|
|
|
New Member
 
Group: Banned Members
Last Login: 11/15/2009 9:03:36 PM
Posts: 86,
Visits: 84
|
|
I can't imagine why they would not. Who the heck would spend that kind of money on a mini bailer? I mean I got a nice letter from the staff here telling me all about why they push them. But IF I had that kind of green in this economy and I lived in a normal world were you could afford to have farm land that was really farmed.... surrounded by people I had to see every day
(and if you have the kind of $ then you probably have them all as customers)
you'd not want to be seen on them. I mean why not just drive your $100,000 sports car up and down the street.
however there are plenty of average balers for sale in random states of repair.
|
|
|
|
|
Advanced Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 9/23/2010 4:13:39 PM
Posts: 2,222,
Visits: 2,136
|
|
[quote]Mbrook (6/18/2009)
one thing I disagree with...
larger tractors and equipment are more fuel effective than small.[/quote]
It is simple mathematics WOS...if a 100 hp tractor can only power a 10 foot haybine, but burns 5 gallons per hour to do so, and a 190 hp tractor can power a 16 foot haybine and burns 8 gallons per hour, the bigger tractor will only have to make 2 trips around the field compared to the three trips around the field the smaller tractor will need to do to cut the same amount of hay. It may not mean much in a 2 acre field, but when you do 1200 acres of fields, that extra time really adds up to fuel savings.
A few years ago I used my 25 hp Kubota tractor to plow up a small 2 acre field. It took me a 12 hours to do it with a single bottom plow. Now my little tractor is really fuel efficient and burns about 7 gallons a day. So I probably burned closed to 10 gallons to do it.
In contrast, big blue is 400 horsepower and can plow a 7 acre field in just under 25 minutes. In this two acre field it would have taken that tractor about 7 minutes. Even though that tractor consumes more fuel per hour, the amount of work it performs is to much greater that it becomes really efficient. Big Blue is certainly not going to consume 10 gallons of fuel in 7 minutes. In fact we have it calculated out that Big Blue burns about 3/4 of a gallon of fuel per acre...so it is incredibly efficient.
The only way to get that efficiency though is to get what is called the drawbar pull ratio in the 85% range. You do that by matching the implement to the tractor. If I try to put a 14 foot disc harrow behind my Kubota, the spinning tires, constant use of full throttle, heavy weight, etc will mean the implement is too big for my machine and well above the 85% range the drawbar pull should be in. But at the same time, if big blue drags that 14 foot plow behind it, it will be wayyyy too small and the tractor will not be efficient.
This is the mistake most people make. They think they can just upgrade to a bigger tractor, but that is not the case, they have to upgrade ALL their implements in order to be efficient. In my case, I can't afford to buy a 60 hp Kubota...not because I can't afford the tractor...I simply can't afford to change every implement I have to a bigger size. I am better to use the smaller Kubota.
This 85% drawbar pull ratio applies to anything, from garden tractors, to locomotives, to ATV's and big New Holland tractors. The closer you can get the drawbar pull to 85%, the better your efficiency is.
******
Tell a welfare recipient they must work and they call their congressman. Tell a farmer he can no longer work and he commits suicide. No wonder 1/2% of the population feeds the other 99-1/2%!!
|
|
|
|
|
New Member
Group: Banned Members
Last Login: 11/15/2009 9:03:36 PM
Posts: 86,
Visits: 84
|
|
if people could understand practical things, much of this site would not exists. here is simple math
tinny little equipment cost more money than it's worth.
|
|
|
|
|
Advanced Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 9/23/2010 4:13:39 PM
Posts: 2,222,
Visits: 2,136
|
|
Yes but you and I must look at ALL purchases as a return on investment sort of thing. The target audience of Hobby Farms is not you and I WOS...they are for the affluent people that can simply write a check for what they want.
They buy small balers because it makes them feel like they are putting up big bales. They don't actually need big bales, just like they actually don't need to justify the purchase of the mini-baler on a return-on-investment sort of basis.
But to be honest with you, for me the challenge of farming is to get buy by doing things creatively with practically nothing and yet still making a profit. I am proud to say that I have never lost money with sheep thus far. I have had to jump through some hoops to get a little cash flow, but I have always made money on my sheep. But I didn't do that writing checks frivolously either. I think that is the part that people are missing out on...getting by with very little rather then buying your way to the top. Its just like my woodworking, the average age of my tools is over 50 years old and yet I build some cool stuff (train cradle). Some people with brand new shops sponsored by Delta could not build that. I like to use my brain and do things creatively not by using my checkbook.
******
Tell a welfare recipient they must work and they call their congressman. Tell a farmer he can no longer work and he commits suicide. No wonder 1/2% of the population feeds the other 99-1/2%!!
|
|
|
|
|
New Member
Group: Banned Members
Last Login: 11/15/2009 9:03:36 PM
Posts: 86,
Visits: 84
|
|
the trend is getting further and further from those kinds of lives. And in this world, everything must justify it's purchase.
I recently read an article in Business Week about how the Amish were the ideal business model.
another article in Entrepreneur talked of how people are taking the fluff out of restaurants and putting focus on the practical nature of good food and value for a buck.
If hobby farms is marketing to those people who print money, then why have I only found the mag in my local wall mart?....well that isn't totally true, I originally found it in the gas station.
who has that kind of capital, would spending it so foolishly? The world of "I want it so I'll write the check" is gone with Madeoff and the credit card crunch.
