Small tractor hay baling???

RichNJKubota · Jul 5, 2006

I use a Kubota L4310 HST for baling 10 acres. The baler is NH 320 w/kicker. The land is very gently sloped. I use 4WD and have filled rear tires and FEL. I pull a hay wagon behind the baler to catch the bales. It works well. But like most other posters have mentioned - I go real slow and take my time. No hurry as safety is the biggest factor.
On my own I would have not even considered using a hay wagon but the neighbor farmer thought my tractor could pull both the baler and wagon. He was right.
When I went looking for a baler I wanted something smaller than a 320 but the 320 was the right price ($1800) and in good condition.

slowzuki · Jul 5, 2006

I run a Kubota L5030hstc with loader, loaded tires, 42 pto hp, weighs about 6500 lb with a JD 336 baler behind it. It handles it very nicely but I would not even think about a wagon behind it except on the flat.

If you went to a much older low capacity baler like a JD 14 you would be better off and maybe could pull it ok on 30 hp.

4 acres isn't much hay even if you are in a high yield area. Here it would be about 400 bales and would take me a bit under an hour to bale.

I also mow with a 9 ft haybine and do some raking/tedding. The short compact tractors are really too rough riding in our fields to be good at tedding/raking. Just going to a 2 ft longer wheelbase makes such a difference.

7864 · Jul 5, 2006

New Holland,in the sixties made a compact baler that made 14 x 16 bales instead of 14 x 18.It was called a compact 65.My father bought it new in 1964.It was made for small tractor ,small acre baling.It could be run comfortably with a 30 hp tractor.Hills and full wagons towed behind required a lot more tractor though.

jimg · Jul 5, 2006

Fro some reason the reply I made a couple days ago to this thread diappeared...

agriquip does make a (round) baler for compact tractors. You can find out more at their website.

MikePA · Jul 5, 2006

jimg said:
Fro some reason the reply I made a couple days ago to this thread diappeared...

You mean Post #19?

jimg · Jul 6, 2006

Yup, that would be it...Im not used to the new display formats yet...sorry

Renze · Jul 6, 2006

contractor baled some hay for us with a 160 hp Ursus last week... In previous years we also had them bale with a Deutz D40, his wife's 35 year old horse chores tractor, when no other machine was available to bale.. In his fleet of Zetor, Ursus and Case Magnums he usually keeps one 80 hp Belarus for baling, it is only used for light jobs like baling and corn planting, but it has the flywheel mass to keep the baler going.

regarding these old tractors, It's the flywheel mass that did the trick, the 2 and 3 cylinder machines ran slower revs so they required a heavier flywheel.

Bob_Young · Jul 6, 2006

Back in the '80s, the only tractors we had were a gas 3 cylinder Ford 2000 (about 35HP) and an old JD40 (maybe 22HP). We baled about 15 acres every year and got about 1200 to 1600 bales of mostly orchard grass hay that we sold to people raising horses. The baler was a very tempermental McCormick 45. I grew to hate that thing.

Most of the time we baled with the Ford and did OK. We dropped the bales on the ground and took our time. When the hay got real heavy, the Ford couldn't hack it. First gear was too fast and the baler clogged repeatedly.

Because we had nothing else, we tried the old JD and were amazed to find that it worked in the heavy hay. The baler definitely had the little Johnny Popper rocking, but first gear was so low that we could successfully bale the heavy stuff....even in one quite hilly field. It was not anything I'd recommend to anyone. When the whole rocking shebang headed up the hill, you were never quite sure what the outcome would be. The JD may not have taken the task "in stride", but it never let us down.

Later we got a compact Ford baler of questionable lineage. It always baled like a dream (compared to the old 45, anything would) no matter what was pulling it. That baler is painted red and lacks any discernable model designation. Based on the paint color, I'd guess it is a late '50s, early '60s product. I still have it, but the hayfields have been defunct for several years. I'm hoping to get one reseeded next year and try baling with the L4300.
Bob

ahoude · Jul 7, 2006

I really appriciate all the replys. Moving to where I have enough land to consider something like this has my mind racing as to what I can actually do with it. Sounds like 30 HP is enough to do everything OK with the actual baling marginal. I have access to 45 HP Kioti (about 2 hrs round trip) that may be the way to go for running a baler if I decide to do this.

Banjo · Jul 10, 2006

FWIW, I have a NH271 baler that I've used behind my AC 14 (~30HP, maybe 5500# with loader and filled tires) and IH674 (~60HP, likely ~5000# as no loader, don't think the tires are filled). Works fine with both. Never felt the AC was short of power. Had to go slow on some of the heavy windrows, but that was mainly because I don't really know how full I can run the feeder. I would say that the balers of this era would likely work fine with smaller tractors. Have used the IH this year. Seems to run a bit smoother maybe.

FWIW, Andrew

PS. Should have added. Made my first hay last fall, so this is all fairly new to me.