Low Acreage Haying

farmboy12 · Apr 18, 2014

Hey guys, sorry I haven't been around much lately, been super busy. And to be honest, I haven't read too much in the "Haying" forum, so please bear with me if a lot of this is repetitive.

How successful have you guys been with <5 acre haying? We are more or less looking to do it for the fun, and to not have to mow the field so often. We also have a small selection of goats and cattle, and may be some more coming as the nieces are starting into some 4-H stuff.

How would you all go about this? I am completely out of the loop when it comes to haying, and need to know everything from square one. Overseed or no-till? What would be best to grow?

Also, what are some good rakes and square balers that I could use preferably with one of our triplet Fords (TC30/1520/1620) or one of the antiques (JD B, JD MT, IH 140, AC B). We do have a Kubota M4900 if need be. I think for the cutting I would like to get a sickle bar for one of the antiques, just for the fun and to give them a reason to run.

Am I missing anything else? Is what I'm trying to do reasonable? Thanks in advance for any hlp!

Kyle

square1 · Apr 18, 2014

and need to know everything from square one.

While I appreciate the vote of confidence, I'm really in the same boat being tossed about while considering the best use of small acreage.

super55 · Apr 18, 2014

Small scale hay baling can be done. Most people will tend to send advice it's cheaper just to buy the hay but if it's something you would enjoy to do than whose to say it's a bad idea.

I plan on eventually getting set up in small scale hay myself and have planned on going with 3 point as much as I can over using drawbar implements mainly because it's easier to maneuver and turn. For this I think a 3 point sickle mower would work great. You can't mow as fast as compared to a drum or disc mower but they are everywhere on craigslist and a good belt driven one over a pitman arm one would be a nice find for a small scale operation just because belts are easier to replace.

As for the rake I would consider just a simple 3 point wheel rake. They are light, affordable and very low maintenance. Massey ferguson/harris made a nice 3 point pto driven bar rake but they are pretty hard to find. A small pull type bar rake might also work in your situation or a pto tedder/rake.

For balers I am particularly fond of the JD 14/24T and the New Holland 68. Both are about as small as a baler you will find and there are still a lot of them out there. The big thing is finding one that hasn't been worked too hard.

While the whole setup above can be purchased for probably around 2500 or less it does have some limitations. One it is slower so hence more time for your crop to get rained on. Sickles sometimes will bog down and clog up in heavier crops and will require considerably more time to dry because of the lack of crimping of the stems on some crops such as alfalfa.

If you are considering going with a more modern/new equipment Small Farm Innovations and Tractor Tools Direct have some really nice equipment in small scale haymaking.

Most of the spots I plan to eventually bale are less than two acres in size due to hills and slopes and such so for me maneuverability is going to be key for my situation. There are a ton of vids on youtube and posts on Haytalk that will also be a good resource for you to help in deciding what equipment will work best for you. Just put the type of baler in the search and you'll get all kinds of results.

flusher · Apr 18, 2014

My hayfield is 6 acres. Here's what I use:

Disc--old Towner 6.5 ft wide offset disc--free from neighbor. Replaced outer pans, added new grease zerks.

Drag: attached to the disc, half dozen tires/rims wired to a piece of chain link fence

Planter: rebuilt Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill ( 10 ft wide, 20 drops, single disc openers). Bought two of them from a neighbor for $275. Used parts from both to make one good drill.

Mower: Massey Ferguson 31 sicklebar (7 ft). $550 at auction. Added about $200 in new parts (cutter sections, rock guards).

Rake: JD 350 5-bar side-delivery rake, pto-powered, 3pt hitch type--$800 from a local rebuilder.

Baler: Massey Ferguson 124 (small squares, two-twine). $2000 from a hay farmer in the area.

Plant Kanota oats

I haven't planted the hayfield the past 3 years--drought here in CA. My hayfield is not irrigated and we've only been getting about 15" per year rain--marginal rainfall for dryland farming. And I have to constantly fight the weed problem (fiddleneck mostly).

For me haying is a hobby, not a business. I get my kicks working with the machinery.

My neighbor does 8 acres of irrigated hay (oats, forage mix). He gets about 2 tons per acre, bales are 3-twine (about 110-120 lb) and he makes a few bucks. He uses a Kubota L4630 and a NH baler with an on-board engine to spin the flywheel.

Good luck.

