# Low budget baling



## mr_flintstone (Aug 26, 2014)

Three or four years ago I bought a NH-268 square baler, IH 130 sickle bar cutter, and a Vicon 4-wheel rake on a whim for $2000 for all. I have some horses and ponies that I've been feeding with the hay I've been baling with this equipment. Overall they do a very good job, but I don't have a Tedder. What I've been doing is letting the hay lay for a day or two, and turning into two small rows with the rake turned over with the wheels reversed. The next day I windrow and bale. It seems to work, but it takes about 3 to 4 days to get the hay good and dry.

How much faster could I bale if I had a Tedder? I don't know if I want to spend $2000-$2500 for a tedder for about 250 bales per year. If I were baling more it would be a no-brainier. Are there any other low cost alternatives?


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

How many acres are you baling flintstone? If just a few, you can buy a 2 rotor tedder for about $500-$800....possibly less. It will save you 1 day for sure and also be very useful about hay that has been rained on.


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

Just a thought, and it won't help in the event of rain- a hay conditioner will speed up drying time, too. With the conditioner, there is not the extra trip over the field as there is with the tedder. For full disclosure, I have both. I have a sickle conditioner and a disc mower (no conditioner) and I used the slower conditioner most of the time (unless the hay is lodged etc), and they hay seems to dry faster than mowing with the non-conditioner and tedding. Around here, a used/serviceable mower/conditioner can be had for less than a 2 basket tedder. I gave $500 for a Gehl conditioner about 4 years ago and it was well cared for and ready for use.

...just a thought.

Of course, if I get to spend your money, I would say a conditioner AND tedder. 

Mowed day 1 at 330 pm









Tedded day 2 at @9 am with a little dew still on

Tedded day 3 @ 8 am with a little dew on

Raked day 3 @ 2pm









and baled day @ 3:30 pm @ 12-14% moisture.

View attachment IMG_0694.MOV


...so about 48-50 hours from cutting to baling. It would have never happened that fast with my faster, newer, shinier disc mower with no conditioning.

73, Mark


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## mr_flintstone (Aug 26, 2014)

Vol said:


> How many acres are you baling flintstone? If just a few, you can buy a 2 rotor tedder for about $500-$800....possibly less. It will save you 1 day for sure and also be very useful about hay that has been rained on.


I've looked around here, and the cheapest used Tedder I can find is $1200. I see you're in east TN. Could you recommend a couple places to look in your neck of the woods? I'm a little more than an hour from Kingsport TN.; and we used to show horses in towns all up and down I-81 and I-26. PM me if you don't want to mention names on an open forum.

As far as a conditioner goes, I'd love to have one, but I've never seen one around here. I live in the hills of eastern KY, and most hay fields are relatively small (3 or 4 acres at most), and on uneven ground or odd shaped fields. Most people around here opted for tedders instead of conditioners. I'd have to travel to TN or central KY to find one; but I'll keep it in mind.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

mr_flintstone said:


> I've looked around here, and the cheapest used Tedder I can find is $1200. I see you're in east TN. Could you recommend a couple places to look in your neck of the woods? I'm a little more than an hour from Kingsport TN.; and we used to show horses in towns all up and down I-81 and I-26. PM me if you don't want to mention names on an open forum.
> 
> As far as a conditioner goes, I'd love to have one, but I've never seen one around here. I live in the hills of eastern KY, and most hay fields are relatively small (3 or 4 acres at most), and on uneven ground or odd shaped fields. Most people around here opted for tedders instead of conditioners. I'd have to travel to TN or central KY to find one; but I'll keep it in mind.


One of the quicker ways to search for implements in this general area is to look on Craigslist.....I use Searchtempest to search Craig's for me.

I just took a quick look on searchtempest and there are several listed.....enter "Hay Tedder" in the search box.

Regards, Mike


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