Small tractor hay baling???

captjack · Jul 9, 2011

The deere baler with the side flywheel doesnt shake as bad as the NH. My neighbor puts up hay with an l3000 kubota and a NH 316 baler -

The advantage to small tractors is that you never need extra sheer bolts for the baler ! haha

rankrank1 · Jul 9, 2011

Sue Tweedy said:
Looking for a sickle mower and a baler that can be used with a Massey GC2300 compact tractor

I believe your Massey is more along the lines of a sub-compact tractor. There are balers made to work with tractors that small, but hard to find on the used market. At $15k or or more new one I doubt that it will be cost effective for you - cheaper to simply buy hay.

Assuming your PTO shaft turns a standard 540 rpm then sickle mower will be easier to find as it does not take much hp run a sickle.

I bale with a 26 PTO horsepower Kubota L285 but my tractor is bit bigger in physical size and is a true compact tractor. I use New Holland 65 compact baler that is the absolute smallest baler of any of the vintage balers that you can find cheaply. A Ford 520 is also small, but parts will be hard to find for the Ford. Both the New Holland 65 and the Ford 520 have 12"x16" bale chambers and are the only 2 models of vintage balers with plungers this small that I am aware of. Other vintage balers will be either 14"X18" or 16"x 18" plunger sizes. Bigger plunger takes more hp to run also shake tractor back and forth more as plunger rotates (14x18 is common size).

Another option is to find an old baler with an engine on it to run the baler .

I personally would not run a vintage PTO powerd baler behind your tractor as I do not feel the transmission driveline is heavy enough. A vintage baler with is own engine would be okay. One of the Microstar mini-balers designed for your tractor is quite expensive so unless you are in this for the long haul it will not be practical. Might be beter to pick up a cheap bigger tractor to bale with.

How many acres you doing?

AKfish · Jul 13, 2011

There's alot of good used "Ag iron" out there - for pennies on the dollar! Much better in the long run versus tearing up and paying for repairs on your "too small" tractor.

zz and SPYDER and slowzuki have been successful by carefully matching their tractors with smaller, older balers.... and being very capable at repairing and maintaining those older balers!!!

You have to be willing and able to work on those older balers. And you have to be on the lookout for spare parts machines and other sources for reasonably priced parts and repairs.

If that describes your "MO" - keep reading and searching here on TBN. You'll eventually gather a list of baler models and even possible tractors that would fill your needs and match your pocketbook.

AKfish