# farming timothy with only antiques?



## mac266 (Feb 13, 2012)

I've got a wild idea in my head. I have a thing for antique John Deere tractors, and my wife is one of those "crazy horse ladies." Wouldn't it be fun to buy 20 acres of land nearby and farm timothy hay using only antique John Deere equipment? That way I could feed the horses without any extra cost, sell the rest of the hay for profit, feed my addiction to antique tractors, have fun, and keep The Wife happy.

What would I need in addition the list below?

Tractor - already have
plow
disc
spreader
sickle mower
tedder
rake
baler
hay wagon


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

mac266 said:


> I've got a wild idea in my head. I have a thing for antique John Deere tractors, and my wife is one of those "crazy horse ladies." Wouldn't it be fun to buy 20 acres of land nearby and farm timothy hay using only antique John Deere equipment? That way I could feed the horses without any extra cost, sell the rest of the hay for profit, feed my addiction to antique tractors, have fun, and keep The Wife happy.
> 
> What would I need in addition the list below?
> 
> ...


Strong back
Weak mind
;0)

Regards, Mike


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## hay rake (Dec 31, 2011)

i agree with mike. you will also need about four times the money you pay for hay now. gary


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Forgot the most important part when using antique equipment, if you insist on trying this I would strongly advise to buy one piece brand spanking new. This piece would be a kegerator to keep your beer cold as you'll need it.


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## MorganT69 (May 17, 2010)

I would add a sprayer to your list


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## Chessiedog (Jul 24, 2009)

Your going to need a lot more wagons then one . Unless you plan on mowing one acre at at a time to bale .

Maybe you all ready have the keg ,an was working on it when you came up with this 
" wild idea " ?


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## mac266 (Feb 13, 2012)

hay rake said:


> i agree with mike. you will also need about four times the money you pay for hay now. gary


I don't know about that. Hay is going for $11 a small bale in this area. Besides, I'm not the only antique enthusiast. I know a guy in Massachussetts who owns a 40 acre asparagus hobby farm using only antiques. He loves it.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Mac, $11 per bale for Timothy is very impressive. If you square bale very long, you will soon learn that speed is of great essence when baling hay, and Chessie is spot on when he says you will need multiple wagons. Antique equipment may sound cool and it really does look cool, but in reality it is not practical for square baling. I predict that there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth if you attempt 20 acres with antiques.....unless you live in the desert and irrigate(no rain) and have lots of spare time. Farming asparagus and square baling hay cannot be compared in any facet.

Good Luck.....your going to need it.

Regards, Mike


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Throw in a good psychiatrist to boot. Horses, hay and wives make a man crazy. 5:00 AM - time for a beer.

Ralph


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## dubltrubl (Jul 19, 2010)

I had a friend try this this past year. He's a mule and horse enthusiest. His teams were in pretty good shape compared to most, but found out REAL quick that is was much harder than it looked. First team tuckered out cutting with a sickle bar in about 45 minutes. Second team didn't last quite so long. After the third team and only about an acre and a half cut, he was tuckered out. Don't ask me why, because i woulda thought his stuff would have been more durable. I just think his teams weren't used to such heavy work. BTW, the next week he started looking to purchase some good used hay machinery to pull with his tractors!
Best of luck regardless of which way you go!
Steve


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

rjmoses said:


> Throw in a good psychiatrist to boot. Horses, hay and wives make a man crazy. 5:00 AM - time for a beer.
> 
> Ralph


I have a friend that has all three plus a dairy as well. His breakfast is usually a beer and a ice cream sandwich if it's hot out.


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## hay rake (Dec 31, 2011)

mac266 said:


> I don't know about that. Hay is going for $11 a small bale in this area. Besides, I'm not the only antique enthusiast. I know a guy in Massachussetts who owns a 40 acre asparagus hobby farm using only antiques. He loves it.


if you think 11 dollars is high wait till you have bought all the equipment then fixed it up then kept it repaired. that is to start now you have to make quality hay for your horse. ok now figure the weather. as the saying goes you have to make hay while the sun shines. any plans you have whoops it rained all week and the suns out this weekend, sorry honey those plans we had are out remember honey you wanted me to hay. now after giving up your weekend you start to bale. ten bales in the antique baler breaks and a rain storm that was never predicted comes up whoops MULCH. I know this is not what you want to hear but trust me if you want to play with antiques get a garden or mow a big lawn anything but try to hay. hay has to be done on it's schedule not yours. in any other type crop the weather will guide you. with hay the weather dictates to you. if you think 11 dollars is expensive wait till you figure your cost for buying and maintaining antique equipment for a small amount of hay. you will not believe the things that WILL go wrong untill you do it. if the cost is in anyway a factor in doing your own hay forget it it will cost you more than buying it. as i tell farmers that only do 200 round bales a year i can bale it for you cheaper than you can own a baler. that applies here. but hey you think this is going to be an adventure. it will be so have fun. gary


