Tiny tractor hay.

[Tx Jim]

Unique hay loading wagon

 

[sea2summit]

How much can you expect off from 9-10 acres? I have no idea but am throwing it out. It seems like it would be "more than a few." My father used to bale a little 6 acre field with a 25 HP Kubota, pinwheel rake and old JD baler. I want to say he was getting 150-175 square bales but could be mistaken. He didn't fertilize or do anything else to the fields, he just wanted to keep it from gorwing back to bushes.

If he's only getting 175 small bales percut off 6 acres he's doing something wrong. Small field I cut is 16 and I average 8-1300 depending on 1st/2nd/3rd cut, my break even cost for that field is 600 bales for a minimum of three cuts.

 

[sea2summit]

I don't know anything myself. One of my friends baled bermuda grass in Tennessee. He said he had customers come from as far as Texas. My understanding from what he told me is bermuda is a specialty item and he was able to charge much more than regular hay. But it also took more care. He said he got some johnson grass coming up and had to use a wick with herbicide to kill the johnson without killing his bermuda. He was also making square bales because his customers wanted those kind of bales to feed their horses.

For Bermuda grass? That doesn't make any sense. You sure it's not tiff? Bermuda grass isn't that great for horses which is where the money is and is low in carbs/sugars for dairy goats compared to other hay grasses so hard to market for a good price, can't imagine someone traveling for it.

 

[5030]

On reality. acreage is but a small part of overall production. If you maintain the field and keep it fertilized and weed free between cuts, even 10 acres can produce an abundance of hay.

 

[5030]

Considering that small squares of mixed alfalfa grass hay here are selling for an average of 6 bucks a bale at the barn, even a small field can be very profitable of maintained properly.

 

[5030]

For Bermuda grass? That doesn't make any sense. You sure it's not tiff? Bermuda grass isn't that great for horses which is where the money is and is low in carbs/sugars for dairy goats compared to other hay grasses so hard to market for a good price, can't imagine someone traveling for it.

Don't you mean Teft not Tiff.

 

[sea2summit]

So I I hate sickle mowers personally, a sickle mower conditioner is a little better in my opinion because it manages the hay through the sickle better. Also makes it a lot more robust system.

Someone has said small square balers are equivalent to having a having a full factory assembly floor, packed onto an axle, powered by a spinning mass of hell waiting to break loose while bouncing across uneven terrain. It's basically as easy to gum up the works as you'd think. I've spent a lot of time on a few older NH small square balers. I'm of the opinion all small square balers are pretty much the same. If you are mechanically inclined running an old one is fine but I would have two so when one goes down you can still get your hay up before it rains (which will happen as soon as the local feed store doesn't have a repair part and you have to order it). I'm very pleased investing in a new baler, I went inline which is also an amazing leap forward in usability for me. But a new baler is just waiting to get old so sooner or later I'll have to make the same decisions all over.

Tractor HP is kind of a missnomer as it applies to small square baling IMHO. Look at pictures from the 50's of farmers baling hay, a lot of them are going to be on NH/IH tractors in the 19-26hp range. But those tractors had a lot of heft, different gearing, and gears for that matter. It doesn't take much HP to hay on flat ground with a small square baller but you wont be baling very fast either. HP in this case is all about how fast you can bale, as long as your tractor can get the PTO speed up the flywheel takes care of the rest.

Break even point for selling hay is another matter. You will have to repair something every time you bale. You will have to burn a whole lot of gass (you drive every inch of that field a minimum of three times, mostly at ~540 PTO RPMs whatever that is for your engine). I have a 75 HP tractor, 9' mower, 21' rake and baler that will easily kick 4-450 bales an hour and it's still a solid four days of work for a field between 20-60 acres to bale, let alone pick it up. I would say spending extra on equipment gets you off the field sooner which saves enough money to justify the investment, for the most part. But, look at the local market, see what other hay sellers are looking like in the spring (if the barn is still half full of hay that's a bad) then think about what you want to invest and what your goals are.

 

[sea2summit]

Don't you mean Teft not Tiff.

