Vicon (now Kubota) Pendulum Spreaders

[RickB]

What square baler did you buy?

 

[Hay Dude]

Heston 4910 few years ago, looking at AGCO 7444 to replace it.

 

[5030]

Getting ready to put my 575 on Tractor House. Have not used it in 5 years. Sitting in the barn ready to go but no square bale customers.

 

[RickB]

I hope you have a bigger horse in the shed than what's in your profile.

 

[Hay Dude]

I hope you have a bigger horse in the shed than what's in your profile.

My 200HP Massey would pull the 4910 on flat, gently sloping no problem. The future plan is to put the square baler on the hilly ground instead of the round baler for obvious reasons. The 7444 will need a bigger puller.
Its in the works

 

[RickB]

The 7444 will need a bigger puller.

That's what I was getting at.

 

[Hay Dude]

Getting ready to put my 575 on Tractor House. Have not used it in 5 years. Sitting in the barn ready to go but no square bale customers.

I make a few thousand small bales with a buddy of mine (I big bale his native grasslands and we small square his Timothy). I think he sold 800 of the 2000 we made last year. Its dying off a little more each year.
Selling a lot more rounds and big bales to the new “grass fed beef” cattlemen these days. I’m hoping he will roll into big bales exclusively in the next few years. Hate to see a dying art like that go away sometimes, but a relief on my shoulders...

 

[5030]

I disagree. Not dying at all. In fact' I could sell every small square I used to make. I don't want to. Too labor intensive, hard to store and then the getting paid an equitable amount is the deciding factor for me.

Horsey people will always use small squares because they lack not only the ability to handle rounds (equipment and infrastructure) to deal with rounds and besides rounds are wasteful for a horse owner so there will always be a market for small squares. Not going away so long as horsey people exist.

I don't know of one horsey owner around here that uses or wants round bales. They all want small squares, they all want premium hay and none of them want to pay for it either.

I got out of it because the grief factor outweighs any benefit.

The stuff you bale (mostly grass) isn't what they want anyway. Cattle don't care, horsey people do.

 

[5030]

I hope you have a bigger horse in the shed than what's in your profile.

If that was directed to me, I don't need a bigger tractor to run a small square bailer, in fact, I could use a much smaller tractor to run ANY small square bailer. Square bailers depend on flywheel inertia to run, not PTO horsepower. The only disadvantage to running a square bailer with a light tractor is the inertia of the reciprocating ram tends to toss you around a bit when turning at the end of a windrow. One reason why I like running small squares (only reason actually) is unlike making round bales, you don't need to run the pto at rated speed, any speed that gives you the number of slices per bale works just fine. In fact, I use my 1000 rpm pto setting with a 21-6 spline adapter and run the 1000 rpm at 640 which is reduced rpm and makes it real easy on fuel. The tractor is loafing along at about 1/2 the 640 rated rpm when I have the 6 spline stub in the housing. Just about the rpm I need to keep the ac working efficiently.

 

[RickB]

If that was directed to me, I don't need a bigger tractor to run a small square bailer, in fact, I could use a much smaller tractor to run ANY small square bailer. Square bailers depend on flywheel inertia to run, not PTO horsepower. The only disadvantage to running a square bailer with a light tractor is the inertia of the reciprocating ram tends to toss you around a bit when turning at the end of a windrow. One reason why I like running small squares (only reason actually) is unlike making round bales, you don't need to run the pto at rated speed, any speed that gives you the number of slices per bale works just fine. In fact, I use my 1000 rpm pto setting with a 21-6 spline adapter and run the 1000 rpm at 640 which is reduced rpm and makes it real easy on fuel. The tractor is loafing along at about 1/2 the 640 rated rpm when I have the 6 spline stub in the housing. Just about the rpm I need to keep the ac working efficiently.

It wasn't directed at you and I wasn't referring to running a small square baler. I try not to read or react to anything you post and I sure don't need schooling on small square balers. I spent half my life running them and much of the other half keeping them running properly for others.

FYI the slower PTO standard is 540 RPM, not 640.