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## Will 400m (Aug 1, 2011)

Ok not to start a fight because all of the above is right and mostly true but I disagree to the point that it cant be done. I know quite a few people up here who make small square as cheep as they can and that usualy means some relay whoped out old stuff. Now if your an antique collector already and have the stuff tuned up and running well and not just riged together than other than being slower and older and most likley less powerful than modern stuff I dont see why it cant be done with a smile. But since you have some stuff to start and if it's just a hobby like your tractors than so what if it dosn't pan out or get's rained on it's still a load of fun to do. Maby a location and a descriputation of the equiptment would help desuade the rest of the others.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

mac266 said:


> Wouldn't it be fun to buy 20 acres of land nearby and farm timothy hay using only antique John Deere equipment?


Nearby and adjacent are two very different concepts in distance. Old tractors were not known for their breathtaking road speed. You are probably going to spend a fair bit amount of time on the road and I doubt the folks sharing it with you will be waving in friendship.



mac266 said:


> That way I could feed the horses without any extra cost


"Horses" indicates multiple.....I have no concept of the establishment effort or yields from Timothy but when you get all this antique equipment, you better include a fairly well stocked shop...you're probably going to need it.



mac266 said:


> sell the rest of the hay for profit,


When you start really figuring your costs, "profit" may be a long way out there. There is also a lot of difference between dealing with the horse owner you love and all the rest of them. Dealing with some of the others is often not fun.



mac266 said:


> and keep The Wife happy,


When she sees how much fun you are having buying all of your new antiques, she will be jealous and will go out and get more horses. She will use the logic that they will no longer cost anything to keep.

I wish you luck.....


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## Toyes Hill Angus (Dec 21, 2010)

Anything can be done with the old stuff, just the same as the new stuff. The most important thing that I can point out is the fact that all of the antique haying equipment I've ever seen just looked like a bunch of junk, never to work again.
I can remember using an old New Holland super 66 Hayliner baler when I was very young(10-13). It must have been in really good shape because it rarely broke, but when it did, it always seemed to be a part that we had to make ourselves or send out to a machine shop to custom fabricate a part that New Hollandstoppedd making years ago. 
This idea of yours may lead you to the nuthouse.
This hasn't been touched on yet so I'll mention it, There is a lot of what we do that is done on past experiences, what I mean to say is, I have learned from the foolish things that I've done in the past and learned from the outcome. Besides, I wouldn't want to try to hay without either my past experiences or someone close by that I could bother (and you will) for help and advice. 
definitelytely loeasieriser than it is in real life. If you have hay ground, hire it dine and watch and learn for a few years, then make your choice.


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## barnrope (Mar 22, 2010)

It wasn't too long ago when I was making hay with antiques. I just didn't know they were antiques at the time! Ten years ago I was mowing 30 acres with a 1940's IHC sickle mower, on a B or a 720 Diesel JD. Raked with old rusty high steel wheel rakes, and baled with a WD45 Allis and an early 60's New Holand baler. A lot of folks still do it that way. If you keep your equipment maintained and enjoy doing it the old way, you will be happy. Good luck to you and please post lots of pictures!


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## mac266 (Feb 13, 2012)

dubltrubl said:


> I had a friend try this this past year. He's a mule and horse enthusiest. His teams were in pretty good shape compared to most, but found out REAL quick that is was much harder than it looked. First team tuckered out cutting with a sickle bar in about 45 minutes. Second team didn't last quite so long. After the third team and only about an acre and a half cut, he was tuckered out. Don't ask me why, because i woulda thought his stuff would have been more durable. I just think his teams weren't used to such heavy work. BTW, the next week he started looking to purchase some good used hay machinery to pull with his tractors!
> Best of luck regardless of which way you go!
> Steve


You're talking about antiques from 100 years earlier than mine. My antiques have horse power provided by John Deere! My grandparents farmed several hundred acres with horses early on in life, and with tractors like mine later.


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## floyd (Jan 7, 2012)

I wonder if the mower was tuned? Makes a big difference.

I used to cut 80-100Ac/yr with teams. Sometimes there were 2 mowers going.

Never did bale with my teams. Balers I had then took too much adjusting.

I just brought a craigslist 346 home. Anyone have the hitch for one they want to sell?


