Round Balers

[Ridgefarmer63]

Hello Folks,
I am thinking of adding a round baler to the stable. Could potentially make up to 20 haylage bales per year and 100 dry's.

Seems like the twine only balers are a lot cheaper. Why is that? twine that bad? I would like to stay with a New Holland, deere or Vermeer.

I'll be pulling the baler with a JD 5320, 55hp at the PTO, I believe.

If anyone has any input, go ahead and educate me. I have never owned a round baler.

We feed a 20 head Angus herd.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Supa Dexta]

I wouldnt own a baler for 120 bales a year. I put that up some afternoons - are you paying someone to make them now, or buying in hay?

 

[pricefarm]

There's nothing bad about a twin baler other than it takes a lot longer to tie a roll. The net wrap is a lot faster. But if your only rolling 100 rolls a year the added expense would not be worth it. Rolling wet hay takes a lot of hp Iam not sure a 55 hp tractor could do it. Do you have a way to wrap the wet hay? In my opinion Vermeer is the best roller.

 

[pricefarm]

I wouldnt own a baler for 120 bales a year. I put that up some afternoons - are you paying someone to make them now, or buying in hay?

I agree. Balers are expensive and can get very expensive to fix. I just spent 850$ to replace a couple bearings and some drive chains.

 

[jkwilson]

I really enjoy not owning a baler. Writing checks to hay operators is much more fun than writing checks to implement dealers when there is rain 2 hours away.

Financially, a late model baler doesn't make sense for 120 bales a year. Mental health and well-being-wise, an old baler doesn't make sense either. Maybe if you can find that holy grail vintage baler that was lightly used, well maintained and stored inside.

 

[Ridgefarmer63]

I wouldnt own a baler for 120 bales a year. I put that up some afternoons - are you paying someone to make them now, or buying in hay?

I am making squares now and we only do 600 or so, but things are growing fast. We graze our farm and hay outside the farm. It is a small time operation, but I like having a back up for the square baler and getting a round since we are feeding cattle seems to make sense.

I don't like being dependent on other people.

As crazy as it may sound, I enjoy doing it, as I'd be willing to bet a good amount of posters on this board do also.

 

[Ridgefarmer63]

I really enjoy not owning a baler. Writing checks to hay operators is much more fun than writing checks to implement dealers when there is rain 2 hours away.

Financially, a late model baler doesn't make sense for 120 bales a year. Mental health and well-being-wise, an old baler doesn't make sense either. Maybe if you can find that holy grail vintage baler that was lightly used, well maintained and stored inside.

I hear what you guys are saying.
I work fulltime off the farm and am planning on growing the farm operation after I retire. All the off the farm fields I have right now are with-in a half mile, so no equipment trailer needed. I am trying to take over the ridge and eventually get a majority of the fields. Some of these fields are small, even for NH standards. But beggars can't be choosers.

Maybe I've been spoiled. I have a 1980 ish NH baler (model 451, I think) that has been unbelievable. No major problems, has a mis tie very 500 bales just like the manual says.

 

[Silver]

The old 530 / 430 John Deeres are good old balers and pretty cheap. As long as the belts, pickup and frame are in good shape the rest is relatively cheap and easy to work on.

 

[Ridgefarmer63]

The old 530 / 430 John Deeres are good old balers and pretty cheap. As long as the belts, pickup and frame are in good shape the rest is relatively cheap and easy to work on.

Thanks for the suggestion> Are they twine you think, or net wrap?

 

[Atimm693]

55hp is on the low end, especially if you have hilly ground. Would probably be fine for dry hay.

Haylage is super heavy.. Our 5x4 wet alfalfa bales are in the neighborhood of 1500 lbs. It's damn good feed though, our calves had an average gain around 3.5lbs per day on it this year. You will need a way to wrap it to turn it into silage.

You will not have as much spoilage and mess with net wrap if you store hay outside. Net is also a little easier to deal with when it comes time to feed them, in my experience.

I would not jump in unless you are confident that you can do the maintenance and repair that needs to be done to keep an older machine working. They can bleed you dry if you have to pay someone to work on it.

 

[Silver]

The old 530 / 430 John Deeres are good old balers and pretty cheap. As long as the belts, pickup and frame are in good shape the rest is relatively cheap and easy to work on.

Thanks for the suggestion> Are they twine you think, or net wrap?

They were all twine only as far as I know. Single tying arm.

 

[Ridgefarmer63]

Gotta get back to this "is it worth it" mindset.

