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Round balers

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Nicky

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We cut our hay and have always had a nieghbor who custom hays do the raking and baling (3 X 3 square bales). It is always a hassle because he needs to be 10 places at once :???: So this time every year we think about buying a baler and rake. We can't afford a square baler, we put up 700 ton on a good year, 500 (we hope) on a year like this.

We will probably have to buy a new rake as there are no decent used ones around. We do part grain hay which is usually 3ton/acre so need a high capacity rake. Whats the best for the money?

If we buy a used round baler to get us by for awhile what would you buy? and why? Any and all help is appreciated :)
 
This hydraulic rake works awesome: http://www.vermeerag.com/equip/rakes/r23rake/

If you can find a good JD baler with the megawide pickup, I can pretty much guarantee you'll like it.
 
Those Vermeer rakes are pretty pricey...... a cheaper solution would be to use a ground driven wheel type rake. Hesston makes a good one with 6 wheels on each side. However I know they work great in grasses but I'm not sure about your grain type hay.

Vermeer balers are superior to John Deere in my opinion. They seem like they make a much tighter heavier bale. We ran a Vermeer J for several years and put up quite a bit of hay. It made by far the best bales we have ever had. We have cut back in recent years and now hire a custom baler to bale our hay and his John Deere Bales just aren't quite as tight as we used to make them. The J had Air over hydraulic to keep tension on the bales. You could adjust the tightness of the roll by simply putting more or less pressure in the tanks.
 
I would highly endorse the vermeer rake. As for balers I have an old New Holland 660 and I like it and the 664's also but you might be hard pressed to find a good one that old. The newer New Hollands have not recieved very good reviews around here. The XL Vermeer has had good reviews but some of the older Vermeers had mixed reviews. Every person I know with a John Deere likes them so if that is your color pick the one in the best shape. Good luck.
 
I run a NH 664 myself, and really like it. The custom guys around here won't run anything but New Holland. A few guys went green a couple years ago, then immediately went back to NH as the green equipment didn't stand up as well, bale as fast, nor make as good a bale. I've never run a Vermeer, but there isn't a solitary custom operator using one, so to me that speaks volumes.

Rod
 
We've had NH, Case, and now Vermeer. Hubby really likes it. Best friend has one, too. There's the odd glitch with them, but then there is with all balers. The two of them like the Vermeers because of the solid bales they make.
 
Right now I am running a NH BR780 and a Vermeer 605m. The NH makes a prettier bale, but the Vermeer will out bale it by about 20%. Vermeeer has the best pickup hands down. The NH deere and Vermeer all make a good baler so pick a clean used outfit from a dealer with a good service department.
 
We have a vermeer rake.. And really like it..... It does the job...And the corporation runs Vermeer balers and likes them.. I think they have the whole alpehbet.... We have a square baler so I personally don't know about round balers.... Used square balers can be found if you can take some time.... Ken out of Kearney equipment in Kearney Nebraska is the guru on square balers....... He knows everything to know about square balers and a really nice man... (my hero).........
 
Katrina, is he the guy tied in with the Maize Corp from Wichita??

we had them out to bid on trading in a NH BB960...... Lincoln Farm Supply blew them out of the water!
 
First thing I always consider is dealer service.... I don't care what brand you buy they are all the hot stuff till they break down... :wink: Having said that around here the favorite rakes are wheel rakes, and by far the top couple are H&S and NH (Sitrex). I myself have always wanted a Rowse or an H&S. One neighbor had one of the Vermeer rakes but traded it for a 14 or16 wheel H&S (can't remember which). My guess is that he wanted a larger (wider) rake, otherwise I think he liked it just fine. I myself like the easy hay handling of the wheel rakes and I feel that they make a fluffier and faster dryig windrow... That is just my opinion as I can only compare it to the old style bar rakes not the Vermeer. When it comes to balers the dealer service is the first consideration but my personal favorite is the JD with NH close behind. With Vermeer CIH and Heston following up and that is mostly because of lack of dealer service.. My BIL custom bales and he runs JD and has little if any trouble and he bales on average 5000-5500 bales per year. He just traded for a 568 with every option other than the Mega tooth or Mega wide pickup. A friend of mine runs a New Holland 688 and it has proven itself well. I hate to say it but they are the type of people that could tear up a crowbar in a sand box and the baler has had few troubles.... :wink: One last thought is that net wrap speeds up the baling process a bunch so if speed is a concern you might look along those lines. The only downfall is that the net wrap is a lot more material to get off the bale and get rid of when feeding the bale. Good luck I'm sure you will find just what you want and it will serve you well.. 8)
 
Stretch, young gun, I'm not sure I'd be real worried about dealer service as I would be about price. There's not likely to be much warranty work done with a rake, and likely none with a used baler. Both, however, are really pretty easy to fix yourself as long as parts are available.

I had a problem with the electric twine arm on one of our 567 balers the other day....believe it or not it was just one of the tractor batteries went bad, and I also squeezed the plug-in ends a little to make a tighter fit where it plugged into the tractor power source. Just wasn't getting enough volts.

Nikki, a baler that's new enough to have an electric monitor, so you have an accurate count of how many bales that have gone through it is a good idea. Check the belts out to make sure they're okay, as they get very expensive to replace, and inspect the PTO shaft closely as well (hook it up to a tractor and check for excessive free play and joint wear...shouldn't vibrate when it's running). A new driveshaft is close to $1200, and a total rebuild isn't a good option either. The oldest JD I'd consider is probably a 566, anything older is getting some serious age on it, and there have been design improvements.
 
We lived for years with a Vermeer 605C, until it finally exploded into a twisted hunk of metal due to metal fatigue. :shock: :shock: We affectionately referred to it as the "Baler from Hell" :devil2: , but we couldn't afford a new one, so we lived with it. Sometimes Hubby had to go baling in the middle of the night, because it wouldn't start a bale unless there was just the right amount of moisture on the hay. Too dry or too wet, and you were SOL. :roll: :roll: :roll:

Then came the happy day that he pulled into the yard with the whole side of the baler bent back in half. I thought he'd been hit by a truck on the road, but he hadn't. He was closing the door after making a bale, and it just crumpled up into a ball. We did a happy dance, sold it to a neighbour for parts, and took out a loan on a New Idea. (aka Case).

We like the New Idea. It's soft core, but that's OK with us. It gives a little more wriggle room when the hay is just barely dry. You can get them pretty cheap now as well. We bought another one last year for two thousand dollars, and between the two of them we should be good for a while. We've already taken a three hundred dollar roller off the old one and used it.
 
We use a JD 566 now and think it's great. Capable of making bales so heavy you can hardly handle them.
One thing I really liked about the vermeer (and I assume that it's still the case) is that you don't have to go to the dealer for bearings, you can get them off the shelf at any bearing and drive store for a fraction of the price of the other balers. And they are easy to change. On the down side.... I hate turning belts back over :mad: Vermeer and NH both tend to roll a belt on occasion and it drives me nuts. JD doesnt.
Just a couple more things to consider. :wink:
 
I have a new Vermeer.. M series I think, 605.. WE haven't used it on hay, only on corn stalk bales and we rolled a lot of flipping belts last year.. Finally found out why and was told by the JD guy who used to bale it that he had some different issues in that field too.. Somethinga bout the way the farmer tills the roound leaves little ridges.. On the vermeer it packs on on part of the pickup (Loose silty dirt) and builds a bump that in turn flips the belt.. Pain in the arse.. Besides that, the baler worked great.. WE got the big flotation tires and a big old pickup on it and it ate the 8 rows of shreaded, irrigated corn right up...

I now, hate netwrap however, lol. At least it burns.
 

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