# Small round balers



## harleybob

I am looking for a small round baler, 3x4 to 4x4, bales up to 200 or 400 pounds.
My tractor PTO is 30hp. Any suggestions? I want to cut bales that can 
be sold to the traditional small square bale market.


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## scrapiron

Have one, a Hesston 5530, 39"x 48" rolls. Today I rolled some 16-18 inch x 39inch rolls for a friends wife, horse hay, about 40 lb rolls. We have all of our horse hay in 18"x39" rolls or 48"x 39" rolls this year, 50 lb small rolls and 500lb larger rolls. May not hook up the square baler again this year.

A Hesston 5530,530 730, MF 1734,and Case 8420 are all the same baler. We looked for 4 yrs to find one at a decent price, most used ones are real expensive ,more than a 4x5 baler. A MF 1734 new is around >$14000. I have used mine with a Ford 3000 gas & a JD 1020 diesel. They both run it but they were working hard in heavy hay with a big windrow and a full bale.

scrapiron


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## downtownjr

That is an interesting idea having small round bales for horse folks. How does it seem to do overall? I know I am tired of small squares. The market I have has goats, cattle and horses. My cattle market picked upped and my horse market has went down about 20% since 2008...fewer horses. The goats are steady, but not a large market. Most of them want the cheapest stuff they can get. Cattle has shaped up well for my 5x6 bales, but I have to keep a lot of those because I keep buying more cattle. We use a 4 x 4 Duetz-Allis, that gets a very good workout for the goat folks and some of the small hobby cattle farms...they have small tractors and cannot move 5x6 bales around easily. Never sold rounds to horse person yet. Curious to hear what horse people think. I know where a Case IH 8420 is ans my first thought was it is too small for what I do, but the if horse folks would buy them...maybe I should look at it. Thanks.


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## Mike120

A horse will eat small rounds as well as small squares, they don't care about the shape. I care though. We stick with small squares because they are easier to store and feed. Yes, you can stick a round out in a pasture and the horses will eat it. They'll just leave a mess with the 20% or so that they don't eat. For horses in the barn, you'd have to unroll the round to feed it. Life is so much easier when you just feed flakes off a small square bales.


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## scrapiron

In our 40+ yrs of messing with horses, they will only eat 50-70% of the hay fed outside in a hay ring or on the ground. The 18" round rolls stack like cord wood in the barn, a wheelborrow takes it to the pasture,cut and pull strings, dump it on the ground give it a kick and it unrolls like a carpet.Enough hay for 2 horses. I use a very heavy windrow so that I get a roll about every 20'. The 48" rolls are easy to unwind and feed off of in the barn, in a hay ring there is just less hay to waste.

In this area most of the tractors are about 25-35hp compact utilitys and will not handle over about a 500lb roll. The horse & goat people use 3x4 or 4x4 rolls if they can get them,easier to handle,with small tractor or by hand. The 4x5,4x6 rolls they just can't move, only 2 working 5x6 balers in the area and these big ranches[7000&20000 acres] don't sell any hay.

The 18" round rolls sell for $1.00 more than squares, the 3x4 & 4x4 are priced the same about $ 5.00-7.00 less than a 4x5 roll. This is out of the field behind the baler. Around HERE squares are very hard to find, only 2 other hay guys bale squares and one dosen't put any in the barn. I only sell squares out of the field behind the baler at this time.

scrapiron


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## mlappin

scrapiron said:


> Have one, a Hesston 5530, 39"x 48" rolls. Today I rolled some 16-18 inch x 39inch rolls for a friends wife, horse hay, about 40 lb rolls. We have all of our horse hay in 18"x39" rolls or 48"x 39" rolls this year, 50 lb small rolls and 500lb larger rolls. May not hook up the square baler again this year.


Didn't Allis Chalmers have a baler that would make nothing but 50 lb rd bales?


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## scrapiron

Yes -- called it rotobaler, rolled the roll on the ground. Dad had one when I was little,didn't keep it but about 3 yrs.

scrapiron


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## Grateful11

I can't say enough good about our JD 448. This is it's 2nd season and never seems to miss a beat after about 600 bales.


