what would I need?

Afternoon,
I'm looking for some advice on mowers and balers, that type of thing. In a couple months I'll be the proud owner of a 1959 Oliver 880 gas, freshly rebuilt and ready to go. I'll be adding a three point hitch and getting a bale spear for it to move round bales for the horses. Chances are I'll get a snowblower to clear the driveway.
But I need some advice on mowers and balers. I hope to do some baling of the ditch and currently about six acres of pasture that is decent. It's not fenced at present so the horses don't get at it. But there is also a fair amount of grass around the house that is about ready to hay, we jsut haven't been able to keep up with it because of rain.
So what type of equipment should I look for? I've never baled hay before (bucked many a bale as a kid when in high school), I've just seen a lot of different things used driving around in ND.

Chris

Chris, depends on what you want to do. Cut with a sickle bar? Haybine? Big rounds? Small squares? The 880 should run a small haybine but may come up real short on running a round baler. Mine requires 70HP.

Rick

Initial thoughts are to go with a sickle mower. As far as bale size, I'd like to do rounds even if they were on the small size. That's mostly for the convenience. Squares are fine, I feed a bunch of them when the rounds are gone. I actually have some old running gear that I plan to fix up this summer (new tires, grease/replace the bearings and put a bed on) which would work for the squares.
Not having grown up farming, I really don't know what might be best for a small operation. I have a bout 40 acres at present, 20 or so is rented out but in year or so we're going to seed it to pasture and plant an orchard. So there will be taht to hay as well.

Should be able to pull a haybine easy, I pull a 9' with a Farmall H in
1st or 2nd gear depending how thick the hay is.
Zach

If you are going with a sickle bar mower, a good old New Idea trailer would be my first choice. Some even had and aux shaft to run a crimper behind, some old JD # 5 or 7's also had that feature but were a 2 point hitch system and a bear to hook up, pinched my fingers many a time till we dedicated an old JD B to mower duty, this would save time and gas. Then get an JD crimper with steel rollers, to tow behind. Haybines are ok and do double duty of cut and crimp but I think they squeeze to stalks to much and the rubber rollers dry rot and fall apart from sitting out side. As balers go round balers take a lot of manual labor out of the equation, but left out side a good quantity of hay becomes wasted as it rots away. Square balers work much better for stacking in a barn, one with a bale thrower and you will need a couple of good sturdy wagons to go with it . One other thing hay bailed with a square bailer needs to be drier. If you bail to wet it will mold and even spontaineously combust from the heat being stacked tightly together. Above all Saftey First, shut off every thing,PTO, tractor engine and set brakes before trying work on any thing. PS: tie up the dog!!many ended up 3 legged when they ran from the barn to visit their master while he was mowing. Time to get off my soap box again..xcuse my spellin

Sounds like you aren't doing large square fields oe circle irrigation eh? So I vote for sickle bar too. I know nothing about this color, but if there was a side/ belly mount/midmower? whatever the handle, that would let you turn like a lawnmower, and maybe let you pull a rake or wagons. As mentioned by Jo? A tagalong cripper or conditioner to squish it- if the weather works against you. any old rake to start with, if I did it again, I want a pinwheel, but my old one teddered too, that was nice 'cause we get too much rain back east. Balers is a sore subject to me. Square means muscles, big round means hydraulics and big HP, small round, don't go with a Heston, see last weeks thread on this.. What ever you do, do go broke or get hurt doing this.

I've got a 26hp tractor, 5ft drum mower, 8ft rake, and 10ft(??) tedder along with a square baler. Gotta go a little slower but gets it done. If you have no experience with a sickle mower(couldn't get mine to cut butter) the drum mower is a real treat. Maybe you have a neighhbor with a round baler that would pass thru once you got everything raked?