Best used tractor

[highgrit]

I my eyes there's only 2 makes of small tractors. John Deer and Kubota, New Holland is good but parts could get iffy, their back and forth on a lot of stuff. New Holland might be getting better though.

 

[greybeard]

If you buy a used Farmtrac, you will be in the same boat as buying a Leyland--hard hard hard to find parts. Buying an old out of production tractor (or car) with no after-market support? Buy 2--one to use and one for parts.

 

[John SD]

I my eyes there's only 2 makes of small tractors. John Deer and Kubota, New Holland is good but parts could get iffy, their back and forth on a lot of stuff. New Holland might be getting better though.

I'm afraid New Holland won't be getting better with Fiat in the driver's seat. Seems like foreign ownership of American companies has a habit of not working out :|

Look what happened when Daimler bought Chrysler. That deal bombed and the Germans finally unloaded Chrysler on ...... who else ... Fiat. :roll:

So far Dodge pickup fans can still purchase a new pickup with a Cummins engine. But notice the new pickup is no longer a Dodge. It's a Ram. :roll:

That says to me that Fiat likely intends to kill off the Dodge division entirely somewhere in the not so distant future. How long do you think Fiat will continue to use the Cummins? Fiat replaced Cummins engines with their own Iveco in ag equipment almost before the ink on the CNH deal was dry.

IMO, whenever a foreign company buys out an American company they cannibalize it to death and leave the customer with less parts support down the road.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

I am thinking outside the box here but why do you need to have your tractor out when it is snow covered or muddy? I am using the grid feeding system that Bez and a few others use and love it. Put your bales out in a grid spaced how far apart you need them to feed with ring feeders, and put a single strand electric fence around the bales you do not want them to eat on. When the finish what you have out for them, move the post and wire past the next row of bales, move your feeders and be done with it. I can do this much faster than I can get a tractor started and get bales out of the shed. I am going to have to start my tractor for the first time since November to put out hay this week, and this will probably be the only time I will have to get it out till the grass comes on in mid April.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

So are you leaving round bales out in the weather "guarded" by electric fence until your ready to feed it?

 

[hillbilly beef man]

Exactly. Having half a winters feed out at a time lets me wait to put out any more hay till the ground is frozen.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

How do you keep the hay from rotting before they have a chance to eat it?

 

[J&D Cattle]

I am trying the same thing as Hillbilly Beef Man. I don't keep my tractor at the farm as there is no barn. I feed with a spike in my truck and a winch. It gets muddy enough that I don't want to get stuck and or tear up the fields. I lined up bales along a fence and put a single hot wire around them. When the ground is soft or muddy I'll feed these bales, when it is frozen I will feed a bale with the truck in another spot. I kept my hay under a tarp and didn't move them along the fence until this weekend as I've still got grass until March 1 or so. We'll see how it works soon enough.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

How do you keep the hay from rotting before they have a chance to eat it?

It is not outside long enough to rot. I put the first round of hay out about the first of November and it is gone by the end of Febuary.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

We've had such a wet winter I don't see how you could keep bales out for 4months and they not rot. I'll just keep using our 4wd tractor.

 

[pricefarm]

How do you keep the hay from rotting before they have a chance to eat it?

It is not outside long enough to rot. I put the first round of hay out about the first of November and it is gone by the end of Febuary.

I keep all my hay inside the barn. As soon as I get done rolling hay I start hauling to to the barn I would hate to take it out of the barn in nov and leave it out till the first of April when the grass starts to come back. As Calhoun said with the wet winter that we have had in the southeast I would expect there would be a lot of hay wast due to rot. I move my feeders around to different parts of the field but the main problem with the mud is through gates and areas that the cows hang around more.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

If I put hay out in November the bales would be completely covered in snow by now and no way for anything to eat them unless I built all my animals snowshoes.

 

[M5farm]

We've had such a wet winter I don't see how you could keep bales out for 4months and they not rot. I'll just keep using our 4wd tractor.

We average almost 60 inches rain and most everyone keeps it out side Year round I've seen 2 yr old hay that once you get 2 inches in look and smells just like the day it was bailed.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

We've had such a wet winter I don't see how you could keep bales out for 4months and they not rot. I'll just keep using our 4wd tractor.

We average almost 60 inches rain and most everyone keeps it out side Year round I've seen 2 yr old hay that once you get 2 inches in look and smells just like the day it was bailed.

Was this wrap or twine? If twine I call :bs:

We bailed more than we had room for this summer, we've had bails sitting out since september. Been rained on probably 12 times and snowed on twice. The are rotten almost to the core and almost falling apart.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

We've had such a wet winter I don't see how you could keep bales out for 4months and they not rot. I'll just keep using our 4wd tractor.

We average almost 60 inches rain and most everyone keeps it out side Year round I've seen 2 yr old hay that once you get 2 inches in look and smells just like the day it was bailed.

Was this wrap or twine? If twine I call :bs:

We bailed more than we had room for this summer, we've had bails sitting out since september. Been rained on probably 12 times and snowed on twice. The are rotten almost to the core and almost falling apart.

I hate to say it but that's probably your baler. I twine wrap all my hay and it all sets out, even in the second year it's only got about 6 inches that's not good. What is you baler? I have some friends that have a old new holland chain baler that makes hay like you discribe, the second year you can't pick a bale of it up it so rotten.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

You hit the nail on the head Denver. My apologies to M5 :hide:

We use and old new holland 845 chain bailer like this.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

You hit the nail on the head Denver. My apologies to M5 :hide:

We use and old new holland 845 chain bailer like this.

Dang, I guessed right. Those are fine balers if you can keep all your hay inside. But most people around here can't. I bale with this late 90s 4x6 Hesston and it makes a real good tight bale that sheds water.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

I use an old JD 375 twine wrap and my bales have about two inches of bad after a full year outside and 5 inches after two years outside, but it bales a tight bale to be that old of a baler. If fed that the winter after they are bailed then their is just a little rotten on the bottem. I have a neighbor that had an old NH baler and we called his rolls "squat bales". A week after they were rolled they were a full foot shorter where they settled. My dad called them haystacks with some twine around them. :lol:

 

[millstreaminn]

I use this Mahindra 4035 4wd. It's a few years old, had less than 150 hours on it when I bought it. Paid around 11,500. Goes good through a foot of snow empty, real good with a bale on the front.



or this Kubota L39. Both will carry bales well.

 

[pricefarm]

I use this Mahindra 4035 4wd. It's a few years old, had less than 150 hours on it when I bought it. Paid around 11,500. Goes good through a foot of snow empty, real good with a bale on the front.



or this Kubota L39. Both will carry bales well.

Both of those tractors look a little on the small side to be hauling hay with safely.