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## blueriver

Small rounds or small squares you still have a labor factor. I would think at least with the squares you can use the accumulator and grapple to help out.


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## Mike120

blueriver said:


> Small rounds or small squares you still have a labor factor. I would think at least with the squares you can use the accumulator and grapple to help out.


That's one of the reasons I stick with the small squares. The accumulator/grapple has significantly reduced my labor factor. The other reason is that we usually have 30+ horses on the place. Square bales fit nicely on the back of the Gator for feeding flakes in the paddocks and the flakes fit well in hay bags for the horses in the barn. The horses in the paddocks are fed twice a day. If they still have hay on the ground we cut back the second feeding and waste very little. I prefer that they eat grass all summer and let me stock up the hay for the winter.


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## blueriver

Mike120 said:


> That's one of the reasons I stick with the small squares. The accumulator/grapple has significantly reduced my labor factor. The other reason is that we usually have 30+ horses on the place. Square bales fit nicely on the back of the Gator for feeding flakes in the paddocks and the flakes fit well in hay bags for the horses in the barn. The horses in the paddocks are fed twice a day. If they still have hay on the ground we cut back the second feeding and waste very little. I prefer that they eat grass all summer and let me stock up the hay for the winter.


I agree ...

I never thought when I went to the 4x4 that so many folks would want them! We are going in 2011 to add the square bales.

Am now shopping for the grapple and the accumulator


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## jpritchett

My dad got a call from a guy in georgia wanting to buy 20" wide netwrap. Up here in nebraska we have never heard of that small of round baler or netwrap. Back in the 80's my dad said guys had little round balers that would kick out a little round bale so cattle can graze on during the winter. He said those balers were a deathtrap. My dad had a booth in Moultrie georgia for a show a few weeks ago so he went and checked out the balers and delivered the netwrap to the guy. He said they were pretty neat. I cant remember the name of the baler but they were around 10,000 new. and made a 20"x2' tall bale.


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## swmnhay

jpritchett said:


> Back in the 80's my dad said guys had little round balers that would kick out a little round bale so cattle can graze on during the winter. He said those balers were a deathtrap. .


JJ,
I think your Dad was talking about the Allis Chalmers sm rd balers.I think they were a early 60's vintage if not earlier.I know my grampa had one and he quit farming in mid 60's.I think they made a 50-60# bale.I think up here they were picked up by hand and stored in hayloft in barn.

Was traveling across N Neb and seen a field of bales made from one a couple yrs ago.Bales about 3.5' wide and 18" around.One of them what the heck moments.









Also seen some hay being made put up loose in the stacks.Dump rakes and then scooped up with the big hay buckets and put into the frame thingy to make the stacks.


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## jpritchett

There are still a few guys doing it the old fashioned way of stacking hay down here. We had a neighbor who was doing it until we talked him into letting us bale his hay and we've baled for him ever since. Your right about the baler it was a Allis Chalmers.


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## rherington

IHI makes small balers. They are not cheap though. It is an import from Japan. If you google Small Farm Innovations he sells them. A really nice guy who really believes in those balers. They have a 3x3 round and a smaller round baler that is mostly used for pine straw. He uses the small square baler from IHI to make about 40# bales. They both require around 30 hp.

I went with the MF/Hesston 1734 because of the cheaper financing I could get through agco vs. the local bank. This is my first baler. The baler works pretty well but the twine cutter is really bad. I am looking for a better way to cut the twine. I spend a lot of time with a pocket knife in my hand! But it does make a nice bale! And you can make them 3x3 if you wanted.


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## cam smith

hi does any one have any ideas or some one i can contact about unrolling rolls into a small square baler what machinery is out there to do the job.i am from australia in the west just after a few ideas cheers


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## Grateful11

cam smith said:


> hi does any one have any ideas or some one i can contact about unrolling rolls into a small square baler what machinery is out there to do the job.i am from australia in the west just after a few ideas cheers


T's Easy Unroller

You might get more responses if start a new Thread.


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