Square hay baler value and availability questions

Guys we have had a few baler posts on here as of late. So question is what are they bringing and whats available in your neck of the woods? What I am seeing the old ones are getting scarce but do nut bring much money <$1000 Deere 14 IHC 46 NH 66 etc. The much newer ones are not to readily available used and bring quit a price (Deere 348 Nh 575) Dealers are not selling many new ones. Odd ball ones for my area like Case, Ford, Oliver Never sold to heavily and do not bring much price wise. Generally some one will buy one to keep theirs going. Demand overall is down for hay and balers thus price issues for even the mid range ones $3-7000 So whats your take on this.

Pretty reasonable take and similar for my area. I think that less hay is being made because demand is down. I see sickle bar M-C's and small square balers being sold on farms where I know those farms are running low horsepower tractors that will not run a round baler or disc mower so it is not a matter of upgrading equipment. They also made low grade forage that excludes alfalfa and timothy which has less demand. Anyways everything is available and quality varies on hay equipment. The last 575 twine baler I saw sold was around 7,300 dollars and at least 15 years old. I've seen a few JD 336 balers sold with 4,500 being the high for pretty nice down to 1,900 dollars for something that would work but needs attention. All had model 30 kickers but one. Unless collector quality condition (very nice) 1950's and 1960's balers are bringing scrap price even if very workable. I saw a very good JD 14T bring 700 dollars a few years ago but with a little cleaning and touchup it could have gone to a show.

Used to see a lot of those 14t and others like them go to the guy and his wife that baled a few for there horses and sold a few may be 1000 bales yearly. That crowd seems to be shrinking.

Yep, not seeing the few head of beef or few horses on 10 acres like 20-30 years ago. The big time horse people are young enough that they grew up without being around farm equipment so they have no desire to own any such machines. The big horse people only spend big on the fancy compact tractor, dually PU, and horse trailer.

and with the small dairy farms dropping like flies the market for the smaller hay and forage equipment is shrinking that way too.

around here you can get some very nice pull type 2 row forage harvesters for nearly scrap price. small forage wagons too. alot of those are sold for the running gear and they scrap the rest.

sign of the times... not a good one in my opinion but it is the way it is

I bought a NH 68 baler for a $200 bid at an auction several years ago, it had a bad tire, one missing sheet metal piece in the pickup and the main chain was rusted up pretty badly, but since I fixed those things it has run fine and is the only baler I've used since. I bought it to be a parts machine for the 67 we used to use, but I like the longer tongue better. We were baling 1-2000 a year back then, now only 150 or so for our own use and I just mow the rest of the fields.
Zach

I would suggest you stick with a name brand baler...Deere, NH, maybe Ford, check for the parts avaiablity,
especially, knotter parts, plunger knives, and needles. Check the bale chamber to see what's worn out and how bad.
Older IHC balers are OK, but thay have a little different knotter system. As with all balers,
when they work, they work good, when they don't it's frustrating!!!

I agree, We bought a IHC 45 I think, twine baler a few years ago. I couldn?t get it to tie consistently. Found a neighbor had a IHC 430 W bought it for junk price. Works flawlessly. We bale 2000+ . Collect into 10s. Load and unload with a loader. Mostly alfalfa. Would like to find another one for a spare, or to beat a rain.

Price and availability probably depends a great deal on where you are located. In traditional hay areas, good used balers are still out there. A lot of them sitting in a shed somewhere and haven't been used in years. You might see those on CL or at estate auctions.

About 2 years ago, I began using a neighbor's Massey #9 on a few acres. It was in halfway decent shape but needed a good tuneup. Lacked wedges in the bale chamber and would not make a tight bale over 40 pounds. It might make 200 bales with no issues, then would go through spells where it would fail to tie a knot for 10 bales in a row. Had the right guy got hold of it, probably could have been made to work. He sold it for $800. Going to a place where they were only going to use it for a few hundred bales on their own place for their own horses. Was perfect for that.

I intended to sell my hay and for that, I needed a decent baler, so went looking for something different. Wound up with a one owner NH 315 that came off a dairy farm. Had always been sheded, and had sat in a shed unused for several years, so original paint not too bad. We did about 300 bales with it last fall and it worked flawless. It cost $3,500.

I watched balers along the lines of a NH 273 (original one owner baler that had sat unused in a shed for 15 years) sell for $2,000. It looked like new.

