Round balers

[BadgerFan]

Anyone have a good suggestion on brand/model of used round baler to buy?  I will run it with a JD 4030 (about 100 hp) and make 100-200 bales per year of grass/alfalfa/clover mix hay.  May make corn stalk bales someday if I find the right arrangement or buy more land, but am not currently.  I'm thinking I'd like a 4X5 or 4X6.  Bales will be stored outside for at least the forseeable future. Looking to spend between $5K and $10K.

 

[Will]

I would just try to find the best one for my budget.  We run John Deere but I have a neighbor that uses Vermeer.  I would recommend you getting a 4X6.  It is amazing how much hay you can put in that foot.

 

[hamburgman]

Not to be picking a battle or anything, but if you put up 200 bales a year and hire someone to do it for $15 a bale (pry can find it cheaper) that is only $3,000.  I would bet when you factor in total cost of running the tractor, the money being tied up in that investment and such you would be better off hiring it done if you can find someone.  We discuss stuff like this a lot when looking at break evens for cattle operations.

 

[BadgerFan]

Not to be picking a battle or anything, but if you put up 200 bales a year and hire someone to do it for $15 a bale (pry can find it cheaper) that is only $3,000.  I would bet when you factor in total cost of running the tractor, the money being tied up in that investment and such you would be better off hiring it done if you can find someone.  We discuss stuff like this a lot when looking at break evens for cattle operations.

no, I know, that's a fair point and trust me I've looked into that. In fact, that's what I've done the last few years and my whole life Dad hired a custom baler. In the local area where I'm at now there are darn few guys willing to do custom work and darn fewer that'll do small fields, come when you need them, etc.  I just think a moderate investment in a decent machine that should last for many years if maintained properly, sounds better than always having the hassles of trying to get a custom man in.

both sides of that issue (owning your own machine vs. hiring it) can work really well for some.  I'd like the freedom to work on my own schedule.

 

[cpubarn]

I have a Vermeer 605k that works well for hay or stalks for the numbers you talk about.  Net wrap is much better than twine making the baler worth more.  Baler guy always recommends M's especially when doing stalks, but I can't justify the $$.

 

[hamburgman]

Net wrap is the way to go. The new hollands can be bought pretty reasonable from what I have seen.  The JD hold their resale value if they aren't cornstalk only round balers.

 

[cowman 52]

You can find a 660 new holland for a decent price, they are simple to work on and stand a good bit of abuse.  The 640 is of the same series.  A Deere 467 is gonna get a bit pricy but in your deal , it will last forever, a little harder to work on, not as simple as the nh's  the vermeers are good machines, parts are usually the universal kind, find bearings at any shop,
The net wrap is a good deal if you want to sell hay, for your own use, I wouldn't use it, adds about 1.50 to each bale, you can buy string and triple wrap it and still save money.
The old 510 Deere is a good machine, completely mechanical, ( no. Computer) simple, parts anywhere, cheap.  They also make great windrow inverters, just run the hay through with the tailgate open, great for rained on hay.

 

[cpubarn]

 They also make great windrow inverters, just run the hay through with the tailgate open, great for rained on hay.

I've got to admit I never thought of that.  Aren't you afraid the neighbors will think you forgot to shut the door?  As soon as I would do that all the neighbors would drive by REAL SLOW...  Kind of like when I mapped tile lines with the GPS in the combine in the early 90s, before we had portable gps units by driving without a head over the lines after harvest and tiling.....

 

[CAB]

The worst thing about hiring someone to bale for you, is finding a custom guy that'll do it when and how you want. I like to let hay get bone dry then come back in and bale it after dark to save quality. There aren't very many custom outfits that care enough to put up with me!!

 

[hamburgman]

I think you can lose $1.50 worth of leaves using twin vs net wrap

 

[firesweepranch]

Minimum around here for custom baling is $17, but most are $18 to $20 for net wrap. I would rather pay someone to come do it, but ran into a problem last year for the first time when our guy had equipment failure and did not get our hay done. We had to scramble to find someone else last minute, put up old hay full of seed, and the netting was poor - ripped in several places on each bale.
But, we only bale around 20 acres twice a year if we get enough rain, so it does not pay for us to buy our own equipment.

 

[BadgerFan]

Update: I bought a Hesston 540.  It is in mint condition (less than 1000 bales through it) and was on a New Holland lot so they wanted to get rid of it pretty badly.  Cost $3500 (basically the cost of two years worth of custom work).  I made 115 bales with it this year and for the money I'm very happy with it.  It's a very basic baler but does the job fine for the few bales I use it for.  Downside is it's only a 4x4 baler and only twine but again, it does the job.

 

[Lucky_P]

Last economic analysis numbers I saw indicated that if you weren't running at least 600 rolls through a baler every year, you weren't even breaking even on costs of the haying equipment itself, much less upkeep, fuel, repairs, twine/net.

 

[Auburnviewfarms]

Last economic analysis numbers I saw indicated that if you weren't running at least 600 rolls through a baler every year, you weren't even breaking even on costs of the haying equipment itself, much less upkeep, fuel, repairs, twine/net.

I think the numbers you saw were if you were buying a brand new round baler. We bale about 250 bales a year and at a modest $12.50 per bale for a custom baler well within 3 seasons you can justify owning a used baler for $7000.00 dollars and having the flexibility of cutting and baling on your time not your custom balers time frame. Jmo

 

[Doc]

Last economic analysis numbers I saw indicated that if you weren't running at least 600 rolls through a baler every year, you weren't even breaking even on costs of the haying equipment itself, much less upkeep, fuel, repairs, twine/net.

But what is the cost when your hay gets rained on because the guy supposed to be rolling it is late. We use to use a custom baler and that is what happened , seems like all the time. We have a Vermeer Accubale 605 XL. It does 5x6 rolls , twine or wrap. We do about 400 rolls a year.

 

[JDP]

Dad has owned a JD 535 for 15 years or better.  We can bale anytime we need to.  3 years ago i saw one sell for 7500. last year in the drought we balled 70 bales of green stalks and rapped them in plastic and had fat cows all winter!  Two weeks ago we baled wet grass and rapped it with plastic and the old baler rolled them up with no problems.  There are better balers out there but we have had awesome luck with the 535. 

 

[Lucky_P]

We just made the decision, 20 years ago to buy in hay, not tie up $$ in iron, not have to deal with equipment breakdowns or worrying about whether it was gonna rain or not, whether or not the custom guy was gonna show up on time - or 2 months later,  and just graze the whole farm, intensively, throughout the growing season.
My 'haying season' lasts pretty much one weekend, each summer, then I'm free to do whatever else, and every roll imported brings in probably $10+ of nutrient/fertilizer value spread over the pastures by my cows.

 

[ploughshare]

Lucky_P, we do the same and it has worked well for us except for the last two years.  It convinced me that a good hay saving bale feeder is a must.  I would also recommend the JD535 for those who are just jumping in.  Don't eve consider a New Idea unless you want to work with loose bales.  Even an old AC small round baler would be better.

 

[Kevin A]

Wow, I cant believe how much some of you pay for custom baling. We do a fair amount of custom work and for 4x6 bales with net wrap we only charge 9 dollars a bale, 10 for stalks. Anyway back to your question, I would recommend a Vermeer, we have owned our fair share over the years and currently have 3 604 M models the oldest with over 17,000 bales and other than expected wear and tear they are great machines.