You can get started for $10,000-$15,000 in used equipment. You just need to make sure that you’re a good mechanic. If you’re not, you’ll get a lot of practice. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just the reality of the situation in almost all cases unless you spend a lot of money up front.

 

Figure in buildings to cover your equipment ....and to store hay.....yep old cheap equipment requires lots of maintenance and repairs so you must be mechanical.....lots of people thinking the same as you out there...seems like there are some you tube videos of small tractors making hay....be good to watch several

The easiest is to have a neighbor farmer do it for you if possible ...

 

The whole point of it for many smallholders is that they want to do it themselves even if it is less efficient than having a neighbor do it.

There must be plenty of 1960s or 1970s gear around that would meet your needs. Sicke mower, bar rake, 14x18 baler. Don't even think of anything heavy or power-hungry with that tractor. So no disk mowers, for example.

Roger

 

Yes this! We want to do it ourselves. I do have neighbors, and I bet I could ask -- because crossing over into my fields would be literally nothing for him, he's got hundreds and hundreds of acres and I'm just a baby compared.

He did want to buy my land when I bought it, though, he said I paid too much lol (gave me an earful about that!) so maybe he wouldn't

At any rate, WE DO want to do it ourselves!!

Never thought of old implements. I will do some investigation!! We aren't massive mechanics, but we both LOVE to learn.

 

I think you'll struggle making much hay with ~20 PTO HP, plus the weight of the tractor itself plays into it. I'm on the older equipment kick and have to repair things routinely, but it is much, much cheaper if you can wrench on things.

I wouldn't start down a hay venture unless I had 50 PTO HP minimum and many on here with scoff at that. I went for round baling for cattle feeding. Here is a thread on my hay equipment. --> Lower HP Hay Equipment | Hay & Forage Forum (haytalk.com)

I have added an International 484 loader tractor to the mix as well. It can serve as a backup to my JD on almost all of my equipment and will be my raking and tedding tractor.

 

10 acres - sickle bar mower, old rake, old square baler. If you are good at fixing things maybe 1500-2500$. Then you need fertilizer spreader pretty soon after. Careful as it gets addicting and you end up with a fleet of equipment.

 

A square baler behind a 20hp tractor that weights 2500lbs sounds like zero fun and a recipe for pto driveline issues to me.

 

I understand your interest. The problem with asking a big time neighbor is that he will ALWAYS have something more important to do than hook up equipment and waste a critical day on your little project. You can do it for about $7000.
First buy an old heavy 40 HP tractor like a Massey Ferguson 50...wide front, live PTO $3000., a sickle bar mower (belt drive) slow but a zillion acres have been cut with one $800, old New Holland square baler a 268, 270 etc $1500,
A belt drive New Idea or Ezee flow rake $500, and maybe an 8 ft 3pt tedder $700. and plus good wagon (it is only going 2MPH in the fields). $600.
With this old stuff, time and patience you can make a lot of hay ...slowly but surely. Just be sure what you buy is in good working order when you buy it. Haunt the auctions, Craigslist and Facebook market place...just like we all did when we started. Good luck...but a warning...making hay is a disease. Read the comments.

 

Other than the tractor in our area a lot of people are trying to do this so the other equipment runs 2-3 times those prices and needs work...IF you can find it as equipment does not last long for sale

 

The equipment Ed mentions would cost 3x to 4x his prices around here.

 

You can get in for cheap if you’re willing to look hard, accept projects, and make hay a little slower than modern equipment will allow. I enjoy the process and don’t rely on hay to feed any livestock or support me financially.

I started baling about 30 acres last year. I bought a $500 haybine (Case 1190), a $400 rake (NH 256), a $1700 square baler (NH 273), and 2 wagons that needed decks for about $500. I had a 75 hp tractor already, but we bought a running Farmall H for $1200 to help out. Yes I spent some more time and money on parts refurbishing some stuff, but generally my intro costs were very low, and I am a handy guy. I bought a used 4 basket manual fold tedder for $2400 later in the season to help with drying and pop up rain issues. Just finished a homemade hydraulic fold assembly for it so my kid can fold it. Total cost was $180 (hydraulic cylinder, hose, fitting, pulleys), some scrap steel plate and cable, and a day in the shop.

I sold 1200 bales and basically broke even after 1 year. I was fortunate that the property has a big barn for hay storage so I sold all winter. This year I picked up a Farmall Super MTA (live PTO, ~45 hp) that can pull the haybine and baler if needed.

I want to add a NH bale wagon to my inventory but I’m waiting until I find the right (affordable) one. If anyone knows of one I have a wanted ad in the marketplace.

Stay motivated, small acreage guys!