So balers along the lines of JD 336, mid range NH's, etc. running from $2K to $5k for something that should work when you get it home.

Also, in just about all age categories, there were often 2 to 3 capacity ranges being offered at any given time. Like a Ford 150 and 250 pickup. The little Massey 9 being an entry level baler along the lines of a Ford Ranger.

I found the mid sized balers to be the best value. Wanted a JD 336, as that is what I ran 40 years ago, but couldn't find a decent one for what they were asking. Of course 1 week after I bought the NH, a nice 336 turned up at an auction 20 miles from my house.

Forget Ford, they do not exist in my part of the country.

I have two JD336 balers now. I started with JD24t balers. I paid between $300-$600 for the 24t?s and $1500-$3000 for the 336?s. The lower priced ones needed work. 2 machines of the same type give me a back up and I only need one type of parts, which I keep stock of (u-joints, belts, chains, tines, shear bolts, etc) it is easy to be baling more hay dollars in a day than the baler cost. Why take a chance.

(quoted from post at 21:54:12 02/28/19)

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JD, NH and maybe Massy would be the only square balers I'd consider today. Several other brands that where good in their day but replacement parts for them can be a issue today.

Question about the photo
Balers with bale throwers are rare in this area, I've only seen a couple and never seen one work.
My question is how do you unload that tangled mess of bales from the wagon?

I was born in the 50's, child of the 60's, and in the area I grew up, the marginal lands were still being used for beef cattle, and folks still maintained a crop rotation of corn, soybeans, winter wheat and hay. Cattle (and hay) went away in the mid 70's.....and wheat went away in the 80's.

But back then, hay was still being put up. There were tractors, mowers and rakes of all colors, but in that neighborhood, the only square balers were JD. The only other baler used back then was an AC rotobaler....bales left in the field where they dropped.

Go to Tractorhouse today and you may find 30 different brands of balers. JD and Massey combined will not equal the number of NH balers. Take out the JD and Massey and all the rest will not equal the number of NH balers.

When I bought the NH 315, I wanted some shear pins for it, so went to the local NH dealer. Was visiting with the young man behind the parts counter.......he uses an AC square baler. Says they hold their breath every year, but it keeps working so they keep using it. Dealer has a Ford baler in the yard that has a broken needle they can't find parts for......and has been sitting outside for 10 years, so is probably not much more than parts itself by now.

Have never seen an IH baler run. See a few of them on used equipment yards, but nobody seems to want them. I have heard they work great or not at all. I still remember even the hard core IH/Farmall guys in our neighborhood used JD balers.

I think I have seen enough of the kicker balers to know how they work and why they are used. You eliminate the need to pick up the bales and it keeps them off the ground so they never get wet. Critical issue in some areas. But you also need enough kicker wagons to keep you going or else a crew unloading them as you go.....so constantly swapping out full wagons for empties. And it slows the baler down a bit. And as for unloading, you still need the manual labor to unravel them out of the wagon, an elevator to the barn and a crew inside the barn stacking. And a really good baler making really good bales that can survive the abuse.

450 around me they used to pull it up to the barn with a shuttle tractor drop it and take an empty back to the baler. Now there would be in theory 3-4 strapping young men unloading that tangled mess and putting it on the hay elevator in the barn. Today it is the same but without the 3-4 young men!!! Some smaller out fits might have put the wagons in the barn and unloaded them. later.

Modirt nothing wrong with AC balers some areas they were not to common. IH balers got a bad wrap on the 45 as it did not work good. Some Ih balers did not do well with a kicker. Only issue with the kicker in small fields, just not enough room. Some people went to those ez trail type wagons.

It was not that hard to do. Just look for a loose bale, take it and look for the next loose bale. you might find one you have to pull a little but not to often. Shorter bales worked best and our thrower would only handle 32" bales, not like the 36-40 some I understand make now. But 80 was last year we made hay.

I grew up with a NH 66 baler and used it untill mid 70's when 3 of us got overcome with heat one summer. Next year had a IH 46 with kicker, good baler. The bad ones were the 45 and so a lot considered all IH bad. Dad wanted a JD 14T with the pan throer but could not find one could afford. After finding out more about the JD baler I was very glad he could not find that JD baler. The NH was set for 36" bales and after a few years set it for 30" as the 36 was just too heavy. The IH was set for about a 28" bale and that was heavy enough. I could not now at 75 even lift that 28" bale. Did not want over a 45# bale at aney time. Last made hay in 1980.