Nissan197 · Apr 19, 2014

Last year was the first year I baled my 10 acre hay field. I used a MF sickle mower, McCormick International bar rake, and an IH 37 square baler. I used all of this equipment with a Mahindra 3215 tractor, which has around a 28 HP PTO. My field is flat and it turned out pretty good. This year I plan on making sure my bales are heavier. I ended up with around 1,600 bales and got them all sold by February of this year. Good luck!

powerscol · Apr 19, 2014

I am in the process of buying equipment now for my small custom hay business - doing 3 acre lots in the subdivision. Part of the issue I had to contend with was gate sizes. I got an IH 1300 sickle mower - parts still made by Rowes Rakes. New Idea made the same model. It fits easy on my 3pt and does not have the lower bar to the tractor axle as some do like ford models. NH made a good sickle mower up to a few years ago.

For a rake I am trying to find a small 3pt rotary.

Now as for the bailer I spent some coin and got a Hesston 4550 inline. It is in excellent condition, so I wont be worried about parts and repairs.

Hope this helps

msch2112 · Apr 20, 2014

I was going to hay our valley for everyone and then found out it wasn't worth the risk of not obtaining insurance to do so and insurance is way too much.

Mike

farmboy12 · Apr 20, 2014

Thanks all for the advice! There's a big equipment auction coming up in a few weeks and I will probably start there and get what we can. Thanks again forthe tips, keep em comin!

Kyle

sammyd · Apr 20, 2014

I make hay in patches from 1/2 acre to 40. Our place has a coupe of 1/2 acre patches a couple of 1 1/2 patches and an acre one. We made hay on a neighbors place that was around 2 acres. So we do some smaller stuff regularly.
I use a New Holland 467 haybine a New Idea 400 rake with dolly wheel and a John Deere 24T.
Started with a New Idea mower and an off brand Meyer crimper. They worked OK and I can always go back to them.
The smaller 7' haybine will fit through any gate I've run across so far.
I started with an Allis WD as my only tractor and it did the work OK but I have upgraded over the years and like my IH 656 for the haybine and baler. I still use the WD on the rake.
We can bale right on a wagon on most 1 acre patches but have just dropped them on the ground and picked them up if the patch required too tight of a turning radius for all the equipment to operate.
Never had any problem with our insurance rates as a farm.

Making second crop on our back acre patch

tessiers · Apr 20, 2014

I have posted this before but here goes again. I do 25 acres of hay, mostly other peoples land. We do not pay for use of the land, in this area there are a lot of people with 2 to 10 acres that are happy to find someone to keep it mowed down for the hay.

Currently we use the following equipment. Made a little over 2000 bales last year, and sold enough to cover fuel twine and repairs for the year. We use about 1200 to 1500 bales a year ourselves.

1953 Ford NAA. Paid $1000, put another $500 into it. A finer tedding and raking tractor was never made, but too high geared for comfortable baling, although I did it for 3 years.

1970 Massey Fergusen 135 Diesel. Gave $3000 for it and was my wife mad, but. With live PTO and 2 gear ranges this is a nice small scale hay tractor.

Hesston 1091 9' haybine, paid $1300 for it. Was mowing with a 1941 Farmall and JD #5 sickle, sold the Farmall for $1800, kept the sickle mower as a backup.

Tontutti 4 basket tedder. Should have been $2500, I traded some work for it. We did hay for several years without a tedder but I consider it necisary for good hay, at least in my region.

International #14 4 bar rake. Paid $400 and put another $100 into teeth. Works real well.

New Holland #67 Baler. Paid $100 for scrap, put another $700 into it. It is a nice baler and does a great job but I have a lot of time tied up in it and I wish I had spent a little more $ for a good baler.

3 old hay wagon frames hauled out of a field. No cost but a lot of welding and fabricating with scrap material so no real cost but a lot of time. As it is I do not use them much. I prefer to haul hay on my equipment trailer and 1 ton. Our fields are several miles away and It is much faster to load onto a real trailer and drive 50mph home than haul wagons around.

I also have a New Holland 33 crop chopper and a forage wagon, and up until snow flies I green chop grass and feed it, that saves a lot of time drying and baleing for no reason.

Hay conveyor is pretty important to us, I paid $300 for mine

John Deere ground drive manure spreader. We paid $500

First year haying we did it all with the NAA and a Farmall H. Mow, Rake, Bale, no tedder, no wagons. Made 300 bales on 5 acres, just took off from there.

I am fairly handy around the shop and I like to buy equipment. I like to buy stuff around scrap price, fix it up. If it turns out better than what I have I keep it and use it, otherwise I sell it. I actually went ahead a little on the mower deal. All told we have made 5000+ bales with about $6300 in equipment, just for hay. I consider this pretty good and all of the equipment is ready for another 2000 bales this year. That's cheap hay any way you look at it. Even more important to me is I find it very rewarding to make our own hay. I love the feeling of knowing I provided for my animals. We have made good hay, and bad. I learned a lot more from the bad hay than the good. I think it builds character as well.

square1 · Apr 20, 2014

Made a little over 2000 bales last year

Would you say it was a Good, Average, or Poor year for production?

