Tiny tractor hay.

[Dmacleo]

one thing to remember.
older tractors may hay have had less advertised HP....but they all had flywheels with a SHITLOAD of stored energy.
a Massey SCUT does NOT have that stored energy.
yeah I tried to run a baler off a 2015 gc1710 for about 2 minutes, was around 2016 I did this (1710 and 1723 same hp/tq ratings) and I can't remember make/model of the (2x4ft ) baler. at 1800 rpm engage pto tractor stalls.
I mean it just says F U and dies.
at 2800 (full bore) rpm baler starts to spin. low range creep into windrow as slow as I can....baler stalls out kills tractor and you got mess on your hands.
great way to break a tractor.
DO NOT TRY TO BALE WITH A SCUT!!

edit:had year and model # wrong, corrected
edit 2: I have used a tetherer on GC series but the 32hp MF1532 worked better.
for rakes....GC will NOT work. not enough grounds speed.
but even the MF1532 had issues with baler.
used the cabbed MF2850 (2015 model year) then.
so even CUTS would have issues baling.
and there is a difference between CUTS and SCUTS.

 

[JWR]

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.

As others have said, you need to give us more info on your overall picture and intent -- Do you have use for the hay yourself? Are you going to raise farm animals? What all else are you going to be doing that you plan or know about?

Several comments (pending better info from you):
1) Doing haying yourself on 10 acres makes no sense. Keep the deal with the farmer ! You sure cannot move normal round bales with that GC. Balers and all that are a sizeable investment that I don't see how you could justify economically.
2) You may/probably will have some need to cut grass, trim fields, etc. You can handle a light 5ft sickle mower with the GC but they are a PITA and require sickle blades replacement every once in a while, sharpening, etc. High maintenance really. Depending on your other intents you are better off with a 5ft bush hog or flail mower for trim and upkeep of the place.
3) If you want to sell some hay or use some you will need a large shed for storage, etc. How many acres do you have overall?
4) You can probably have the hay baled as a "custom" chore by any nearby local farmer. Square bales you can move on a wagon/trailer easily handled by your GC or pickup truck. You won't make much but maybe a little $.
5) Forget even small balers -- no point unless you just want to spend the money and enjoy the work. The larger balers can't be handled by your GC. If you get into hay tedders and/or combo cutter/conditioners you are out more money than you will ever recover plus you have to store and maintain them. Silly unless you just love to play with them.
6) Landscaping ? What's that mean? You absolutely will want a front end loader and probably a grapple for the loader. DO NOT fail to get a skid steer compatible quick attach adapter on your tractor -- opens hundreds of gadgets that will eventually interest you.

Good luck -- let us know more about your overall property and plans.

 

[RichNJKubota]

Wow! I just googled your tractor. It's like a large lawn tractor. No way you are going to bale hay with it. I also have 10 acres of hay and have a 43Hp kubota, old NH small square baler, rake, tedder and hay wagon. I can do the 10 acres of hay with no problem. No safety issues other than the usual - don't stick your hand in the baler. And it all works well.
But I would not want to have a smaller tractor either in weight/size or hp. I learned about hay from a neighbor farmer who I helped bale for many years. He had old IH big gas and diesel tractors. They can be had for not much money if you are willing to do some repairs.

 

[MHarryE]

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.

Main question I have is what bales your current customer wants. I am also in MN, retired, and understand your deal that if you don't keep busy, you die young. I cut some hay each year and have one field this year I can give you numbers. I have a New Holland Haybine (30 years old), New Holland small square baler (also 30 years old), New Holland Rollabar Rake (could be 50 years old), and first used a Kubota L3710 which might be larger than your proposed tractor. Handled it no problem. This year first crop red clover was 300 bales on an 8 acre field and 200 second crop. I'm so far north I didn't get a third. I have moved up on everything so baling now is with a 105 HP tractor which handles the baler a little easier but overkill. But if your customer needs large round bales, its an entirely different story. You first need to figure out your client.

 

[jcman]

I started our farm with a used Kubota 8200 with FEL 19 horse, and 16 hp on the PTO. Over the years I bought a 4' brush mower, single 12" bottom plow, 6' backblade, 5' disc harrow, 5' tine harrow, sicklebar mower, ground driven side delivery rake, and a self propelled Massey Ferguson MF 10 baler about 1962 model year. I made hay with the Kubota for several years but hated the sicklebar mower. The hay here gets real tall by the time the ground is dry enough to harvest and it falls over. Sickle bar mower just skipped over it unless I mowed against the grain and backed up for each cut. The engine on the MF10 conked out after a few years and I switched it to a PTO with the help of a neighbor who had a bunch of extra parts that fit. I finally got tired of the sickle bar mower, sold it and the side delivery rake and bought a 135 (4'5"cut) drum mower. Used it one season with the Kubota but it was too heavy for the Kubota to pick up without me lifting on the back. Bought a used Massey Ferguson 135 for mowing and traded some hay to a friend for his tedder/rake. This year I bought a 165 drum mower and sold the 135. Reason for upgrading, the Massey's rear tire flattened the windrow from the 135 mower. The MF 10 baler calls for minimum 13 hp on the PTO. My Kubota doesn't have a live PTO so it doesn't work well running the baler.