So do people want to be hobby farmers with self supporting recreation?
if so they must be frugal to make a low profit at best.
do they want to be LIKE farmers but not really....
that's fine but no farmer I know pisses away money on toys
or do they want to reinvent the wheel with foolish investments like these?
No one is spending like that enough people to say so. If you have money now days, you keep it to your self. It's far more posh to talk of what you got on sale and how normal you are, even if you have millions than not.
most of the time, those who live like they have it all don't have anything to start with.
These little toys are foolish.
|
|
|
|
|
Advanced Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 9/23/2010 4:13:39 PM
Posts: 2,222,
Visits: 2,136
|
|
I agree. The jerks of the world tend to be the spoiled brats that just got money (Britany Spears comes to mind) but take a family that has had money for generations, and they are the nicest people.
Ultimately the market will decide the ultimate fate of the mini-equipment. If there is enough of a market, then they will thrive and do well and most likely be bought our by John Deere or New Holland to add to their lines of equipment. If sales are down they are going to have to cut costs to get the price down where people will buy it. That will most likely start with R@D, but also quality and finally profit. If it hits a point where sales just cannot support the mini-equipment it will just fail to be made any more.
The same can be said for Hobby Farms. I am fortunate to have every issue of Fine Woodworking, from its very first issue in the 1970's, to present day. Over the years I have seen it change with the times, from black and white photos and lots of home-made machines, to the artsy-fartsy stuff of the mid-80's to the period furnature of the late 1990's...it just morophed into what it is today...and what the readers want. And so will Hobby Farms.
Myself I wish someone would recreate the old style Mother-Earth News. Some of the stuff they did in the 1970's was pretty crude, but it was more in line with what I do, the magazine of today however...absolutely no appeal to me as they are grabbing the surbubanite's attention. Backwoods home...as you and I know...they are selling a self-suffcient ideal and nothing practical. For me, Hobby Farms is more practical, but I look to it to morph in the next year or so into a cross between Mother Earth News, and Backwoods Home.
Myself, I don't read a whole lot. I am more of a do-er and just try stuff and ultimately make it work.
******
Tell a welfare recipient they must work and they call their congressman. Tell a farmer he can no longer work and he commits suicide. No wonder 1/2% of the population feeds the other 99-1/2%!!
|
|
|
|
|
New Member
Group: Banned Members
Last Login: 11/15/2009 9:03:36 PM
Posts: 86,
Visits: 84
|
|
on the other hand you have people like the family that once owned Taylor packing. Local people.. sent there son to college and he did well. When he came home after his graduation, he was taken round the family business.
All the company patted him on the back till he go to his office. A locker on the killing floor. The gave him a knife and the lowest job and said, see you at 5pm. Work your way up.
now who the hell would spend there money on this stuff when they are from an old school family and they come up the hard way like that?
Then Draw, you and I have seen those other families who have money for just 2 or 3 generations...the ones who move to our woods to be farmers..daddy brings them a pocket book full of money they get this crap and then they are gone.
In the depths of this string you'll find people who say these are all the rage in other nations or other sales pitches.
sorry but like you, I'm not going to just sit here and let someone think these are a good idea.
glad we agree draw.. glad we agree.
|
|
|
|
|
New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 1/26/2012 11:53:08 AM
Posts: 56,
Visits: 129
|
|
Drawbar i just finialy got back to this thread I like your idea of putting a motor on the baler and pulling with the kubota if i can get the baler from my father in law could you happen to be able to suggest the motor I will need for a John Deere 346 Baler I think it would need a clutch and a gear box. What would you suggest.
|
|
|
|
|
Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 12/4/2011 4:22:18 AM
Posts: 182,
Visits: 461
|
|
CoxFamily farm (12/25/2009)
Drawbar i just finialy got back to this thread I like your idea of putting a motor on the baler and pulling with the kubota if i can get the baler from my father in law could you happen to be able to suggest the motor I will need for a John Deere 346 Baler I think it would need a clutch and a gear box. What would you suggest.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/ag-tractors-machinery/40002-john-deere-336-baler-3.html
Reading this post about the 336 brought back some memories. My dad bought one new with the hydraulic "kicker" back in the mid 70's. We pulled it behind a 'gas' JD 2520 (55-60PTO HP) and if you cranked up the tension to make 60-70 pound bales and had a heavy windrow it worked the 2520 pretty hard. After getting a 4230 (100HP) we used the bigger tractor most of the time, but only around 3/4 throttle, and with 100HP to play with you didn't know it was back there.
I suppose without the kicker 30-40 HP would suffice, but I'd be concerned about having enough weight to control both the baler and a loaded hay wagon. So wow, if you're running a 336 with 30HP that's pretty impressive (but a pretty good load for the tractor).
Ahhh...farming memories. Wish I had a picture of out baler in action. That kicker was really something.
Visit our site at: http://cameronfarms.webs.com/
|
|
|
|
|
Starting Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 3/8/2010 11:44:09 AM
Posts: 2,
Visits: 1
|
|
| Hello, If your still looking for small farm equipment for 18 to 30 hp tractor check out website: www.smallfarminnovations.com or call Phil Livengood 979-200-0766 -
|
|
|
|