# hay rake



## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

I saw this for sale on craigslist and was wondering if it was a good rake? Any opinions would be helpful.

model name / number: 894A


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

I also found this one a Farm Hand F 76E circle rake. Any advice? Both are listed for $800


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## bool (Mar 14, 2016)

John Deere, looks similar to a NH55. Similar age to your baler. I have a NH56. I can't advise about things like parts availability but it looks like it will do your job. Tynes look to be rubber. Check they are all there and the rubber not broken. Looks like it has 4 tyne bars: it would work a little better with a 5th bar but that's not a deal breaker. Your little tractor would pull it fine.

Roger


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

I fixed one of those 894 rakes to resell a few years ago. It worked fine but was super narrow. The teeth on each end are crazy expensive but there are ways around such issues. The other thing was I converted mine from a four bar to a five bar. The holes are all there so it's just a matter of finding another bar.


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

I know nothing about rakes so any information provided will have to be broken down for me. Would the narrowness of it matter less to me since I only have 8 acres? Also would the difference between 4 and 5 bars matter as much for my small field? I guess I'm asking if this unit be a good fit for a small time guy like me? I don't mind going slow or it taking me a long time.

Also I haven't heard any opinions on the Farm Hand rake... Is the obvious choice between the 2 the John Deere?


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

MyDaughtersPony said:


> I know nothing about rakes so any information provided will have to be broken down for me. Would the narrowness of it matter less to me since I only have 8 acres? Also would the difference between 4 and 5 bars matter as much for my small field? I guess I'm asking if this unit be a good fit for a small time guy like me? I don't mind going slow or it taking me a long time.
> 
> Also I haven't heard any opinions on the Farm Hand rake... Is the obvious choice between the 2 the John Deere?


The narrowness should not be a problem for your use and might even be a nice companion to your 66 baler. The only problem with the narrow width would be if you wanted to resell it.

The 4/5 bar issue probably isn't one on a small acreage but if you would decide to "mow" some hay with your brushhog the extra bar would be especially helpful in achieving a clean raking job. I think I paid $50 for the bar I added to mine and it even had most of the teeth on it. Depends on if you can find one available though.

Anyway, I like Deere bar rake better as a mate for your 66 baler.


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

That Farmhand you could not give me to use as a rake, but I would take it for free scrap metal (well on 2nd thought scrap is down so no thanks).

The JD 894 will be a much better rake but it will make rope windrows which feed into the baler great but not so great for drying if you make the mistake of raking too soon. (I talked about this in another post if you remember). In other words it will do an okay job of raking the hay once right before you bale and that is it. It is a 1 trick pony in every since of the word.. (The JD 894 is similar to a New Holland 55 in design with the straight across from each other wheels which is less desirable than the NH 56 or 256 that have offset wheels - offset wheels follow less than perfectly flat terrain much better. The New Holland rope makers sell for a much higher priced though where the JD 894 rope make can sometimes be bought for a bargain relative to the New Holland. $800 for the JD is fair price and I have seen em as cheap as $600. A New Holland 55 will still sell for $1k plus and the 56 and 256 will easily be $1500 plus).

Myself, I do not like rope makers as hay rakes. I like something that makes a loose fluffy windrow. Only way to get that dirt cheap is in a vintage old school basket rake. Modern rotary rakes also do this even better than the old school basket rakes as they make loose fluffy windrows but they are quite expensive and many are 3 point mount to boot - so often these may not best choice for use on old antique tractor that lacks a modern 3 point (Not sure if your 200 has fast hitch on it or not which can be adapted to pseudo 3 point or not, but your Farmall B definitely does not have one. Raking would easily be the Farmall B's best use).

I am not saying do not buy the JD rake as it is likely worth the asking price; but plan on an spending another $1500 for a tedder if you do buy it especially since you live in a humid climate like MI


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

Would it be possible to give me a list of ones I can look for? I'm not totally opposed to a rope windrow, but I'd prefer whatever would help the grass dry better. I'm not buying a rake until I sell second cutting. I wont even use it this year but I'd prefer to have one this year so I'm set next spring.