^

 

[Jstpssng]

If he's only getting 175 small bales percut off 6 acres he's doing something wrong. Small field I cut is 16 and I average 8-1300 depending on 1st/2nd/3rd cut, my break even cost for that field is 600 bales for a minimum of three cuts.

As I said, it was a long time ago... 45 years at least. By then I was gone so could be mistaken.

 

[ultrarunner]

Grandparents had 36 milk cows fully supported on 20 acres of perfect grass/hay fields...

Same crank start tractor 40 years with sickle mower.

The tractor meant one man could do the work of many... when grandfather grew up hay and grass still cut by hand, turned by hand, loaded by hand, etc...

Fertilizer cow manure... nothing bought and fields in the family hundreds of years...

 

[5030]

So I I hate sickle mowers personally,

So do I actually, don't hate them, don't hate anything but maybe my ex wife....lol I don't like them is a better term but I do own one as a backup in case my disc mower has a brain fart. Sits in the barn and has for a couple years but it's 100% field ready in case I need it Of course you cannot operate a disc machine with a low horsepower tractor, not in the cards so you are kind of limited to what you can cut with in the first place. With a disc machine, it's not so much as having adequate power is it's having adequate power to get it up to cutting speed, lots of mass there to get rotating. Once it's up to cutting speed, it don't take a lot of power to keep it there., so long as the knives are sharp and you don't have the crimp rolls set too tight.

 

[jdmeth]

I am purchasing a Massey Ferguson gc1725mb for land scraping and chores on my hobby farm. As I approach retirement the farm will transition into my full time gig (men tend to die when they quit working). I have about 9-10 acres of hay and am looking for the best way to take over the haying (currently have a deal with a farmer a few miles away) with my small tractor. I have been looking at sickle mowers and belt rake/tedders. No idea for baling. I’m all ears.

 

[Dale in MI]

Look at what some Amish do using 1 or 2 horsepower to get hay to the barn. Found this picture on the internet:

When I was a farm kid in the 60s, it was a common sight to see old hay loaders rusting on the edge of fields. I wish I had one now. I have an old JD 14T that I bought for $1200. I broke both knotters after a year. Turns out rebuilding those knotters is about $1200.

From other pictures online, you can see the common set up was to pull the loader behind the hay wagon, so it loads from the back.

I was only getting about 25 bales of hay off my small fields, so loose storage is more attractive then the cost of running a baler.

There was a huge barn in the Brooklyn, MI area that I saw some years ago. Before it started falling down, it had a ramp where mules pulled the hay wagon up to the top. Then they dumped the hay off the wagon onto the pile.

 

[jdmeth]

Any man with a home and wife will always have a job. I became disabled in 2009. With little money I had to do all the home repairs myself. It seems like I have done more work in the last 13 years then I did in the preceding 13. My wife got a good job so we do have some money so I got a John Deere 1023E to help with my gardening and yard work. I owned a form for 25 years so I am really enjoying having my little tractor to play with.

 

[Dmacleo]

I am purchasing a Massey Ferguson gc1725mb for land scraping and chores on my hobby farm. As I approach retirement the farm will transition into my full time gig (men tend to die when they quit working). I have about 9-10 acres of hay and am looking for the best way to take over the haying (currently have a deal with a farmer a few miles away) with my small tractor. I have been looking at sickle mowers and belt rake/tedders. No idea for baling. I’m all ears.

you ain't gonna bale it.
unless you want 1ft square bales.
own a gc2400, got a gc1723 here, often use a GC1725MB couple hundred feet down the road, lot of time on GC1710, etc. you get my drift.
you ain't gonna bale with it.

 

[oldpilot]

During the War years 1943-45 my father was caretaker at a mansion in Concord MA. To get gasoline for his two 12-cylinder Lincoln Continentals, the owner became a farmer and hired Dad, two Norwegians up the road, some teenagers from Boston who bunked in the former Conservation Corps barrack, and my brother and me. I don't know what the others earned, but Joe and I got 25 cents an hour the first year, 30 cents the second, and a near-adult wage of 35 cents that final summer. Not only did the owner get a farmer's ration coupon for the Continentals but unlimited gasoline for the Allis Chalmers tractor.