Let's say you spend 20 K on a dependable round baler. Something you treat like you bought it. You make 100 bales/year. What do you think it would actually cost to make those bales? Not including the cost of the baler.

Twine/net wrap / diesel / grease and a portion of the tractors yearly maintenance. $10 /bale??

So it costs me $1000.00 bucks to make 100 bales. If I had to buy them, it would be $6000 for 100 bales, and usually I go pick them up. So you are saving $5000.00 year by owning the baler.

Now lets just say I'm all f-ed up and after comsumable expenses you are only saving 2500 / year. In ten years you bought a 25 K baler. And... It is still worth something at the end of ten years.

Obviously, I am not including my time.

The tractors I am going to own anyways for feeding out and snow removal and regular farm stuff.

 

[Silver]

Being cheap I would opt for an old baler (like the 430 for that little tractor), for under $5,000 and at 100 bales a year it would last for approximately 60 years with a little tinkering here and there. If that's all the hay that's getting made there should be lot's of time for upkeep.

 

[Ridgefarmer63]

Being cheap I would opt for an old baler (like the 430 for that little tractor), for under $5,000 and at 100 bales a year it would last for approximately 60 years with a little tinkering here and there. If that's all the hay that's getting made there should be lot's of time for upkeep.

Thanks for the input Silver. That is definitely an option.

Working fulltime an hour away from the farm and dealing with the cattle, it doesn't seem like a lot of downtime. ha ha..

Seems like the primary disadvantages to the old twine balers is time to wrap, pita to feed and a lot more motion (moving parts) with-in the baler to tie.

 

[ChrisB]

I think all brands made big improvements in the mid 80's. I wouldn't be afraid of any color, just make sure your tractor will handle it. It all depends on your budget - you can find something that will work for $2,000, something decent for $5000, something nice for $10,000 and so on.

 

[ChrisB]

And as far as twine balers vs net wrap - It seems most people are claiming around 12 seconds per bale with net. Not sure if that is stopping to moving again or what. But the last two balers I've had (twine) were 35 & 30 seconds to put twine on, from pushing in the clutch to moving again. Not a huge difference if your doing 50 bales a day, but if your doing 150 it will start adding up.

 

[Brute 23]

I wouldnt own a baler for 120 bales a year. I put that up some afternoons - are you paying someone to make them now, or buying in hay?

I am making squares now and we only do 600 or so, but things are growing fast. We graze our farm and hay outside the farm. It is a small time operation, but I like having a back up for the square baler and getting a round since we are feeding cattle seems to make sense.

I don't like being dependent on other people.

As crazy as it may sound, I enjoy doing it, as I'd be willing to bet a good amount of posters on this board do also.

I worked for a guy that use to bale his own hay when I was in college. He had quite a bit of machinery so I was like a kid in a toy store. We were bailing a bunch of hay that year and I started thinking this isn't so bad. Maybe we should look in to a baler. Two days later the back part opened up on the baler and broke off. :lol: He had an all out mechanics truck, forklift, welding trailer, and 3 of us helpers and it was still a PIA. I learned my lesson on that deal.

 

[dun]

If you are storing the hay inside a twine baler is OK but if it's outside (unless it's covered with ice or snow) a net baler wins hands down.

 

[hurleyjd]

I wouldnt own a baler for 120 bales a year. I put that up some afternoons - are you paying someone to make them now, or buying in hay?

I am making squares now and we only do 600 or so, but things are growing fast. We graze our farm and hay outside the farm. It is a small time operation, but I like having a back up for the square baler and getting a round since we are feeding cattle seems to make sense.

I don't like being dependent on other people.

As crazy as it may sound, I enjoy doing it, as I'd be willing to bet a good amount of posters on this board do also.

You can buy a 504n Vermeer net only. Around 25K. 60 months to pay no interest. I have a 5410 rebel with net and twine never use the twine. Twine is about as expensive as twine in the long run.

 

[Silver]

Seems like the primary disadvantages to the old twine balers is time to wrap, pita to feed and a lot more motion (moving parts) with-in the baler to tie.

Twine takes about 30 seconds longer per bale to tie. On a hundred bales that's 50 minutes if my math is correct, so I guess only you would know if that's acceptable or not lol
When we use twine we use sisal twine, so it's actually less of a pita to feed than wrap. We don't use the wrap much unless we know we are going to feed it in the fall before it freezes to the ground and the bale itself, but you may not have that issue where you are.