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

Mac, I think it can be done but you need to be setup for the experience. I too, started with antiques, but that's all I could afford at the time. I would suggest that you definately get a newer, more reliable baler. That will take a lot of the frustration out of the equation. At least have one on hand if your antique craps out on you. You will have to understand that it will take you a lot longer to farm with them. You will also need a 730 or 830 diesel if you are talking about running 2 cylinder tractors. My timothy usually runs over 100 bales to the acre in an average year, so more wagons are needed to get your hay up and off the fields and under cover. I use to rake hay with a team of horses and a forecart just for the fun of it. It was a lot of fun just harnessing them up and listening to the side delivery rake turn over. Granted, it was just a small field, but it was something that I will always fondly remember. Good luck in whatever you decide. You have received some good advice here. I did carry a cooler with me


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## Fowllife (Sep 10, 2010)

I don't really see a problem with what you are thinking of doing, except for the size. I would start out with a 2-3 acre patch and see how it goes. 20 acres right off the bat is a lot of bales to handle. If you currently have enough pasture then start to slowly pick up the equipment and try to bale a portion of the pasture. That will give you a good taste of what you are up against before you spend a lot of money seeding 20 acres.

And as for hay rake's comment about being cheeper to have someone else do it, well thats not always the case, at least in my area. It's extremely hard to find someonethat wants to custom bale in my area. And if you can find someone it's on their schedule. You may go from making very nice premium hay yourself to having mulch hay from waiting on a custom bales.....that also could go the other way though


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## Chessiedog (Jul 24, 2009)

The one big thing I think some of you are over looking is the fact that he is BUYING the 20 acres to put in hay . Unless he just has lots of money to spend .Seems like a very wild idea to me . Of course I don't have money falling out of my pockets . LOL

Here's one small part of this problem I see. With one wagon your going to get say 100 bales on it, depending on how big it is and how good at loading a wagon he is . Ok I haven't done a lot of timothy but , I would guess a good stand would make 85 bales or more to the acre . And like most other hay timothy has to be done in a certain time frame or your going to just have a bunch of brown looking straw . So. mow say just half of that 20 acres next thing you know you got 850 bales of hay to get baled and ONE wagon to do it with , you had better be loading it quick and get to the barn unload and back to the field ,to get the other 750 before the end of the day .And thats just half the field .Not taking in to account weather coming , break downs ,and not knowing anything about what your doing.

But on the other side if you have plenty of money , time , and need something to do to keep busy I say go for it . I wouldn't expect to make 11 dollar a bale hay the first year out but who knows one person won over 300 million in the power ball the other day !

Maybe your idea is not that crazy , it's just to much ground to start like that , find a couple acres of grass someone is not doing anything with and try it first . I think you'll find it's not as easy as it looks for one thing to make really good hay .

Good Luck


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## Bret4207 (Mar 29, 2011)

I started with junk and still use what many here would apparently consider junk. The old NH 68 makes just as good a bale as a brand new baler, just doesn't have the capacity pf the new one. That's okay though since I'm pretty much a one man show. An old $700.00 472 haybine, an old $100.00 Kuhn tedder, a couple of $100-300.00 rakes, some "get that junk outta here and you can have it" wagons and an equally ancient Hesston 5500 round baler and I get by pretty good. I make good hay off my 80 or so acres of meadow and get about 1.5 cuts a year, mostly because there just isn't enough of me to go around. The draft horses do well on it and so do the sheep. I'd like a bigger haybine and I lust after a rotary rake. If lamb prices hold I make be able to do that in a year or two. But I'm not about to go in debt for more land or shiny new equipment.

Would I recommend trying to buy land and farm it with "antique" equipment and expect to at least break even? No. If you already owned the land that would be different.


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## SixesnSevens (Jun 19, 2011)

I think it is a great idea as long as you keep in mind that it is part of your and your wife's hobby. I first started making hay in Maine about 15 years ago with "antiques" (not restored, just old) on about 60 acres (20 that I bailed, the rest was sheep pasture). I had a mower (no conditioner), a junky Kuhn tedder, an ancient JD rake, and a JD 14T baler. No wagon -- brought all the hay in with a pick up truck. Accordingly, I didn't mow all 20 acres at a time, only as much as I could bail and pick up in one day (usually 5 acres). My neighbor at the time was an elderly subsistence farmer and he made hay the same way, except he didn't even have a tedder. I now live in NY and there are lots of Amish and Mennonites here that use antique equipment and/or horses (depending on their faith) to bale hay.

I guess if I were you I would get a baler now and restore it -- you don't want to be dealing with that in the summer when you have hay on the ground. Even if you don't acquire some land you are at least feeding your hobby over the winter/spring for not much money. Once you find some land, get the other pieces you will need. You may not need the tillage equipment if the land already has a decent amount/quality of grass.

Best of luck, Scott


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