, but a few years newer and more HP. I use it with a small New Holland square baler that was built in the 60's (model 268) and it does pretty well. With that said, you really have to know what you are doing considering it doesn't have a live PTO (your tractor doesn't either). It doesn't have much power so if you get in real heavy hay and have to stop sometimes it's really hard to get the baler going again. Also you have to start the baler running with the tractor in neutral, get it up to speed, then shift into gear and go. I bale in 1st gear in moderate to heavy hay, sometimes 2nd gear in light hay. Back in the days our tractors were made a popular option was a baler with it's own stand alone engine. That eliminated a lot of the aforementioned problems, you can still find them if you look enough. Regardless if you go with PTO driven or engine driven try to limit your search to New Holland or John Deere. They really had the best baler technology back then. One last thing to note, square balers, especially old ones can be notoriously difficult to get to work right. If you aren't mechanically inclined or find a older baler in excellent condition I would continue to hiring your baling done.

tessiers · Aug 30, 2011

We use a New Holland #67 Baler behind a Ford NAA and a Farmall H, I will say the combination of low HP and transmision PTO will make you a good at rakeing. If you do a good job raking, baleing is easy regardless of tractor and PTO. If you have inconsistent windrows or too large windrows baleing is frustrating at best. I would not hesitate to run a small baler with that tractor, no wagon or kicker. There is a suppost bar you can buy or build that attaches the 3 point drawbar to the top link point so it doesn't move while baleing. I think they are $30 or so new, amounts to a piece of flat iron bar with a couple of holes and 2 slight bends. You will also need a mower and rake at a bare minimum, and possbly a tedder, depending on weather. A lot of equipment for 300 bales per year.

sweetwater · Sep 1, 2011

Yes, seems like a lot. But actually got 530 bales in the first 2 cuts (not counting the 50 or so that got left in the field in cut #2)- debating whether we should do a third in late Sept. /early October...

AKfish · Sep 1, 2011

It's a "slippery slope" once you start down that trail of doing your own hay... The money you'll have invested in 9 acres - even if you get a 1,000 bales a year - is gonna be a whole lot more than if you can find someone to do the hay for you. Especially in the short run - 5 years or less.

If you like the work/challange and are in it for the long haul - buying some older, barn kept and low hours/bale numbers equipment can be very rewarding in many ways, however.

Well earned sense of accomplishment, oftentimes better quality hay, more self-sufficient; and you might just find yourself with a 2nd career!!!

AKfish

Barry Bowen · Sep 8, 2011

AKfish makes many good points. Doing such a small amount of hay is truely not cost effective by the time you buy what you need. You will also have a LARGE learning curve to go through, but the satisfaction from the personal accomplishment may make it all worth it.

For some one who already knows how to run balers, you may get away with the old Ferguson if you set it up right with a real draw barn. You may just want to consider upgrading you tractor into a Deere on an International from the 60's or early 70's. Then you will be able to do what you are wanting to do.

If you decide to try and bale with the old Ferguson, you will need to be commited to it, because it will not be easy. Balers, rakes, and most hay equipment are ment to be on draw bars, not 3pt hitch bars. If this is something you really want to learn to do, come on in the water is warm and there is room for every one. (after all if making hay was easy, lots more people would be doing it.)

Soundguy · Sep 8, 2011

a bailer with a wisconson engine.. maybee, for a ferguson ( not massey yet! ) to-20..

as for the draft only hyds.. get a position control jig or depth limit chan set and quit beating up that poor mower..

takes 5 minutes to make a set with some scrap cahin, a torch, welder and some scrap 1/4 plate

soundguy