School me on bay equipment needs

Hey yall,

So when I was younger and we made hay we still used a old
Oliver sickle, roller crimper, and a old side delivery rake with a
IH wire tie baler. Id like to do about 20 acres of hay here in the
future.

Im kind of overwhelmed in regards to the various types of hay
cutting and conditioning tools available on the used market. I
always wanted a haybine but it seems most guys are going for
disc bines. Im in northwest ohio where weve had very wet
seasons lately so Im certain Id still need the rollers that the
disc type do not have? What do you all think/ recommend? Id
still like to make small square bales.

Get a New holland 9 foot haybine, any sort of a rake, but a rotary one is best, and a small square baler. A 50 horse tractor with live P T O will be sized correctly. wagons will be needed also. What will you do with the hay? Feed it sell it? Do you have a place to store it? Do you have people to help you handle it? You can do this on a budget or spend $200,000 easy. Best of Luck Bill

I am also from northwest Ohio and even tho have not made since 1980 I would not go with any of the machinery from 1990 up, stay with old designs. Just a cycle mower - conditioner, tedder that looks like a combine pickup real rolabar rake and small square baler with bely thrower.

The only reason to do that is if the tractor is low HP (under 40) or low capability hydraulics. Not many mint NH 461 haybines to buy an older machine just to do so. Buy equipment in good condition, that will be productive, and has parts available for common needs regardless of when built.

Seven ft. disk mower, rotary rake--with the curtain up they work like a tedder, New Holland baler, two flat racks and two high school kids.

I guess they disc mowers can get the hay conditioned by the beaters that are in there to kink the stems several times down the stem so it dries as fast as fooling around with conditioner rolls. Don't know and can't say since I use an old 1219 Deere mower conditioner. I would not go back to a mower and a crimper for the cost of fuel and time if nothing else. Why run over the field twice when you can do both in one trip. Then the easiest rake is the wheel rakes for working on and speed of raking with few moving parts those whirly gig rakes have a lot of moving parts to keep up on them. Bar rakes work good with fewer parts and more than the wheel rakes. Idiot cubes are to labor intensive for a one man band. Unlesss you either drop them in packs and load them with a loader or a kicker then just let fall from a roof conveyor to the mow floor till full. Lots of broken bales that way if you're selling them. Smaller round bales do pretty well unless you can sell by the ton then the size doesn't matter except those with small loaders.

everyone covered what i feel with moco machine, I have a new Holland 499 that i will let go for what i have in it, need the rollers recover with rubber. i was going to send them off and then i picked up a caseih 5000 self propelled haybine and have not touched it. i had done some work to the 499 as it is a good machine. figured your somewhat close to me figured i let you know.

Unless money is no object, for just twenty acres I would go with a sickle bar mower conditioner. The disc mocos enable you to go much faster but they take a lot more power and cost a lot more. You will need a tedder. get a modern one with the horizontal rotary wheels. how flat and level your ground is makes a difference too especially in rakes.

The concepts of making hay have not changed. There are just more options out there as far as tools for making it.

You can still go with what you know or you can incorporate some of the newer technology. You won't need anything large.

A 3pt disc or drum mower will work just like your old sickle, just faster, with less "drama" and easier maintenance. A large tractor is NOT required. New small disc and drum mowers can be purchased very reasonably from short line dealers, from Eastern European manufacturers.

3pt mowers don't generally have conditioners, but do you really need one? If you do it would be best to find a good used sickle type haybine or a smaller discbine with roller conditioners if you want to stick with smaller tractors. Stay away from flail conditioners as they have high HP requirements.

Separate conditioners went all but extinct in the 1960's. There is one company I know of that makes one but it's a specialty machine.

Tedders have not changed. The star type is more popular, and you can get a new 2-star fairly reasonably from the same Eastern European manufacturers as the mowers above. There are also tons of used star and reel type tedders on the market.

There are wheel rakes, bar rakes, and rotary rakes. Rotary rake makes the nicest windrow but are also the expensive option.

Balers haven't changed much. In fact most manufacturers have stopped making them.

Are you putting up hay to sell or to feed to your own livestock? Large round bales, small square bales or silage?

Edit: I have a total of 120 acres on the home place. Id like to put 20 acres in hay to feed a few cow calf pairs. Tractor wise I have a 4020 diesel synchro, John Deere B and a ferguson TO20. Id like to keep it square bales as I have a old barn to store hay in and I dont have a loader tractor besides my old backhoe.

I was putting 16 acres of hay for quite a while before my son started trying to make a go at getting in the hay business. What you were using as a kid still works today - if you can find decent machinery to use. Until 4 years ago I used a single Farmall 350, an International 1000 balanced head mower, a New Holland 56 rake, and an IH 47 wire tie baler. Along with a couple hay wagons and a fairly heavy duty 16' utility trailer. The 16 acres would produce anywhere from 850 to 1200 bales (depended on weather) usually right at 1000 bales.

I would mow it in patches of 300 or so bales - so I could load everything and not leave a bale in the field at night. Want to make it rain - leave 100 square bales standing in a field overnight. It would take a couple days to unload and sell what was on the wagons then do it again. I was extremely short on storage space and literally only had space for 200-250 bales under a roof. A good day was when I would discount a $1 a bale and people picked up their own from the field.

I delivered to one place that had horses and the guy pointed out his new little John Deere 3032 tractor that he used for mowing. I told him he had at least 3X more money wrapped up in that lawn mower than I had in all my equipment that I used for hay - and that included the 1964 F250 that pulled the trailer to his place.

I'm in NE Ohio and do a bit over 20 acres. JD 1207, Ford 503 rake and a 273. Just got a used Sitrex tedder this spring. I pulled the 1207 with a Ford 2000 with non-live PTO till I got an Oliver 1550. You can do what you want with nothing over 30 HP. I can put four loaded wagon under roof so I don't have to unload right away. This year was an exception but it's usually hard to make hay in June in this area.

round bales use old backhoe to load

My choice would be a 488 New Holland haybine, rotary rake like these guys are describing that can rake or ted and a 311,570, 575 or 5070 a
new Holland baler.

Cheap & easy for 20 acres?

3 pt drum mower
3pt hay bob (tedder & rake combo)
4x4 twine round baler (or whatever is cheap...4020 can run bigger easy)
chain on spear for your backhoe.

I make dry hay in 2 days (hot, dry & windy) with disc mower (no conditioner) and tedder. I don't rake the hay until it is ready to bale. Conditioners aren't really as big as they used to be, most just use straight disc mower now.

This post was edited by 495man on 08/17/2023 at 04:43 pm.

What you did long ago still works, if you can find good used old equipment.

A sickle mower conditioner works fine. That would be a step up from what you did and the right price point for what you hope to do.

If you have money to burn the disc mower conditioners are faster and go through gopher mounds. But - you dont need that for 20 acres.

Paul

We only do 25 acres but due to work I mostly mow in the evening and bale on weekends, so we are all about speed. We square bale everything so often run 2 rakes and 2 balers to move fast. We also put up quality hay. That is not an option. I started out with a NH 461 haybine, a 24T baler and a HN 55 rake. We spend the time to maintain our equipment in very good condition and break downs are few. About 10 years ago I bought the NI discbine and I wouldnt go back to a haybine ever. I can mow after dark or after rain, no problem. I think if we were feeding cows a round baler would be best.

Couple pictures

use the disc mower then ted the hay so it can dry idea is to get the hay off damp ground so it dries better