Used hay equipment

looch · Jun 4, 2003

Reducing the scale of operations somewhat, here...

My friend has about 15 acres of hay that I and a bunch of other guys help, when we can, to put up. We work for burgers and beer. Hay weather is the best time for an outdoor party.

He uses a Massey 65 gas tractor, a NH square baler with a chute, and an old side delivery rake. He has the field cut by someone else.

The baler is hooked to the tractor and the wagon is hooked to the baler. 2 or 3 people ride on the wagon taking turns pulling bales off the chute and stacking them (no sides on the wagon - proper stacking is critical). Once the pile gets high, one person stays on top to continue stacking while the others pass the bales up.

There's one person that stays in the field with a hand rake to collect any missed bits of hay and move them into the next windrow.

He is a diesel mechanic by day and a lot of that knowledge is used to keep this stuff working properly. He is truly a master at making do.

And, by the way - there are quite a few Vermeer round balers in operation around here.

Anonymous Poster · Jun 4, 2003

As is often said, dealer support is important, esp on equipment like a baler. JD, NH, & Vermeer are all popular around me. I would buy a brand that has good support in my location. In general NH & JD have good dealer support & parts availability for their older square balers - other brands can be questionable.

For the 10-20 acre crowd: Where I live (southern MN) you can get a good JD or NH square baler for $500-1000. Add $500 if you want a bale thrower. The side rake is $200-800, depending how fancy you want - no need to be too fancy IMHO. A sickle mower is $200-500, or a mower/conditioner is $800-2000 - these can be as fussy as the baler, but do help make top-quality hay. A round baler is about $2000-7000 for a good one. A flat bale rack is $250-300, a thrower rack is $500-1200.

Me, I bale 15 acres of alfalfa, 20 acres of hay, 10-20 acres of straw, and 5-10 acres of cornstalks with a IHC 300 tractor/ NH 270 baler/ NH56 siderake/ 501 NH sickle mower/ JD 1209 moco/ 2 flat racks/ 1 bale basket. Last year I added a Vermeer 605F round baler for $1600 - and have a few extra tractors for the mower & a bigger one for the round baler. Sure like that round baler, as I was/am the only one handling bales here, my arms were getting long & tired! All my equipment is in the above price range, or a bit cheaper. Estate farm auctions are a great place to find good used smaller equipment. You can make good hay with just the sickle mower, a moco lowers the weather loss some.

I like all my equipment (hummm, maybe trade that moco one of these years...), but for those making a living on hay or huge acres, obviously you need newer equipment. For the small acre crowd who wants to do hay, rather than watch, you can get into it for $2000 if you have a tractor already that handles a blaer. As you notice, I own a rainbow of colors (add 2 different colors of tractors, plus a silver combine) & I hope no one thinks I'm promoting one brand over another. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

--->Paul

cowboydoc · Jun 4, 2003

I'm not sure of the 40k to 110k #. I find it hard to believe that vermeer sells 3x the balers that deere does. But anyway back to the sales and service issue. I looked at the dealer locator on the vermeer website. There is one dealer in Pella, Ia. If I had a vermeer baler and needed a part how in the world would I ever get it and get going in a reasonable amt. of time? They are 3 hours away from me. If my JD baler breaks am or pm weekday or sunday the dealer is a phone call away to get parts. One time my square baler broke and they found me a part 80 miles away on a sunday. They sent somebody to pick up the part. It was a $25 part. That's what I mean by service and that's why just about everything I buy anymore is JD. I also looked in Idaho, no dealers. Montana has 1 dealer, Utah has one dealer, and Oregon has 1 dealer, Wa has two dealers. None of them closer than 350 miles from our place back home. I'm just wondering where these 110k balers are?

I just don't see how you can comment about parts and service when there are no parts or service in most areas.

HayDR · Jun 4, 2003

The reason that JD has not sold as many balers as Vermeer is JD did not have a baler that would bale hay until 1985 when JD purchased the use of the Hesston Patent to make the JD530. Vermeer had already sold 30,000 before JD started to make the JD 500 round baler. The JD 400, 410, 500, & 510 are dogs and will not work half the time. JD sells about 1500-2000 round balers a year Vermeer sells 2000-2500 balers a year. The numbers for Hesston are close to the same as Vermeer. NH sells about the same as JD. These figures have been fluctuating 10-15% depending on the year but on average over the last 15 years they are correct. JD has come a long way because their hay equipment before 1975 was not well thought of. NH & Hesston were the kings of all the hay equipment from the 1920's to the 70's.

cowboydoc · Jun 4, 2003

I'd certainly agree with you about NH and Hesston. That was all I knew growing up with regard to haying equipment. What do you think of the 1033 bale wagons? I have not been able to figure out why people outside of the west don't use stack wagons.

Also what does a round baler similiar to the 567 by JD go for in the Vermeer model?

HayDR · Jun 4, 2003

Vermeer 605XL
The Vermeer 605XL Lists for $24,000+ but we sell them for about $18,000. Bales a 2,400 Lbs bale in dry hay

cowboydoc · Jun 4, 2003

Does that include netwrap? What is that baler with netwrap, hydraulic pickup and pushbar?

Anonymous Poster · Jun 5, 2003

Frankly, what parts do you need for a round baler? Had a bearing go out on mine last fall, went to NAPA at 5:30 Friday, was back in the field in an hour. Wouldn't even have though of going to a dealer, who is an hour away - but knows more than our local JD dealer - never liked their service. Just a personal thing, every dealer makes their own reputation & has to live with it - doesn't matter the color.

Vermeer has quite a following & pockets of high popularity. Anyone that's used them says they are well made. The first couple of models they made were dogs too while inventing the concept, but they got it fixed.

Around here, New Holland is king, even the chain balers still bring $4000. Gehl is popular as well, far more than JD. Heck, even the fixed-chamber balers are more popular than JD 'here' - and JD tractors are popular, & their planters were the only game in town. So it's not a color bias. Probably a reflection of dealer support, & what works in the climate.

--->Paul

looch · Jun 5, 2003

Rambler, where is 'here'?

cowboydoc · Jun 5, 2003

How much hay do you make? I would say not alot if your baler never breaks down. Sensors go out, belts break, chains break, bearings go out, little pieces break, etc. etc. That's with all balers. If you use them alot things are going to happen. Usually it's a $5 sensor or the $25 part that holds the tying arms together, or a bearing on the roller, or a chain breaks or it simply quits wrapping, tying, etc. and you need somebody to work on it. In the last three years I've put $100 worth of parts on my 535 baler. I've had a couple sensors go out, the tying part, and the bearing. One time it quit tying and I could not figure it out for the life of me. Turned out to be $12 valve. I would have never found it. It was a saturday and called the dealer and they called somebody from home to come over and get me going. So no it's not alot of stuff but when you need a part or you need somebody you don't have a day or two to get it done.