190XT cutting hay

For a bit of perspective, I'm not the only guy in this small neighborhood that bales hay. A different guy bales two of the properties that adjoin me. I've done the math and when he moves in, there is at least $250,000 worth of machinery he bought used that cycles through. While he may have the deep pockets for machinery, he apparently knows little about raising hay. One place has not been fertilized in at least 5 years I know of.....and mostly grows weeds, which he tends to bale at least 1 month past maturity. Stand of what he grows is thin and getting thinner every year.

By comparison, my entire fleet costs about the same as he paid for his USED square baler. But I also keep fertility up, so my old used equipment is put to good use. Strained to keep up would be another way of looking at it.

A soil test and a fertilizer buggy does wonders.

Seems funny to me, but when we first moved here, some neighbors had been cutting the hay and since I had no equipment, agreed to continue when they asked. It was first week of August......and they cut it with a disc mower. No conditioner. First time I'd seen one run up close and personal, and it did cut fast. I asked about the conditioner and to kid running the mower, it was news to him. He said they had a New Holland haybine, but never used it. Was too slow. I explained about the conditioning.......crushing the stems and all that.....he said that was why they waited until August......it dried down OK without it in the hot dry weather of August. I still have some of that in my barn......I only use it for garden mulch and chicken litter. Not fit for much of anything else.

But once a guy gets up into a disc mower with conditioner, HP requirements go way up compared to the haybine. Pretty sure the little D15 is going to be able to handle my 7' haybine. Would take the 190XT to run a disc mower with conditioner.

But my payoff is selling high quality hay to folks who seek me out to buy it. Only complaint I've gotten lately is the horses tend to eat too much of it and it makes them fat. That I can do that with old, obsolete equipment that I bought for cheap is a plus.