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

Well making a list is easy for the vintage antique basket variety (as I covered in your other thread) . It needs to have 4 bars on it and be either a JD 594 (or a JD 594LW) or a New Idea 4 bar rake (New idea did not use model numbers on their vintage basket rake some are on steel wheels and some are on rubber tires). Anything else and I personally am not interested in this era of basket side delivery rake . The price needs to be in the $100 to $300 range or again I am not interested. JD has more metal in it but only a forward gear. New Idea has less metal in it(but has a reverse gear to tedd) so if you find a good one it is highly desirable. JD is easy to find a good one. New Idea much harder.

Modern rotary rakes I have no clue on model numbers on the good and the bad ones. These are all too expensive for my shoe string budget operation and not a good fit for my antique tractors either so not interested.

There are also wheel rakes out there that are decent (but that Farmand above is not one of them). I do not like wheel rakes though as every stick, trash, excess dirt in dry conditions can end up in or on the hay. Lots of guys love certain ones though but they are pre-dominantly big monster units for guys covering immense acreage at high travel speeds in big tractors where the front tires on their monster tractor is bigger than our rear tires. Try and go fast on an antique tractor over rough terrain with little wheels in front - no thanks I can not see myself ever having a wheel rake for my small time acreage.


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

This is a 858 4 Bar

It looks similar to the 894 A so I'm assuming it produces a rope windrow. This one is listed for $1,300

Here is the link: http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/grd/5653149653.html


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

Nothing wrong with a rope windrow as long as you do not rake too soon. The roped windrow feeds into baler great. It does 1 job well and only 1 job but is useless for almost anything else

The problem with a rope maker is the hay has to be already dry when you use it. Try to use a rope maker as an improvised tedder or a improvised windrow flipper or an improvised windrow inverter (trick one uses to speed drying) and you have a mess that will not dry.


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

Nat familiar with that model JD but if buying that design rake which will be a rope maker rake then I would want a 5 bar unit. And if I was to spend $1300 I now want either a NH 56 or it successor the NH 256.

Typically speaking the more bars the better. (4 bars was simply the most there was in the old school basket rakes and a definite improvement over the even older 3 bar units they replaced). A circle has 360 degrees in it. The more bars there is the less chance of missing hay. Those old JD 594's at only 4 bars do not miss any hay.

Any rake that has bars that bascally run sideways arcross the direction of travel makes a ropey windrow (commonly known as parrallel bar rakes). Basket rakes the bars are more angled in relation to direction of travel and the rake is thus much longer in length accordingly even though rake swath width is about the same.

And to be fair: The basket rakes like I use (even ones with rubber tires) stink for roading them to distant hay fields - you will be lucky to pull one 15mph without shimmy and sway when transporting. In comparison those rope maker rakes will easily pull to distant fields behind a pick truck fast no problem. Basket rakes are slower in the field too. About 5mph is ideal in use speed. But those old basket rakes can be use as improvised tedders and hay windrow inverters etc. And they run cheap too. Metal tines on them last a long time. Rubber tines on newer rakes fail often especially if stored outdoors.

There is trade-offs everywhere it just boils down to what you want in features, in at price point you wanna spend, that is suitable with the tractor you plan to run it with


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

Well in the spring I have some wet spots in my field. I would need a rake that fluffs and encourages drying. Those antique ones for $100-$300 makes me nervous about all of the repairs I would be doing. My price range is up to $900 so I'm not sure I can find what I want for that price.

Essentially I'm looking for a basket style that's a little newer but still obviously old


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

Well the basket style was made up into the early 1960's by both JD and New Idea. The JD 594 LW was the last variant of it and something like the New Idea 45a or 46 was the final model of the NI basket rake.

Anything after that and it will be the parallell bar rakes that all other companies were playing catch up to build after New Holland instroduced the well received 55 and then later further perfected that design with the even better 56. A 256 is the basically the same as a 56 but with heavier duty bar bearings.

Basket rakes were obsolete starting in the early 1960's in many peoples eyes. But when buying old and used it is condition that is important not age.

