Small Square Baler for Starting Out With

[rj831]

Hi all,
Just looking some advice for a small square baler to make small hay, haylage and straw bales with. Will only be making about 1500-2500 a year. Looking advice as I haven't done much square baling before and so was looking for what I should be looking for when looking at balers or any brands or models people suggest! Have been looking at a New Holland 940 and a New Holland 370... Any advice welcome
Cheers, Rob

 

[Lincsman]

check width of the pickup compared to the combine you are going to follow.

 

[bobk]

Hi all,
Just looking some advice for a small square baler to make small hay, haylage and straw bales with. Will only be making about 1500-2500 a year. Looking advice as I haven't done much square baling before and so was looking for what I should be looking for when looking at balers or any brands or models people suggest! Have been looking at a New Holland 940 and a New Holland 370... Any advice welcome
Cheers, Rob

Welgar end of .

 

[rj831]

check width of the pickup compared to the combine you are going to follow.

Ok will do usually it's a Claas Lexion 420. So think I should be grand either way

 

[spin cycle]

@carbonfibre farmer is your man plus he runs a conventional baler facebook page.....i'll chuck in jd 459 to thr rec list

 

[bobk]

@carbonfibre farmer is your man plus he runs a conventional baler facebook page.....i'll chuck in jd 459 to thr rec list

I'm on that .

 

[spin cycle]

whats the difference twixt a nh276 and 376?

 

[robs1]

Stick to hay and straw, little money in haylage small bales and veeeerrryy slow, also likely to kill an old Baler

 

[bobk]

whats the difference twixt a nh276 and 376?

Stress .

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

Hi all,
Just looking some advice for a small square baler to make small hay, haylage and straw bales with. Will only be making about 1500-2500 a year. Looking advice as I haven't done much square baling before and so was looking for what I should be looking for when looking at balers or any brands or models people suggest! Have been looking at a New Holland 940 and a New Holland 370... Any advice welcome
Cheers, Rob

Budget?
Man power avaliabity? (Cause it won't be just the baler you need to think of if your on your own)
I assume you have an end home for the produce?

Condition is everything. I've seen 5yr old weglars that have been unloved and not good buys and 40 yr old NH that have been loved and any new bits needed. If they have been roughly treated, dumped in the hedge at the end of use for the season etc etc then you may well be buying problems.

Other thing, is there anyone local to you, good at fixing/repairing them? That's worth a lot on a hot Sunday afternoon with hay on the floor and a thunderstorm coming with a baler playing up

Welger are a good baler, can mightly feed them. Not available new, now, in this country.
Massey inline, people either love or hate them. Local contractor to me and @Richard98 run one. Change it every 3yrs, put 10s of thousands though it and love them. I believe @Mark C ran one for a year and didn't get on with it. (In a different league to most with the amount going through it!)
NH , long product history with a , generally, unchanged design. 940 now getting bit long in the tooth (But condition is all!) Some have problems with "banana" bales with them. Keeping the throat and chamber full seems to help.
Markant. Fine baler, seem to go well. Claas bits can/Will frighten you! (I have a 65, mainly because of its previous owners/condition)
Jd, good solid baler too. Unfortunately they stopped making the 359 459 recently and now do a badge engineering job with a Turkish baler manufacturer.
Also older balers like international/bamford/Jones etc etc.

Really, I guess, your probably not looking at a 3 yr old machine or similar anyway!

 

[rj831]

Budget?
Man power avaliabity? (Cause it won't be just the baler you need to think of if your on your own)
I assume you have an end home for the produce?

Condition is everything. I've seen 5yr old weglars that have been unloved and not good buys and 40 yr old NH that have been loved and any new bits needed. If they have been roughly treated, dumped in the hedge at the end of use for the season etc etc then you may well be buying problems.

Other thing, is there anyone local to you, good at fixing/repairing them? That's worth a lot on a hot Sunday afternoon with hay on the floor and a thunderstorm coming with a baler playing up

Welger are a good baler, can mightly feed them. Not available new, now, in this country.
Massey inline, people either love or hate them. Local contractor to me and @Richard98 run one. Change it every 3yrs, put 10s of thousands though it and love them. I believe @Mark C ran one for a year and didn't get on with it. (In a different league to most with the amount going through it!)
NH , long product history with a , generally, unchanged design. 940 now getting bit long in the tooth (But condition is all!) Some have problems with "banana" bales with them. Keeping the throat and chamber full seems to help.
Markant. Fine baler, seem to go well. Claas bits can/Will frighten you! (I have a 65, mainly because of its previous owners/condition)
Jd, good solid baler too. Unfortunately they stopped making the 359 459 recently and now do a badge engineering job with a Turkish baler manufacturer.
Also older balers like international/bamford/Jones etc etc.

Really, I guess, your probably not looking at a 3 yr old machine or similar anyway!

Hi Thanks for your long reply,

Budget is a around £4-6k I guess but havent really set a budget so guessing in and around a slightly older well looked after baler. Man power for gathering bales isnt really an issue as we have always gathered our own as a family by hand balling them or using the lifter on the loader. We have made our own hay for years but got fed up having hay ready to make and can't get the baler men to come so wanted to try our own. Baler I had went to see was owned by an older guy whowas retiring and was in great shape always stored in doors and seen it insitue from last season as it was well blocked in and had seen him using it last season but going to take the guy who usually bales for us to have a look as he would know more about square balers as I currently know nothing but am really willing to learn. Have customers for the small quantity we usually sell to saturday horsey people so was thinking of making a few more and see how we go this year...
Would you say them that for a novice I should steer away from that 940? Only asking cause I genuinly have no clue!

 

[grainboy]

Have a JD 459 available for sale, used last year, available due to retirement,

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

Hi Thanks for your long reply,

Budget is a around £4-6k I guess but havent really set a budget so guessing in and around a slightly older well looked after baler. Man power for gathering bales isnt really an issue as we have always gathered our own as a family by hand balling them or using the lifter on the loader. We have made our own hay for years but got fed up having hay ready to make and can't get the baler men to come so wanted to try our own. Baler I had went to see was owned by an older guy whowas retiring and was in great shape always stored in doors and seen it insitue from last season as it was well blocked in and had seen him using it last season but going to take the guy who usually bales for us to have a look as he would know more about square balers as I currently know nothing but am really willing to learn. Have customers for the small quantity we usually sell to saturday horsey people so was thinking of making a few more and see how we go this year...
Would you say them that for a novice I should steer away from that 940? Only asking cause I genuinly have no clue!

I started out with a claas constant, that lost me some hair. Only ever sat in front of a baler for half an hr before doing my own....that was a learning curve!

If the 940 is a tidy one then no reason why not.

But since you do everything bar baling the hay etc, it's only that bit for you to learn, not the whole job.

That sort of budget would get you something tidy . Unfortunately this is probably not the best time of year to be looking for a baler, prices are higher in season.

 

[rj831]

I started out with a claas constant, that lost me some hair. Only ever sat in front of a baler for half an hr before doing my own....that was a learning curve!

If the 940 is a tidy one then no reason why not.

But since you do everything bar baling the hay etc, it's only that bit for you to learn, not the whole job.

That sort of budget would get you something tidy . Unfortunately this is probably not the best time of year to be looking for a baler, prices are higher in season.

Ok thats good to hear, just got caught out this week baling hay was ready to go and ended up having it a bit yellower than I would like but is what it is and then there was that baler that came up close to us so had put it in my head to do it. But he is asking big money as he says it was rebuilt completely 2 years ago but Im not sure about the price of it cause of the age and how many bales would be through it although it has been well looked after. You know yourself just dont like buying myself into something that is going to cost me a small fortune and waste alot of time as it will alway break when your under pressure

 

[Rust]

Welgar end of .

If your selling by the ton, maybe

But a horsey bird won't pay you more for a bigger bale.

So it's not end of !

A JD 459 will take some beating, but it's a wide bugger on the road.

 

[B R C]

I’ve only used Markant 65’s so can only comment in them as being very reliable and not costing much to maintain only because they didn’t need many parts.
Whatever make buy the best you can afford, they will hold their value and the better it is the slower you will go grey with the stress of getting everything baled in time. 2500 is still £12-15k worth. I would think £5k should get you something decent.

 

[Will 1594]

If your selling by the ton, maybe

But a horsey bird won't pay you more for a bigger bale.

So it's not end of !

A JD 459 will take some beating, but it's a wide bugger on the road.

Sleeve chamber with inch ply down each side
And horsey birds if educated will pay more when they realise they get more in a bale

buy a welgar
Decent 530 or similar

 

[dowcow]

We had a Welgar, nowt but trouble missing far too many bales. Messed around with it for years my father did trying to get it right. Baled a large twig / small branch, bent a needle and smashed a bit off a knotter. Replaced the smashed bit and can't remember whether we replaced the needle or just straightened it.... but the next field it went and did 5 acres without missing a knot. Some kinda dark-art voodoo witchcraft getting a bad baler good, and sometimes just a cheap couple of worn parts it is just a question of knowing which couple of parts.

 

[Mark C]

I started out with a JD 456a and later a 459. Great balers. Stick to ones you can easily get parts for. JD still made the 459 until very recently. Make a very nice bale. Just make sure the flywheel is properly shimmed up or it will pop shear bolts for fun.

 

[Will 1594]

I started out with a JD 456a and later a 459. Great balers. Stick to ones you can easily get parts for. JD still made the 459 until very recently. Make a very nice bale. Just make sure the flywheel is properly shimmed up or it will pop shear bolts for fun.

Any gear box trouble with worm gear wearing
Strip and move it round