Small scale hay/straw production

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

Anybody do hay and/or straw on a small scale, say, 5-10 acres? What sort of small equipment have you found to do the job? We have an old IH 504 tractor (45-50 hp) that should work out for small acreage, but would like to get suggestions on cutter/conditioners, cutters, rakes and bailers. I saw a little old square bailer (New Holland, I think?) at an auction once. Would've been perfect for our little tractor! Problem was that there was no way to see it run, and I've heard some not-so-nice comments about the honesty of that particular auctioneer. Does anyone have comments and model numbers about certain brands of small equipment (good or bad)?

-- Campfool - So. IN (campfool@yahoo.com), January 21, 2002

Answers

Older JD (14t or newer) and older New Holland (68 or newer) balers cost more, and are more dependable. Other brands from 50 years ago might work, but have poorer knotter designs & it is easier to get a machine that does not work. So many around, easy to get parts for the NH & JD machines.

Your tractor sounds fine, do you have live pto on it? Makes it easier to bale.

For more info, check the archives of www.ytmag.com, _lots_ of info on this topic over there.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), January 21, 2002.


As far as your tractor 45 Hp is more than enough but make sure you have live pto "power take off" to the rear of your tractor. I've cut my 13 acres of grass many years with a sickle bar mower. After a day I'd go over the field of cut hay with my bush hog, couldn't afford a haybine. I've done many, many thousand bales of hay this way. I have a 50 year old "farm hand" hay rake and a Oliver 60 bailer. It's not a production operation but then I don't have the big bucks invested and I can get $2.50 a bale for my hay. Like I say its not big production but its also low budget. Good luck.

-- Herb (hwmil@aol.com), January 21, 2002.

On a *really* small scale, I have weed-whacked grass (one could scythe it, too) and let it dry down. I then stacked it on a huge tarp, made a stack, and covered the stack with another huge tarp (rains a lot here). The hay was good enough for feeding our (wether) goats for a couple of months. Not recalling how much I put up, but seems to me it was 1/3 acre or so.

We have enough stock to eat every bit of grass during season for the most part, but someday when we scale back the critter numbers a bit, we'll probably mechanically put up hay. I'm looking forward to reading answers here.

-- sheepish (WA) (the_oriignal_sheepish@Hotmail.com), January 21, 2002.


Old farmer saying is you spend more time working on equipment than using it. I'd ask around in the neighborhood to see if you can find someone willing to bale it for you either on a per bale charge or on shares (e.g., 50/50).

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 22, 2002.

A fella I know pulls an old horse drawn "hay cutter" (can you tell this is not my area of expertise?) with his four wheel atv, he then rakes it into a wagon and stores it loose since it is just for his animals. He leaves it on the bottom level of a barn I don't know think it would be easy getting it into a loft.

-- Terri in NS (terri@tallships.ca), January 22, 2002.


I think you'd be better off paying someone to bale your hay. Unless you are well acquainted with farm equipment, you'll spend a lot of time figuring out how to fix it- meanwhile here comes a thunderstorm to rain on your hay...

My SO grew up on a farm and occasionally works for our neighbor who has a dairy, grain and tobacco operation. Luckily, we are able to borrow equipment when needed for our leased hayfields. We just bought a larger farm, and now we're starting to acculate some hay equipment of our own now that we have room to store it. We got a real bargain on the wagon, rake and haybine, still looking for a good square baler and more wagons. My first question to my SO when considering any piece of equipment is "Honey, can you tear that thing apart and put it back together in your sleep?" Even brand new equipment can give you headaches, the old stuff can be an absolute nightmare!

The sickle bar mower idea isn't a bad idea at all, and you may be able to get an old wheel rake inexpensively, also. But really, the balers are a major pain in the butt. Maybe you could mow and rake and have a neighbor bale the hay? I don't mean to sound so negative, but I'd hate to see you spend a lot of money and still not be able to get the job done.

-- shakeytails in KY (shakeytails@yahoo.com), January 22, 2002.


Here is an idea how much we spent....We bought a sickle bar attachment for our older tractor at auction for $140.00, an older new holland baler for $800.00, and a 5 bar hay rake for $475.00. So far we have put up alot of hay, the baler misses about 1 tie every 50 bales, so we feel fortunate. Take an experienced person with you to afew auctions & equipment lots to show what to look for. Its alot of work for just my husband & I, but sometimes friends help out. Lots of good suggestions from everyone...best to ya

-- Suzanne (weir@frontiernet.net), January 22, 2002.

Suzanne, that is way, way too many missed knots. You should have a NH baler at 1 miss per 500 bales or less. Mine only misses when the twine balls change, or if I am doing something wrong - too wet hay, etc. I could not take the frustration of 1 bad bale in 50! And my baler is over 40 years old, 4-6,000 bales every year, never had any real work done on the knotters other than grease & repairing broken parts. I would get it looked at.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), January 22, 2002.


Thanks for all the good info! Yes, it's live pto. I'm sure there are people that would cut, rake and bale for a fee or a share, but I like doing this stuff myself. I'm not too concerned about having to work on machinery as I enjoy that too (as long as I can get parts!). Thanks again!

-- Campfool (campfool@yahoo.com), January 22, 2002.

1 broken bale every 50 isn't bad for an $800 baler. It could probably be tuned up but I wouldn't complain much at that price. Small scale it'd be a minor inconvenience.

Campfool if you're intent on doing it yourself, take Suzannes approach. Those pieces and a hay wagon is all you'd need for 5-10 acres. You could use the sickle bar for mowing other areas also.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), January 22, 2002.



We have a 12 acre field of hay. We put it up loose with scythe a couple of years, but have since found old equipment. With old cutter, conditioner, wagon, rake and bailer, we have less than $800 into our equipment that we pull with our old ford 8N. We can control the size of the bales as we get older and we only put down a couple of acres at a time. Our bailer is an Oliver, over 40 years old.

Some people say have it custom baled; I beg to differ. With small acerage fields you tend to get put off till the last cause the custom guys don't really like to mess with the small fields. If you have a neighbor do it, or anyone for that matter, it is on their schedule not yours. We have never been sorry we bought our own equipment. We used to spend the cost of our equipment every year when we bought our hay.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 22, 2002.


What Diane said..

It rains a lot out where I live. By the time I could get someone to give up their lucrative 60+ acres fields to mow and get out here, the rain would have ruined the opportunity. It would be best to be able to make hay when the sun shines (ahem!). (Tough enough to get a shearer!....)

-- sheepish (WA) (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), January 23, 2002.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