Nowadays the rotary rakes that are PTO powered are the rage and for good reason for big time operations. My operation just does not fit this budget point nor do my tractors.

There is a small wheel rake made (Sitrex????) that can be bought for like $800 brand new. Very few moving parts and can serve a small operation quite well so I hear. Supposedly make a fluffy windrow. While I do not like wheel rakes there are people out there who do - so certainly worth looking into.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Case in point about bar rakes making ropes, I have a lady I bale for on occasion, went to school with both her brothers, she always pushes the raking a bit soon, I've stopped when the full bale alarm went off and it pulled all the hay from under the tractor plus another ten foot into the baler, fine if its dry, but if not it may never dry if the weather ain't cooperative. I also have to bale at least a gear lower than I can with my wheel v-rake, bar rakes are good at making hidden slugs that can jam a pickup on heavy hay.

Best luck we had when we had our New Holland rolabar rakes and the twin hitch was to wait till it was good and dry then rake the following morning before the dew was completely off and you started knocking leave off. A skilled operator can also find jus the right spot to drive and jus the right speed to end up with any green hay on top of the windrow.


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

I'm on craigslist and I am probably overlooking exactly what I need but I don't know. Any other sites I should check for used rakes? I mean I hope I can find something within 10 miles of my location.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Always tractor house, Machinery Finder and every once in awhile I see equipment in the Auto and RV magazines


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## Orchard6 (Apr 30, 2014)

http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/grd/5625806209.html
Here's an affordable fixer upper if you're handy with tools.


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

Is that a good price considering that it needs work? Also would that make a rope windrow or more fluffy windrow?


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

That is a rope maker and really very similar to the 894 you posted earlier. I believe the only difference between the 894 and the 896 may be that the 896 has bearings on the end of the bars where the 894 has plain ole bushings.

Price is dependent on how desperate you are for a rake....

I have best luck on Craigslist or Auctions.


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

I'm not desperate. I'm looking for one for next season. The first JD I looked at seemed in much better condition. It costed a little more but not a ton more.


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

The model 8?? John Deere's were price leaders (made cheaper). The JD modle 6?? series rakes were newer and made better as they copied the NH 56 even more. Bearings instead of bushings and offset wheels etc.. (but these are all still rope makers).

Here is on old JD 594 with the mint option (mint = it has more stripper bars on it) for $150. First Rake of the two

https://porthuron.craigslist.org/grd/5641516573.html

Here is another one also for 150 but it may have a bent bar????

http://chambana.craigslist.org/grd/5601525956.html

Another JD 594 with mint option but more $

http://thumb.craigslist.org/grd/5633534963.html

And I looked for less than 5 minutes...JD 594's are easy to find (these happen to be on steel but they also made em with big rubber tires on front or the the LW suffix had little normal size tires on front. Rest of rake identical)


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

I'm not sure why there is such an avoidance of the "roper" rake for an 8 acre hay operation. Rake when you're supposed to. Problem solved. Don't get me wrong, though. If an antique rake that only sets you back $150 will work, you should be all over that. Personally, I'd rather bale a rope with a non-supersweep baler than a fluffy windrow, but I'm sure you could make either work. I understand you need to acquire equipment as cheap as possible when working with just 8 acres.

If you want to find a rake within 10 miles of home and you have a year, I'd stick with craigslist and any other local publications you might have. Maybe even run a wanted ad somewhere. I'd probably look at expanding the search area out to the 25 mile range just to give yourself some more options though. Maybe even farther but I don't know how much sales activity there is in your immediate area.


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

8 acres seems like a lot to me  we only need 25 rounds for our horses. We got 28 rounds (25 square bales each) and about 60 square off first cutting. I can sell the rest. It might only be 8 acres but it gives me all I need and some left to sell.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

MyDaughtersPony said:


> 8 acres seems like a lot to me  we only need 25 rounds for our horses. We got 28 rounds (25 square bales each) and about 60 square off first cutting. I can sell the rest. It might only be 8 acres but it gives me all I need and some left to sell.


