The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: jorgen45 on June 14, 2011, 07:58:12 pm

Title: Haymaking
Post by: jorgen45 on June 14, 2011, 07:58:12 pm
Hi Folks,

Just acquired a 6acre smallholding without any form of machinery, so I need to buy a tractor and the equipment
needed to cut Hay and to produce small rectangular Bales of Hay.

Question 1.
I am interested in a Case IH485, but need to know what year it went Metric (my taps, dies, socket & spanners are metric)

Question 2.
What makes and models do you recommend for baling and cutting? (also to be Metric units)

Question 3.
What is the going rate for small rectangular bales of good quality Meadow Hay?

Regards Novice Farmer
Title: Re: Haymaking
Post by: jaykay on June 14, 2011, 09:10:54 pm
Hi Jorgen,
I'm no use to you on 1&2 but we paid £2.50 a bale (and would have gone to £3) for good hay last year.

We're in the poverty-stricken north (rural, but not the touristy bit, of Cumbria).

That's the price to us sheep farmers up here. I'm sure, to horse lovers down south, you'd get considerably more.
Title: Re: Haymaking
Post by: jorgen45 on June 14, 2011, 09:48:12 pm
Thanks jaykay, That cleared one of the questions.

However I forgot one question, what is the conversion rate between the big round bales and the small rectangular bales?
The previous owner got 30 big bales last year and I wonder how many small rectangular bales that might equate to?

Regards Jorgen
Title: Re: Haymaking
Post by: Fleecewife on June 14, 2011, 10:20:06 pm
Yield varies from season to season with drought, flood etc.

Number of small bales per big round one also varies - this time with how tightly packed they are (which you can adjust on your baler).  Also there are big round bales and not quite so big round bales........about 10 per not so big and 15 per very big.

The price of hay went sky high last year and in places was selling for £6 per small square bale - again this will depend on supply, which depends on the weather.
Title: Re: Haymaking
Post by: Antz on June 14, 2011, 11:00:30 pm
Hi jorgen,
I find that 2 large rounds last me a lot longer than 25 smaller rectangluar bales (which is the amount I can squeeze into the old horse trailer we use for storage.)  So at a guess its over 15 small bales to each large round. We were paying (up until last week) £25 per round bale.
Unfortunately the farmer can no longer supply us as he will need it all himself this year.
The only other place I know around here (gloucestershire) that delivers small quantities want 4.50 per small and 45 for a round, that's a huge 50% increase from when I used them last year.
Can't help with your other questions,
Title: Re: Haymaking
Post by: lachlanandmarcus on June 14, 2011, 11:22:34 pm
just to say we have an ancient small baler, a new holland superliner, and it's fab, we didnt use it for 2 years after we bought it and it was old then, and after a bit of greasing up it worked first time!! recomment it.

Title: Re: Haymaking
Post by: waterhouse on June 14, 2011, 11:43:12 pm
£6 per bale!  In yer dreams.  It's been up to £8.50 and is currently £7 in this bit of Hertfordshire.
Title: Re: Haymaking
Post by: Fleecewife on June 15, 2011, 12:20:33 am
£6 per bale!  In yer dreams.  It's been up to £8.50 and is currently £7 in this bit of Hertfordshire.

Eeek !  Fingers crossed we still have our usual agreement to bale a friend's crop - we get half in return
Title: Re: Haymaking
Post by: SallyintNorth on June 15, 2011, 12:45:20 am
jorgen, you don't say where you are - which might tempt someone who is near you to tell you what they have been paying for hay.

BH loves making hay almost more than anything else in the world.  Preferably small square (ok, rectangular) bales.  He swears by New Holland balers.  We have two, the backup baler had to be used last year; like lachlanmarcus we had bought it (in our case without seeing it run but knowing the place it came from could believe them it had run ok the previous summer) then stored it unused for 2 years.  It worked straight away and baled for two days almost non-stop, never failed, no loose bales, every bale identical size and shape to the others.
Title: Re: Haymaking
Post by: NorthEssexsmallholding on June 15, 2011, 08:12:24 am
the old new holland balers are reliable, go on for years, the claas ones are not bad either.  depending on whether you have a loader with forks then round baler might be better but then the small bales can be moved and stacked by hand.

some of the big Heston balers are huge.