 

[TexasDigger]

That tractor is too small for any square baler that wouldn't beat it to death. If you want to push tractor limits, you could do some research on the smallest 4x4 balers you can find (Hesston & all the sub-branded ones were small). You would have to be able to dial the baler down to make smallest possible bales though and regardless of the bale size you would still be pushing limits of that tractor.. I had same problem that led to me trading up from a 35hp - the cost of the specialized compact implements were going to be more than the extra $$$ spent to upgrade tractor. We don't have a suitable hay cutter or a baler yet so have definitely gotten creative on keeping our horses fed & keeping our hay bill down!.. If you're just wanting to feed your own livestock and want to go absolute bare minimum (and also save $$ on implements!), there are a couple of options: There isn't a rule that says you can't cut hay with a rotary cutter - it's just not "ideal". A couple of tweaks can help the grass to discharge as quickly as possible rather than mulching/shredding it and is totally usable to feed the varmints with.. Few ways to do that: If your RC has a removable side/back panel on it - take it off for "hay cutting". If it doesn't already have a removable panel on the back or one of the sides, they make die grinders, screws and welders for a reason.. If you don't want to do a hack job on your RC, you can also just raise your back wheel/s up more on the RC to allow the cut hay to discharge quicker. You have to play with your rpm & ground speed to get the best results - cutting at as fast of a ground-speed as possible so you're not over-mulching the hay. Goal is lower rpm's and/or higher ground speed that will still cut fairly clean - sharp blades don't hurt either (allows for faster ground speed & less rpm's). If you get it just right, the output is not too far off from a haybine. As long as you rake/ted after the cut with whatever option you choose, the only issue you have from there is how to get it to the animals.. You'd be raking & pitch-forking it from there though if you don't have a way to bale.

We're dealing with about the same amount of hay to cut (apprpox 10 acres that's actually usable hay) and have been feeding our horses this way for almost a year and so far it's working fine! I think the hay quality is actually better than what we had been paying $12 per bale for! Our RC leaves little windrows behind it since it comes right out the back so we just cut our field when we know it won't rain for a bit then flip it a couple of times & then hand rake it onto a small trailer that gets stored under a roof near the feeding area to keep the hay dry & off the ground. It's tedious but it saves us a lot of $$ on hay - we buy bales about 1/4 as often as we used to - even during the drought, and the only reason we've bought any at all is usually just because I'm busy doing other projects or just don't feel like going out to cut/load more manually! Even with that, we've still saved close to $1000 in the past year on haying the animals. Eventually we do plan to get a rake and baler but for the time being, I've considered maybe making some DIY "pitch forks" to add onto my bucket to make the current process easier for tedding the hay and loading it onto the trailer.

Or your other option #2: new tractor (what we did!)
or... option #3: drop $13k-$14k on a compact/subcompact baler/package like this:
Compact Homesteader Hay Package
or this: Subcompact Homesteader Hay Package

 

[Jchonline]

Found a few round balers. As I mentioned, these bales are really small. Maybe have a look. To me a waste of $$$ if you are looking at balancing the budget.

Yanmar YMRB32

Mini Round Baler - Twine | Terrain Implements

Independence for the hobby farmer and small operators is finally here! This simple, easy to use Terrain twine mini baler will not only make you more productive (80-120 blaes/hr), but it also won't break the bank. Making bales you can handle and by only requiring 20+ hp you don't need to invest...

www.terrainimplements.ca

Ibex TX31 Mini Round Baler with Twine

The Ibex TX31 Mini Round Baler with Twine Wrap provides the simplest, easiest to use baler on the market today. The Ibex is a quality machine at the lowest price in the industry. Can be operated by compact tractors with as little as 18 HP and is perfect for small-farm hay or pine straw production.

ibexequipment.com

 

[TexasDigger]

Found a few round balers. As I mentioned, these bales are really small. Maybe have a look. To me a waste of $$$ if you are looking at balancing the budget.

Yanmar YMRB32

Mini Round Baler - Twine | Terrain Implements

Independence for the hobby farmer and small operators is finally here! This simple, easy to use Terrain twine mini baler will not only make you more productive (80-120 blaes/hr), but it also won't break the bank. Making bales you can handle and by only requiring 20+ hp you don't need to invest...

www.terrainimplements.ca

Ibex TX31 Mini Round Baler with Twine

The Ibex TX31 Mini Round Baler with Twine Wrap provides the simplest, easiest to use baler on the market today. The Ibex is a quality machine at the lowest price in the industry. Can be operated by compact tractors with as little as 18 HP and is perfect for small-farm hay or pine straw production.

ibexequipment.com

I agree. For $7k-$13k you can buy a LOT more tractor with that $$ and find a used baler for $2k in working shape all day long. That's exactly why I punted our 35 for 75.. but I went a bit overboard not wanting to make the mistake of buying not enough tractor twice. We probably would have been fine with a 50-60hp tractor if had bought that from the start but by the time I was losing the equity, it wasn't much more to go up a little more $$ for much more hp!

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Max-24- Dean, what is a buck rack? also interested in this post because i have about 3 acres of hay and hard to justify the 18k small bale combo package!! thanks.

Pull the rake until it fills with hay and grass, then dump it in a pile. Pick the pile up with the front end loader spears and haul to barn and dump.

 

[JWR]

Pull the rake until it fills with hay and grass, then dump it in a pile. Pick the pile up with the front end loader sprears and haul to barn and dump.

That video is of the old standard horse drawn rake. The user seated on the rake kicked the pedal you see and it updumps however much hay you have collected in it by then and it starts over. Typical use was to unload the rake at the right moment in each round of the field so that you made "winrows" as they were called which is rows of hay 2-3 feet deep and end to end forming a long chain or winrow. In early baler days these could be picked up directly by the baler and baled into square bales. Yes, you could devise all sorts of means to collect larger quantities from these winrows to be carted off to the hay stacking spot or to a barn for storage.

Great -- now is there some reason for the OP to ever do this ??