I'm not minimizing what you need. Just stating the reality that you don't want to get in too deep on an 8 acre patch otherwise it would quickly become cheaper to sit in the house and watch someone else do it for you. Or to just buy hay.


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

The problem with 8 acres is you do not have enough acreage to justify expensive hay equipment and make any money. I piddle on 6.25 to 6.5 acres every year so I can relate to the struggles. Gonna take you longer than you think to pay for that $1800 baler.


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

Yeah. I'm really liking that first JD I posted. It would be nice to bale a rope windrow with my smaller baler. As recommended I'd need to make sure I didn't rake premature. I think it was listed at $850.


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

I important aspect to me is becoming self sufficient... So I don't have to pay $280 for 28 round bales... Or pay to have it cut and raked.


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

For the OP and 8350hitech. Watch this video on the Recon 300 and then read what I wrote below about my old JD 594 .in a posting on another website about a guy haying in Alsaka and his struggles to not have moldy hay in that climate.






FWIW: I really enjoyed watching this video about the Recon 300. Most importantly it was nice to see an Ag products manufacturer totally confirm what I have already learned with some experimenting on my own piddle patch operation. Nice to see data and studies back up my own experiences though. I cut with a Hesston 1120 (9' traditional sickle mower with roller conditioners). I lay my swath out wide instead of windrowing it. Once that swatch goes limp and lies flat on the ground either same day or early next day , I rake it into a loose fluffy windrow with my rake. No one else that I know rakes this early. That said, I do not use just any hay rake because some rakes are known rope makers that do not promote hay drying. Instead, I use an old antique rake that makes very loose and fluffy windrows that the wind and air can circulate through easily. I can even adjust the loosness and fluffiness of my windrow. Once that loose fluffy windrow from my rake goes limp, I then flip the windrow again with the tail of the rake making yet another very loose and fluffy windrow that the wind and air circulates through. I get excellent drying this way without sun bleaching. Plus , I gain all the moving the swath benefits to drier ground that the fancy machine claims.

Except for the extra conditioning that their fancy machine does offer (and the ability to travel at 10 mph) , My primitive $90 antique rake method offers most all the other same benefits that their fancy machine does but I am admittingly limited to 5 to 5.5 mph or so travel speed with my antique steel wheeled rake which is plenty fast enough for the antique tractors I am using to operate anyhow (my back would not handle much more). Kinda cool....No way cool....

I think I am geeked now learning the some of the "why" behind how my method works. When I started implementing my current method it is was really more of a taking what I had available and in my mind improvising to make it work as best I could as it was all I had available to use. With all this new information that I am processing: I simply may not be improvising as much as I originally thought I was.

Started doing some of this additional reading in an effort to learn more about haying in Alaska and here I learned more details about why what I do (even though few others do it the way I do) works in Ohio. Best of all, I am simply not improvising as much as I thought I have been all along...simply did not fully understand till now (again very cool).


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

Self sufficient is great and admirable. $280 for having 28 round bales made is dirt cheap though especially if that included the cutting, tedding and baling. You are not going to be able to make it that cheap yourself.

Gonna take you 7 years to simply pay for your baler $1800 baler at that rate assuming you work for free, get all your fuel for free, get all your grease for free, all your twine for free and do not have a single mechanical part to replace on it. Add a cutter, rake, tedder expenses and the years for payback take even longer and I am not even including the tractor which you already had.

,


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Whatever works for you, rank. The downside of that would be the time or trips over the field. If you're working your "piddle patch" in among other activities or a full time job, it may be difficult to be out repeatedly fluffing a windrow. If you're in a position to use time instead of money, it sounds like a great method. It sounds like it would also be more difficult in higher yielding hay or in areas without consistent winds and that's why everyone has to examine their own individual circumstances and develop their own plan.


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

No the $280 or $10 per round was for baling only. We are paying in hay for the raking and mowing. Our neighbor is taking hay off of our other 4 acre field. We are selling the hay off the other 4 acres.