donais · Apr 20, 2014

Well I started out with 2 acres growing oat hay, all dry land like flusher is and boy do I wish we got 15 inches of rain. Same drought. Now im up to about 60 acres and next year I secured 12 more. Time to get a better mower and rake at least, baler and bigger tractor would be nice. I have the same mower as flusher , a case 231? rake jd 214t baler. Last year I got about 30% normal and this year I was about to cry watching all my fields brown and die. Old lady muriel said she was praying for rain( stay on her good side) because we got a 3 inch rain and most came back alive and its all but 15 acres going to make hay maybe 75% of normal! Good luck it is the most relaxing thing I do (when every thing is working) jon

tessiers · Apr 20, 2014

square1 said:
Would you say it was a Good, Average, or Poor year for production?

Poor, my numbers were a little off, more general statements. Our Real numbers were 25 acres and 2000 bales for 2012, all first crop, chopped all second crop for green feed. 2013 we made about the same bales (2000) however we did 10 acres of second crop and way less green chop so the production was down considerably. Also quality was down, the 10 acres we did get cut before the rain was OK, however what waited until after the rain stopped (6 weeks in july and august) was coarse and cut way too late. Also never recovered enough for a second cutting, hence the 10 acres of second crop. Good thing is all our animals got fed, sold some squares we needed to our regular customers and had to buy a few rounds to make up the difference but didn't lose any money so no harm done, actually gained a little quality because we bought wrapped bales for our cattle. Always figured if I work all day and don't go behind it was a good day farming! :thumbsup:

stephan · Apr 21, 2014

Maybe mentioned elsewhere here but this Star equipment from Japan for compact tractors looks interesting:

BCS Model 853 walk-behind tractor with CAEB mini-haybaler - YouTube

Available in the USA from here: AGRIQUIP.com

bjr · Apr 22, 2014

You guys have some pretty nice equipment compared to what I had to settle for. The big splurge for me was a new 52" 2555 SFI drum mower. My rake is a old #5 IH 4 bar side delivery. My baler is a New Holland 269 twine machine. I've really fought the baler hard trying to get is to tie consistently and not break shear bolts. I have the plunger out of it right now trying to get bearings, knifes and the shield plate for it and I really need to cut hay "now". I had to really shop around for the parts online as the local dealer would have been prohibitively expensive. I had to settle for import bearings as they were about one fifth the price of US made. I'm just on the edge of good and broke. I don't know why I thought baling a 1-1/2 acres would be a "GOOD" idea. bjr

tessiers · Apr 22, 2014

bjr said:
You guys have some pretty nice equipment compared to what I had to settle for. The big splurge for me was a new 52" 2555 SFI drum mower. My rake is a old #5 IH 4 bar side delivery. My baler is a New Holland 269 twine machine. I've really fought the baler hard trying to get is to tie consistently and not break shear bolts. I have the plunger out of it right now trying to get bearings, knifes and the shield plate for it and I really need to cut hay "now". I had to really shop around for the parts online as the local dealer would have been prohibitively expensive. I had to settle for import bearings as they were about one fifth the price of US made. I'm just on the edge of good and broke. I don't know why I thought baling a 1-1/2 acres would be a "GOOD" idea. bjr

Don't know whats good about it, I would love to have a drum mower, and your baler is 25 years newer than mine, knotters can be the most aggravating thing, I swear they are all female. :drink: (hope my wife don't see that comment)

DaveOmak · Apr 23, 2014

I hay 2 each 3/4 acre fields.... 14T baler.... 3 pt. wheel rake.... Drum mower.... Ford '53 NAA.... awesome combination... The NAA, fortunately has an over/under Sherman and Howard Under Drive...
I started with and JD 9W sickle bar.... What a PITA... wouldn't cut my alfalfa... kept balling up under the bar.... The Drum Mower is sooooooo sweet.... makes life very easy... cut perfect.... alfalfa dries fast due to the narrow swaths.... little to no leaf loss with the wheel rake...

RPW · Apr 25, 2014

This looks to be my first year baling. 15 acres. Have a JD 350 sickle mower, IH side delivery rake, and a Veermer round baler. All of this will be pulled by my JD 5103 tractor. Only real concern is the baler which I'm on the minimum side for horsepower and probably will have to make less than full size bales.

powerscol · Apr 27, 2014

RPW - with your JD 5103 you should be able to run any of the standard square balers out there . Now round balers may be an issue. Check out the in-lines, as they tend to take less HP. Also Alberta Canada government did some actual testing on balers, as well as a college in Nebraska.

Mud Mechanik · Apr 27, 2014

square1 said:
While I appreciate the vote of confidence, I'm really in the same boat being tossed about while considering the best use of small acreage.

Thats funny stuff:thumbsup: