# Need your opinion on new round baler



## mikethewoodfreak (Jan 23, 2009)

HI!

i'm pretty new to haymaking and to agbusiness in general. i had a hesston 4550 square baler, wich was very good, and reliable. I now want to make round bales and sell them to larger market such as western canada and to the U.S. ( I'm in Quebec, Canada, north of New York state.) i've been told 4 feet wide bales with a hard core is recommended for transportation purposes, and then 4 feet or 5 or 6 feet diameter ?? i dont know? i wanted to see different opinions from experienced farmer on round balers... hesston, case ih, vermeer, these are the makes i looked at, i know some hesston and case ih are the same. I've also been told new holland bale faster and are lighter and easyer to use and pull? so let me know wath you suggest...! ?

thanks for your time and suggestion
Mike


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## Riverside Cattle (Jun 4, 2008)

For Round balers I run John Deere, the only green equipment I still run, but I do like Vermeer woul go that direction if I were to upgrade just a little better built and better bang for the buck then new green. But I mostly do small squares (MF/Hesston baler) so I doubt I will ever wear out the JD. As far as size. It is hard to get a "full" semi load in 4x4 bales. If you plan on trucking the hay I would say atleast a 4x5 bale. 4x6 have to be loaded right or you may have over height problems unles you have a drop deck.

FYI, case ih and new holland are the same, Massey Ferguson and Hesston are the same. (for new stuff, some older hesston and case ih are the same)

-rsc


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## TBrown (Nov 27, 2008)

I would have to recommend a vermeer, especially if you have a close dealer who stocks parts when you need them. We ran vermeer up until we went to 3x3x8, and absolutly loved it. the last one we had was a 1999 505I, ran it up until last year, it had over 75,000 bales through it. We replaced 3 bearings, rebuilt the pickup yearly, and put a couple sets of belts on it, and a few other small things here and there. Probably the cheapest piece of equipment we have every had and ran it 8 seasons.


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## mikethewoodfreak (Jan 23, 2009)

so vermeer seems like good machines and have a fair price. i would go for a 4x5 baler so i could load more on a truck just like you said (riverside cattle) for the moment i have an old belarus 420 tractor with absolutely no electric outlet and dont know if it will be able to pull the baler on the hills we have on our farm. I wanted to start by changing the baler then the tractor. for exporting round bales of hay to the US would it be better to have a netwrap over a twine wrap bale? and does someone know if the hay as to be inspected or any special requirements?

thanks


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## Lazy J (Jul 18, 2008)

If you are going to truck hay, especially across the border you should look at a Large Square baler. They stack better, you get more tons on a trailer, and they make a more stable load.

I know truckers that will not transport rounds.

Jim


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## mikethewoodfreak (Jan 23, 2009)

Hi big square bales might be better but the equipment is soo out of my budget... and i dont know how the perform on steep hills like i have hre on my land. pls you need a much bigger tractor to operate them..

thanks


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