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

8350 you are absolutely correct. My old way is not practical at all for an operation with any size to it and my fields are not super high yielding either. Takes me less than an hour though to flippy the windrows with the 594 rake and less than 1 gallon of gas in the ole farmall h or JD putt putt. If I use the Kubota diesel even less fuel. ( Actually, I think I can flippy the windrows quicker than I could tedder if I had a small 2 basket that actually worked.. With the tedder I would have to cover the entire fileld. With the rake only have to flippy where the windrows are).

Raking 3 times is really no different than tedding twice and raking once. It is still 3 trips over the field either way

I enjoy the 1 hour of seat time when I get home from work from work in the evening, but my wife also easly handles flippy the windrow too when I work overtime at my real job. Best of all the rake itself operates for nearly free. Have not even broken a single tine in years. Put the cheapest $1 a tube grease I can find and go and I store my rake outdoors to boot. No point in using expensive grease in these dinosaur rakes.


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## Wethay (Jul 17, 2015)

I know that rakes are rakes and tedders are tedders and the combos aren't good for either. I run a two basket tedder/rake and like how it works. It doesn't work so well when windrows are light and you want to double them up. If you are considering a tedder you might take one for a test drive. I have no idea how it would do in chopped grass.


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

Getting into haying as an adult is difficult. I wish I had an educated father and grew up doing this... So many things to consider and decisions to make. Trying to enjoy the process. Hard to get good advice because everyones situation is unique.


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## bool (Mar 14, 2016)

Learning it from your father is certainly easy: you don't realise how much you have learnt from him until you have to do it on your own. But you can still learn it: lots of others before you have learnt it.

That JD rake will be just fine for your needs. Notice how as the two metal wheels turn, the tine bars push the hay to the left. This minimises the distance it has to travel. The "basket" type rake has a kind of angled rotating drum with tines on it, it sort of pushes the hay forwards and to the side, which involves moving it further to get it into the windrow.

Those metal wheels are designed to carry either 4 or 5 tine bars (maybe 6 as well, it's hard to tell from the photo). The more tine bars and tines, the better the raking job. This is particularly important for your brush hogged hay. You can manage with 4 bars but 5 is better.

The centre front mounting of the tine bars and wheels assembly looks like it can be adjusted up or down. If you adjust it up the tines tend to fluff the hay upwards into a looer windrow. IF you adjust it down you get a tighter, ropier windrow.

Your B will pull it just fine.

Roger


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

It's listed at $800 from the little you can tell from the picture is this a reasonable price?


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

Here are a couple more pictures.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

MyDaughtersPony said:


> I important aspect to me is becoming self sufficient... So I don't have to pay $280 for 28 round bales... Or pay to have it cut and raked.


Not to be a smart ass but if you can buy round bales for $10 bucks a piece why bother doing it yourself? I'm charging $9/bale just to roll em for other people.

Anything I can't get $40 a bale for here gets ground into cow hay, most of my later cuttings I average $75/bale.


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## Three44s (May 21, 2016)

MyDaughtersPony said:


> No the $280 or $10 per round was for baling only. We are paying in hay for the raking and mowing. Our neighbor is taking hay off of our other 4 acre field. We are selling the hay off the other 4 acres.


The $10 is just for baling.

Three 44s


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## Gogetter (Jun 27, 2016)

I was reading and I notsure if I interpreted correctly did you imply there is a type of hay rake that helps drying ? We have a nh156 and would love to see something that makes more fluff.thanks


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Three44s said:


> The $10 is just for baling.
> 
> Three 44s


Gotcha, so somebody is taking the hay off the other 4 acres but still charging to bale your 4 acres?


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## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

Sorry for the confusion. My neighbor who was going to mow, rake, and bale had his round baler break down on him. So we are paying him with 2nd cutting off of one of our 4 acre fields for mowing and raking 1st cutting.

We had to hire another guy to stop by and round bale 1st cutting. He charged $10 per round but they are large in my opinion and netted.

So we had 2 different guys help us with 1st cutting. One we are paying cash to bale and the other we are paying in hay for mowing and raking. We needed rounds for our hay because we do not have a barn (yet) to store squares. Don't ask me why I bought a square baler... well it's mainly because I couldn't afford a round baler and I don't think I have a tractor big enough to power one. Anyways I'm planning on building a barn in the near future so squares will be more ideal then.