 

Unfortunately, with that tractor and that horsepower, your options are very limited. You can probably make do with a sickle bar mower, four wheel rake or an old roll-a-bar rake with front wheel caddy, and a two-basket tedder would all suffice. The baler is going to be your biggest obstacle. A square baler pounds the crap out of your tractor and most would probably recommend at least 40hp plus. In a pinch, I baled with an old Ford 3000 (40-something HP) and it was not a fun day.

The Hesston 530 round baler is about as small as you will find and they recommend at least 35hp. It is possible with a round baler to bale a smaller bale and reduce your horsepower requirements. You've also got to consider the weight of the equipment if you are pulling up and down hills.

Finally, they do make some miniature baling equipment. I have never seen any in use and have no experience with it.

 

Old square baler will work with those little compacts on flat fields, for 10 acres a year. It absolutely doesn't scale well to more acres and don't think about a hill.

Ford 3000 was standard size of haying tractor here for years even pulling kicker wagons behind baler doing 10-15,000 bales a year. Still no fun on hills though and definitely not safe for new operator!

Edit - quite a move towards safety as I get older, things we did 30 years ago with 40 hp 2wd tractors, I now use 85, 100, 130 hp tractors and no longer take rides down wet grassy hills etc.

square baler pounds the crap out of your tractor and most would probably recommend at least 40hp plus. In a pinch, I baled with an old Ford 3000 (40-something HP) and it was not a fun day.

 

Four years ago a usable hay rake could be had for 500 bucks here, today it's 1500-2000. I bought a NH 270 square baler for 600 bucks in 2018 and sold it for 3000 in 2023 after having it for sale 15 minutes. Sold an old JD #5 sickle mower I had in the weeds for $800 a month back.

All that is to say at least in the upper Midwest even the "cheap" equipment isn't cheap anymore.

 

That little Kubota is enough tractor for a sickle mower, a bar rake or small wheel rake, and a small wagon. It would run an old, low capacity small square baler for a year or two, until our friend realised he needed a 50 or 60 hp tractor with a bit of weight to it to do a proper job.

Maybe start by doing your own mowing and raking and ask your neighbour to bale it for you. When I was a kid in the late 1960s and early 70s we mowed and raked about 5 acres of hay with a Farmall A and later a grey Fergy, and had our neighbour bale it with a NH 275 baler and MF135 tractor. Then we bought an IH B45 baler and pulled it with the grey Fergy.

Roger

 

The PTO driveline in a Ford 3000 is substantially larger and more robust than a Kubota L2501. I've personally repaired 4or5 pto issues from the mass of the plunger rocking and tearing those toy components up in those compact and subcompact tractors.

 

Just saying to see if you want to try it, baling 500-1000 squares off 10 acres over a summer, you don't have to push anything hard. Little compact will last fine for that for a few years to see if you like it and then can pick up a proper tractor for baling.

Our little Kubota baled close to 100,000 squares before it was taken off baler, never had any PTO issues. The radiator isn't really big enough for hay work though, has to get blown out daily. Front end too close to ground and sucks in too much dust/chaff.

 

Agreed chevytaHOE. You might get away with it for a while only doing 10 acres but I’d be hunting hard for a cheap, old tractor in the 40+ hp division.

Remember- if you don’t have the right equipment for the job, you better have the right tools for your equipment. Not that I follow my own advice all the time, but there it is.

 

I've been googling this morning and Italy makes a load of small HP tractor implements - Enorossi and Sitrex, IBEX makes a great small Rake that also works as a tedder and fits my tractor and there are a load of smaller-brand Mini round balers for 5k new that fit my Kubota!

But I never would have found ANY of those implements without all your help here giving me ideas and making me google the right things, so thank you so much!

 

Note to Picocat - our little Kubota is bigger than yours, 43 pto hp or something - I'm not suggesting your tractor will survive 100,000 bales unscathed! This advice is more if you want to poke around and make a couple hundred bales a day a few times a summer to try it out.

 

A 40 hp tractor like a Ford 3000, MF 135 or IH 444 will do all you need. I made thousands of bales with a 444 back in the day. The reason I suggested 50 or 60 hp is that 40 hp tractors are more popular, so you can buy a 50 or 60 hp tractor for much the same price as a 40 hp one. It will be not much bigger and the extra power and weight will allow you to make upgrades in equipment eventually, such as a disk mower so you don't have to stop every few rounds to clear sickle bar blockages.

Roger

 

oooh I understand okay

my husband and I are still playing with the idea of an antique tractor as you guys recommended though because..well, we freaking LOVE antique cars and motorbikes and fitting an old tractor into the mix sounds like heaven tbh!


