Well, this is the baler that I purchased last spring. When I purchased it I was expecting to make between 200-300 bales per year. I made around 1500 bales last year and at least 1000 so far this year. If we hadn't had a drought that number would be closer to 2500 at this point this year. So I have been looking at newer balers and finally found one that caught my eye!
I found the new baler at Minor Tractor Sales about 45 minutes north of here. They had a great price and gave me a really good trade in value on my old one so we made the deal! The new one is a New Holland BR740A Silage Special. It has net wrap and twine. My old one only had twine.
The silage special means that there are some major differences in the way the baler is set up in addition to the upgrades it has being a new model. First of all a lot of the rollers are not smooth but instead have spiral bumps on them to knock any hay off the belts that may stick to them. That keeps it from building up on the rolls and making the belts go off track like my old one did when baling wet hay. Another upgrade they made was making all the bearings on the baler grease-able. My old baler had around 11 grease fittings, this baler has over 50!! It also has an auto oiler for all the chains!
You will also notice the lack of hay catcher wheels (the big rubber finger wheels on the old one) on the pickup head. That is because the newer model has a pickup that is two feet wider than the bale chamber. The old one was the same width as the bale chamber and missed a lot of hay when baling. There is also a stuffer between the pickup teeth and the bale chamber to push the hay into the baler instead of letting the belts and rolls pull it in. This drastically cuts down on plugging and speeds up the baling process due to more rapid intake of hay into the baler!
A pic of it hooked to the tractor!
Now, when I was a kid and went to the tractor dealership there were always racks of toys behind the parts counter. There were all scale models of the tractors they sold there at the dealership and I always dreamed of having all of them. Well, nowadays, when you go to get parts, that is all they have. No more do you see toys at the dealership. Now that I am old enough to buy the ones I want they don't have them anymore! However, as soon as you walk in the front door of Minor's Tractor Sales, there is a whole wall of just scale model tractors just like I used to see when I was a kid!!! Now, you know as a father (and a kid at heart) I couldn't resist to bring some home to give my kids the same joy that I had as a child.
When I was a kid I had a scale model Ford 9700 Dually tractor with a cab. They don't have that model any more or any Kubota's but they do have the new version of what I had as a kid as well as a scale model of the newest round baler New Holland makes.
So, I hid them in the new baler to bring home and let my son find them while he was checking it out after he got home. Then, Sunday morning the kids came and drug my into the living room to show me that their tractor had a passenger seat in it and that they packed a cooler (lego block) and me (the lego driver) and them both in the cab to go bale hay!!
Now onto some yummy business!! I love it when we start getting fresh veggies from the garden. My wife cooked this for supper Saturday night. We had fresh yellow tomatoes with basil and vinegar sauce and pasta topped with Hot Italian sausage, Swiss chard cherry tomatoes, and onions. It was awesome and short of the pasta, all grown here on the farm!!
While out checking the cows the other day I noticed Thunder strutting his stuff. He is getting quite large now, probably about #1800 lbs now and solid muscle. He is getting older and is getting much bolder in his actions. I will have to be much more aware of him and more cautious when in the pasture with the cows. As a bull gets older their instincts drive them to "take over the herd". In nature they would have to fight the leader of the herd for the right to breed with the females. He doesn't need to do this as he is the only bull we have right now. However, the cattle all look at me as the dominate leader of the herd, including him. When I enter the pasture he has always backed down. However, he is now starting to stand his grown and is deciding if he needs to defend his right to breed. You always have to respect a bull and be aware that no matter how nice they are, at some point, he will challenge you for the right to run the herd!
I put a junk bale out for the cows to root through and eat the good parts of last night. He came running over as soon as I drove in the pasture and started beating on the bale and rocking the entire tractor! Then after I dropped the bale he started pounding into it with such force that he rolled it across the pasture and spread it everywhere. Then he ran over to the fence where my dads cows were watching and started pawing the ground and bawling!
I hope he calms back down or he may be leaving sooner than he expected!
I want to through in a couple of piggie pics. This is tiger stripe. He is one of Daisy Pigs piglets. I am saving him as a boar for the customer who purchased Marshmallow. He should make a great daddy!
I want to wrap up with some pics of my son from last night. He got dressed for bed in some shorts and a "wife beater", or as he calls it a " beef jerky" LOL!!! They are hand me downs from my daughter and are obviously too small for him. However, my wife is trying to get every last use out of them.
So, just for some good future humiliation graduation/marriage pics I handed him the tv remote and snapped a quick pic! Now, the kids only watch a couple of hours of tv a week at most. But he still knows to point the remote at the tv!
Thank you to all the customers who just purchased the last round of beef and pork and I am working on growing the next round for all of my valuable customers still waiting. I will have plenty of meat ready to eat in January.
Stay hungry my friends!!!
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