The implements were all for horse-farming. As the littlest guy, I got to ride on the side-bar cutter and the tedder and when the hay was all windrowed, I got to ride on the wagon, tramp down the hay, and with my pitchfork catch the hay that the older boys forked up to me. So you don't need a baler; all you need is a gang of elementary- and high-school boys. (Girls too, I suppose, these days.)

I never saw any mice in that hay barn. There were rats in the horse stable, though. Dad killed them with a pitchfork.

>(men tend to die when they quit working)

Damn right. I've kept working, and I'll be 91 in three weeks.

 

[Rod in Forfar]

I am purchasing a Massey Ferguson gc1725mb for land scraping and chores on my hobby farm. As I approach retirement the farm will transition into my full time gig (men tend to die when they quit working). I have about 9-10 acres of hay and am looking for the best way to take over the haying (currently have a deal with a farmer a few miles away) with my small tractor. I have been looking at sickle mowers and belt rake/tedders. No idea for baling. I’m all ears.

I have been retired to a farm for nineteen years, and the best decision I have made in that time has been to allow the local retired veterinarian to harvest the fifty acres of field I have not converted to tree production. My three little diesel tractors have plenty to do with a crop of trees. The two wider tractors, 35 hp diesels, are useless for the tree husbandry because of their size, and too small for modern hay harvesting.

 

[rScotty]

I am purchasing a Massey Ferguson gc1725mb for land scraping and chores on my hobby farm. As I approach retirement the farm will transition into my full time gig (men tend to die when they quit working). I have about 9-10 acres of hay and am looking for the best way to take over the haying (currently have a deal with a farmer a few miles away) with my small tractor. I have been looking at sickle mowers and belt rake/tedders. No idea for baling. I’m all ears.

Is this to be a hobby or a profit making adventure? Or are you interested in something altogether different - like comparing types of grasses, or the various ways to store hay .....or if in bales - the types of balers?

Knowing where you are headed will help you to get there. "Hobby Farm" covers a lot of territory. Do you have a use for the hay yourself?

TBNers are kind of oriented towards opinions on cost and profitabiliy rather than say a discussion on haying equipment, curing, or grasses.

rScotty

 

[Hofzer]

My 2c. Spend the money you would spend on new "mini" hay equipment ($$$) and upgrade your tractor to a larger compact roughly equivalent to the Kubota "L" series. Many options out there. Then some old, well-kept hay equipment. For example, a NH 268 or 273 square baler.

You will like having the extra tractor for chores and many people, including me, mow with a tractor that size.

 

[Gizmos]

I am purchasing a Massey Ferguson gc1725mb for land scraping and chores on my hobby farm. As I approach retirement the farm will transition into my full time gig (men tend to die when they quit working). I have about 9-10 acres of hay and am looking for the best way to take over the haying (currently have a deal with a farmer a few miles away) with my small tractor. I have been looking at sickle mowers and belt rake/tedders. No idea for baling. I’m all ears.

Many opinions but ultimately you will have to decide how mechanically inclined you are and how much labor is too much. I have square baled plenty with an 8N and it doesn't take too much horsepower but it does take patience and be prepared to do a lot of your own wrench turning. I have a few years of auto and industrial mechanic experience and would not be afraid of tackling this with a sickle bar and an old New Holland baler. I would look for sickle mower that does not have a pitmann arm like a NH 451. Smoother running and less likely to break if you hit a small tree or big weed. I like the older New Holland baler because parts seem to be more avaiable as compared to other brands. I started on my 15 acres with a Ford 4000, Massey Ferguson 81 mower and a NH 271 baler. Tractor engine was froze up, MF 81 came out of a tree line been there 20 years and the NH271 baler needed every bearing and bushing replaced. More HP than you are starting with but not nearly enough according to neighbors. But on the flip side I could turn out tighter more consistent bales than most everyone else around here and selling them has never been an issue.