In my area I'll have no problem selling squares also.


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## bool (Mar 14, 2016)

You bought a sqaure baler for the right reasons. I use a 100 hp tractor (NH TS100) to pull my round baler (Claas Rollant 66) and I would not like to use a tractor much smaller. For your small scale requirements I would suggest small squares will be easier to handle than rounds. You just need to build that barn.

That JD rake will do your job just fine. I don't know price levels where you are, so be guided by others more local whether you might get a better deal by waiting or whether that deal is good enough. For the purposes of price comparison between our areas, a couple of years ago I paid $280 at an auction for a neighbour's NH56 rake, which is a better rake than the JD you are looking at but was stored outside for years so is in worse condition, though still good enough as a spare rake.

Roger


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Don't let all that 'rope maker' talk put you off. There's a reason New Holland and just about every other manufacturer of hay equipment has made a bar rake, and why they're STILL selling them NEW.

Like EVERYTHING, it's HOW YOU SET IT UP AND USE IT. You can get good, nice-baling FLUFFY windrows out of a rolabar rake IF YOU SET IT UP RIGHT AND THE CROP/CONDITIONS ARE RIGHT. You can also roll tight ropes that won't dry or pull into the baler if you do it wrong. Same thing with ANY rake-- set it up wrong or operate it wrong at the wrong time or wrong conditions and you'll get wads, crap in the hay, etc. I've heard a LOT of trash talk from various folks over the years about "this type of equipment is trash-- they're complete junk and you should never use them" and most of that is just BS from people who don't really know what they're talking about, or don't know how to correctly use one in various situations. Had a bigshot neighbor knocking disk and drum mowers, that "they were complete crap and should never be used" because "they cut the end of the stubble ragged and hinder regrowth". In his world, ONLY a sickle could EVER cut hay "correctly" with clean stubble ends that "wouldn't hinder regrowth" and all that. Know what?? 95% of the hay cutters around here use disk/drum machines, and sickles are practically extinct here... and the bigshot know-it-all, he didn't even bale hay but a few times in his life-- they were big corn guys.

I've seen wheel rakes dragging up balls the size of hay stacks and wadding up in johnsongrass or other tall crops, I've seen rolabars making tight ropes, the only thing we don't see down here are the complex and super-expensive rotary sweep rakes, but I've seen them up north and it's not really apparent that they're THAT much better than any other kind of rake. They all have their good and bad points, and they ALL have to be set up and operated CORRECTLY to do a good job. That's true of virtually ALL machinery.

Now, true, some machines do better in certain areas than others, due to the prevailing conditions-- the land, the climate, the crops, practices, etc. Find a good fit for YOUR area and go for it. BTW, there's a reason WHY they haven't made those old style "reel rakes" since the 40's when the "rolabar" type rakes took their place... ("reel rakes" meaning the antique JD's, etc that have a central axle running the length of the basket and tine bars rotating around it like a combine reel turning backwards to flip the hay forward over itself, versus the "rolabar" type parallel bar rakes turning on angled "star wheels" on either end turning perpendicular to the direction of travel). There's a REASON why they're STILL making and selling TONS of "rolabar" type rakes while the reel rakes are antiquated dinosaurs that haven't been built in nearly 70 years. Yeah, they'll work-- see plenty of Amish STILL running those things up in Indiana, BUT, other stuff works BETTER, or they'd STILL be building the reel rakes today instead of rolabar type rakes.

Later! OL J R


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## Wethay (Jul 17, 2015)

I started raking with a steel wheeled rake just new enough to have a metal tongue and no operator's seat. From there we got an old wheel rake ( I think it's a New Idea made by Darf ) that looks the same as the one pictured at the beginning of this. Now it's a tedder/ rake combo. Looks like I've pretty much old used the rakes from the "will not work" category. I can say that the rakes both have a tendency to bunch when the hay is way heavy and then if it rains a few times so you keep rolling it the corners don't do well. Yes I've heard that I should have a straight tedder and a rotary rake, I just haven't told my equipment or my customers.


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