New hay baler opinions

   Our local federation of ag has a machinery rental/share/cooperative type deal. Currently we have a nice diversity of equipment ranging from tillage/seeding/planting to hay/silage equipment, and utility/dump and cattle trailers, and much more.

I'm part of the committee that ensures maintenance and good repair of the equipment, and also help in the decision making process when it comes time to purchase/trade in equipment.

Planning on making some change ups next year, mostly looking to trade in troublesome/costly equipment.

Looking to replace our NH BR 7060 silage special. It's been very costly the last few years, I blame it on the silage part, guys are baling at way higher moistures than they should even though rules are in place limiting moisture content...

 

We purchased a Kuhn VB3160 this year and it was used by everyone making baleage while the NH was only used for dry hay. So I'm thinking we should phase out the costly NH silage baler and replace it with a model that is best suited for hay (or at least we could advertise it as such) to reduce wear and tear.

We also have a JD 449, it's been good, pretty low maintenance and almost no downtime in probably 6-7 years,dealer is painful to work with but baler has been reliable.

 

I'm thinking either a new 449 (or similar), a new Massey/Hesston 2946, or something similar to these balers. 4' wide is a must, and not many guys make bales bigger than 5'. NH is out...not good dealer support... no krone or vermeer dealers for 1000miles.

 

This baler will see 3000+ bales/year, stays in a 10 mile radius most years and run by 65-90hp tractors,netwrap and twine both preferably, run on hills, oh..and must be simple to operate/set up....

I'm liking the Massey but also partial to Claas because I personally run a 23 year old rollant, but new ones might be a bit heavy.

 

Looking for recommendations on a baler. What you have/had, likes/dislikes, features....

 

Sorry for the long post, thanks for all and any suggestions/thoughts.

-Foz

New hay baler opinions