new hay farmer need some wise counsel

[catdieselsmoke]

gentlemen,
i am going to be farming 50 acres of alfalfa this year and i am new to the hay world. i am getting as much reseach done as possible so please cut me some slack if i sound "green", its because i am!! anyway, i will produce (in theory) about 4000 bales my first year and 10000 my 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th being a little less. what kind of baler or equipment should i go with?? i have been reading up on the john deere 336 baler and some new holland equipment but i do not have enough experience with this equipment to know what to go with. PLEASE help me in this decision i will take any advise you throw at me. please list model numbers when you refer to the equipment so i have some idea what to research. thanks gents,
ryan

 

[jimg]

If youve never done or helped w/ anything like this before perhaps you could get someone to do it for you for the first year or two. That way youd get the hay up and learn at the same time. Cash flow might also be easier this way. In the mean time as you learn you could look into equipment and know better what to buy. The bale package would depend on your target market. If horses its pretty likely theyll want a small square bale. If dairy they probably want round or big square bales. HTH some. Where are you located?

 

[catdieselsmoke]

central indiana

 

[flusher]

gentlemen,
i am going to be farming 50 acres of alfalfa this year and i am new to the hay world. i am getting as much reseach done as possible so please cut me some slack if i sound "green", its because i am!! anyway, i will produce (in theory) about 4000 bales my first year and 10000 my 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th being a little less. what kind of baler or equipment should i go with?? i have been reading up on the john deere 336 baler and some new holland equipment but i do not have enough experience with this equipment to know what to go with. PLEASE help me in this decision i will take any advise you throw at me. please list model numbers when you refer to the equipment so i have some idea what to research. thanks gents,
ryan

I assume you're into dry land farming and don't need irrigation where you are in Indiana.

My neighbor has three 10 acre irrigated alfalfa fields. He uses a NH 500 3-twine baler set up to be self-propelled.

The bales weigh 100-130 lb. He can bale 10 acres in about 45 minutes with this rig.

To rake the crop he uses a pair of side delivery rakes on a single hitch to speed up the process

He and his helpers buck the bales onto a wagon by hand. You'll probably want a bale accumulator that attaches to your baler. There are several vendors for this type of equipment. Just Goggle "bale accumulator".

He uses an 8-10 ft wide Brillion seeder for planting.

Discing is done with a 12-ft tandem disc pulled by either a D7 Cat or a Massey Fergusion 294 4WD tractor.

 

[RWolf]

Me thinks jimg was refering to are you selling primarily to horse owners or cattle operations. The reason is although horse owners like alfalfa it is more of a diary cattle forage.

Good luck on your operation.

 

[JasG]

How mechanically inclined are you? Even new equipment needs adjustment and repair from time to time. Also how old equipment are you looking at? If it's JD 336 vintage I would say that was the best baler of it's day. Today New Holland and Deere both make very good product. New Holland back then made a good baler, I feel Deere made a better bale at the time.

1st we need some information.

Is the ground Hilly?
Are you going to drop on the ground? Or use a thrower/kicker?
Do you want a disc mower or a sickle bar? Mower only or a conditioner?
What is the humidity in the summer?
Are you going to look for a rotary rake or a bar rake?
How large a tractor are you going to use?

All of these make a difference in the answer.

If you search the posts here a lot of information has already been gone over on different types of equipment and models.

How many cuttings are you figuring to get per season? 10000 bales on 50 acers of alfalfa seems high to me.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Where are you going to store the hay you bale? This will have a big say in the type of equipment you go with. If you have a good pole barn with plenty of ceiling height then you can use just about any system but if you are stacking in a loft you are limited.

We can help you more if you can give us a lot more details as to your current conditions and what your market is.

Where I am I farm all flat ground. I cut with a Gehl discbine (9'), rake with a New Holland 256 (would prefer a large rotary that allows me to rake two swaths at once), ted with a Vicon RS 510T (17') and bale with a New Holland 575. I currently have a model 72 thrower on it and use 4-5 kicker wagons but am trying to change to a Kuhns accumulator as I can't handle the bales by hand like I use to.

Tractor wise I am using a New Holland TN65 (50 horse give or take) to cut and bale with. I use a Ford 640 and Ford 1920 to rake and ted with. I have a Ford 7710-II still but my dealer stole it from me and that was the tractor I prefered on the cutter and baler as it was 120 horsepower and had the weight to handle both jobs with ease. It also had a cab which made it nice during the hot summer days. The TN was used on the tedder when I had access to my 7710 as it is a much more comfortable tractor to operate. The rake was on the 1920 and the 640 was a spare or used for other jobs. I would have loved a 75-90 hp tractor dedicated to my mower as depending on the weather I am cutting and baling on the same day (different sections) so I am changing over often each year.

 

[jimg]

Me thinks jimg was refering to are you selling primarily to horse owners or cattle operations. The reason is although horse owners like alfalfa it is more of a diary cattle forage.

Good luck on your operation.

Yes & no...there are quite a few race horses in this area and straight alfalfa and grass mixes are consumed by them. Many of the dairies have since gone to factory waste for feed. Perhaps thats not the way of it in IN.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Been many years since I had a small custom haying business. IMO a lot of what you will need and how haying is done in your area will dictate a lot of things.

As for Tractor, something in the 50hp range could handle the chores. I Had a MF 165D and could do all I needed. There were times on larger jobs when a second tractor could have been put to use for things like raking.

Around here 1st cutting of alfalfa and clover were a bear due to the rapid growth and wet springs. Crop would be leggy and most likely laying down due to all the rains. These conditions called for a mower/conditioner, a tedder and the baler of your choice. Around here sq bales are still king.

Under these conditions you don't want to use a conventional side delivery rake as it just roped the long crop and didn't promote drying. I had a unusual side delivery rake that could do windrows or tedd, no roping of the crop. Had a separate 2 row tedder when the conditions called for it.

I had a new JD 336 baler and IMO is was a mixed bag as to durability. Lost about 5 needles the first season before I learned the timing info in the manual was incorrect. Had a knotter frame break the fist season as well. The replacement was a gen purpose item and needed some rework depending upon which model baler is was being used on. Also the main bearing on the plunger was undersized IMO as I would go through 1 or 2 a season. Maybe I was running it too hard as I was punching out a 50# bale about every 10 sec. Oh, typ yield around here was about 4T/A for 1st cutting.

For my operation I didn't need any equip for gathering or stacking the hay. Do think for you some type of accumulator, stack hand etc would be called for.

Best advise, get local information as to equipment needed and correct methods to use. Doesn't take too long before you will be modifying the advise received to things that work best for you.

 

[flusher]

central indiana

Forgot to mention that my neighbor mows his alfalfa with an old NH swather that you can see in the backgound of the 1st photo I posted.