Plb, I see some of the negative posters are trying to get you to change your mind, but thats okay. Your post was asking for advice since you had already made up your mind WHAT to do. That's what I mean by negative people, for the guy who asked. If they cant answer the question they should pass it up instead of trying to act like experts about everything and tell you that everyhting you want to do is a mistake. You know WHAT you want to do, you just want advice to help you do it, right?
I checked with hubby and showed him some of the posts so far and here are a few more things for you to think about. He said it is hard to beat a Kuhn or a Lely mower, alto Vicon is good too he said. Talk to your dealer to match the mower you buy to the size tractor you have because the mowser has the greatest power requirement. Almost any kind of wheel rake will work for you because they are almost all alike. He said to go with either a green or yellow baler, John Deer or Vermeer. You will be happy with either. And be sure to go with the simplest monitor that you can get. It doesn't take a fancy monitor to bale hay if you have a good rake man he said and if you do it all by yourself you don't have an excuse to not have a good rake man. LOL. He also said that if you have 2 tractors that having your kids to rake hay for you is perfect but the wife is a good 2nd choice
But he also laughed and said that if she is a "heavy milker" and your ground is rough that she might not be able to rake fast enough for you without complaining. Wonder what he means by that?
:lol:
The 1 thing he cautioned tho was not to get a small "ToysRUs" size baler like a 4' x 4' or 4' x 5'. He said those are mostl;y for the weekend warriors or else peopel who bale hay to sell to the weekend ranchers and try to gouge them by selling them 500 pounds of hay for the price of a bigger bale. He said try to find you a 4'x6' at least, or a 5' x 6' would be better unless you haul hay a long ways or sell it to somebody that hauls it a long way and then you need to stick with the 4 x 6. New is best but used from a local dealer that yuou can trust and that has parts and that will work on it is okay until yuou decide if you like making your own hay.
He said (just like I did
) that 2 tractors will make it easier for you, with 1 big GOOD tractor (80+hp) to cut and bale with and a smaller "chore" type tractor to rake with but that IF YOU HAVE TO, you can get by with 1 tractor for a while. But using 1 tractor will leave your corners looking messy if you try to rake it all first and then bale it but that you can clean a lot of that up with the baler or turn the cows in and they will clean it up so don't worry too much if you only have 1 tractor. He said that a 60 acre meadow really isn't that big so don't let these boys on here scare you. If it takes them a week to do a 60 acree meadow he's sure glad that they're not baling some of ours. :lol:
Also he said that you will have to put out a lot more than the $1,000 worth of fertilizer that 1 or 2 of them talked about. He said he's heard of people buying their fertilizer in a buggy but he didn't know they bought it in a Walmart buggy. LOL I thougth that was a good one.
:lol:
Just like Haymaker said about the satisfaction, what is it worth? And being able to have your family help you and to teach your kids how to drive by raking hay in the hayfield, what is it worth? Some of us here like Haymaker and us will be glad to help you so give it a whirl.