🤔 I am just slightly tentative going in to a purchase of an old tractor, since I know absolutely nothing and my luck would buy a lemon.

Is there an hour limit I should NOT go over? Is there any red flags I need to avoid?

 

I would be surprised if you find an antique tractor that has a working hour meter, or an hour meter at all. Red flags? I’d say if it looks likes it has been abused- lots of weld repairs, missing pieces, wire and zip ties in the engine compartment, homemade electrical everywhere, sun rotted tires/hoses/belts, filthy dirty or oily- stay away unless you want a project. You’re going to spend a lot fixing it and keeping it functional if it’s rough.

Run it thru all the gears- listen for noise like growling or grinding. Clutch should feel strong- try driving while holding the brakes to see if the brakes are good and the clutch doesn’t slip. Engine should bog down when you do this. Operate the hydraulics and pto. Check fluid levels. Shine a light in the gas tank and look for rust. Ask what they used it for and what they did to it.

Plenty of YouTube videos on buying old tractors. Watch a few, and watch some specifically about that model of tractor so you show up armed with intelligent questions and knowing how the tractor is supposed to be.

Heck- take some pics and throw them up here or on another forum like Yesterday’s Tractors and ask if the price is reasonable. Plenty of people willing to share their thoughts.

 

"Old" is relative. Many old tractors are from the 1940s or 50, some even older. These are cute but not as practical as something a little more recent. I would suggest something from the 1960s or 70s. You want 6 or more gears including slow gears so you can get your speed just right, position control 3 point hitch so you can set the height of mounted implements, 2-stage clutch or independent power-takeoff so you can stop the tractor moving while the machine keeps running to clear wodges of hay, and maybe also remote hydraulics for future equipment upgrades. These things are much more common in 1960s or 70s tractors than earlier ones.

Roger

 

A little late to the conversation but here is my take:
We started last year with a Kubota 3240 32 horse with 26 hp Pto. purchased two New Holland 68s and proceeded to learn a lot about baler mechanics. Used the knives, plunger, feeder bar and other parts to make one serviceable baler. Bought a really well kept 4 disc mower and a JD 640 bar rake. Total investment about $4000 not counting the tractor. Baled 400 bales in a poor hay year for our area. Spent time fixing the baler after the season ended. If your ground is flat, you have the skills ( I learned a lot as I went) and the time to be easy on the equipment it is doable. That said, the 3240 is a bit bigger than your 2501. there is video on Youtube of a 2501 baling with a 400? series new holland baler and a wagon behind it (search scientific hay farmer?) but the conclusion was that it did a good job but how long would it last. I picked up a New Holland 65 for $100 this spring but it hasn't baled hay yet. Barn kept and hadn't run in 25+ years so maybe a good backup. It has been a sadistic sort of fun but worthwhile to make our own hay!

 

That video is a member here @Hayjosh, and his YouTube is the scientist hay farmer.

 

Thanks, I figured he was involved. Have watched that a number of times. Good info.

 

Every body is into diesel tractors for serious farm work...me too. But for a small hobby farm of 10 to 20 acres, low hours per year, simple repairs, etc I think the older Massey 35, 50, or 65 or 135,150, 165 series tractors with gasoline engines, or equivalent Ford or IH tractors will get your job done pretty well and start easy in the winter. For what you are doing you won't use enough fuel in a year to notice the difference.

 

Some more on old tractors. I have two. One is a Farmall A, which I bought because that's what I learned to drive on, and I always regretted that we sold both in a clearing sale when we moved farms in 1990. But I don't regard it as a tractor for doing much real work. The other can do real work. It is a John Deere 720 gas, row crop model. I bought it because I always wanted a 2 cylinder John Deere and I reasoned if I was going to buy one I might as well buy one that could do real work. It was made in about 1957 and has some advanced features for its day. It is 60 hp, which was pretty grunty back then. and still more than enough for most hobby farms today. It has 6 gears, 3 point hitch, independent PTO and remote hydraulics, so it ticks all the boxes I mentioned a few posts back. Plus it has power steering and a float ride seat for comfort. So it is possible to find an old tractor that can do real work. But for general hobby farm use I would suggest Edd's advice immediately above is as sound as you can get.

Roger

 

I did similar. Sickle mower $1200, Heston 5530 round bailer max horsepower 55 $2500, 4 wheel 3 pt rake that can flip $200 but already had a 55 HP tractor later upgraded to tedder, 8 wheel rake,and disk mower another $4500

 

How often does any of this break down?

I certainly can save $$ by going the old route,

But I can also fork over 10k-12k for all new implements for my Kubota so I am at an impasse. I have only MAX 4 acres to hay.