Ok guys, I have been giving this a lot of thought and I would like your input. Some of you will remember me and know that I broke my L1 vertebre last fall and had a fairly major surgery to rebuild it and then it was fused. So I can not handle my small square bales like I use to and getting help is very hard as all of you know. So right now I still use 4 kicker wagons behind my NH 575 but I can't unload them or stack like I use to as I break down after one wagon.

My fields are mainly in one location but I have two other fields within a couple miles. I try to deliver as much as my hay now to my customers barns just because of how much work is involved handling small square bales. I would rather put it in their barns then my own only to have to handle it again later.

 So right now I am looking at two options, quit haying which I really do not want to do but I can not go thru another year like this. Otherwise I need to upgrade to some sort of automated bale handling system.

 I am leaning towards a New Holland bale wagon as I would then build a new barn to accomodate the bale wagon unloading. If I did this route I would sell off my kicker wagons and buy a couple flat racks. Then I could just load the flat rack and park them at my customers barns when they start to get low (alternate them basically). I would be responsible for storing all the hay but that isn't too bad. I also plan on buying a 30' gooseneck for my farm and this would allow me to haul more hay to my customers barns if they wanted it stored in their place instead of mine. I could still unload in my own barn and haul later when the hay is all up and put away. I would love a self propelled unit but even used the cost is more then I really want to spend right now so I was looking at the pull type like the 1034 or 1038 so I could unload onto an elevator if I needed to (currently I have a couple places I do). But if I store all the hay in my own barn and not deliver it to my customers from the field I think a pull type would work well. If I had to deliver it all then a self propelled would be a better way.

 My other option is something like a Steffens accumulator which looks like a nice system but then I have to have a loader tractor and run all over the fields picking up hay to load on wagons or trailers. Then unless I have two tractors or a bunch of wagons I would have to haul everything to the barn to unload. It seems like it will take more time, labor and hassle so I am not too sure about it.

So what do you guys think? Should I just quit? Go with the New Holland system or something else? What are some of the possible drawbacks to mechanical handling?

 Also, right now I am only doing about 5k bales a year because of the fact I can't get reliable help. Any more and I will be beating my head against the wall. If I automate the process I can easily jump up to 20k bales a year as long as I have a system that will let me handle that much.

 I should also say I was hoping to sell my thrower and kicker wagons to offset most of the cost for the new system (if not all). My wagons are all Pequea steel sided wagons (2- 8x18, 2- 9x18 (one is a steel frame)), my thrower is a NH 72.

One thing I worry about with the NH bale wagon is if I have a major break down I am in trouble. I thought about possibly buying a second smaller NH bale wagon just in case but I am not sure yet. The older units are fairly cheap and for a backup unit I think it would be a smart investment. I wouldn't have to buy it immediately but it would be something I would want to buy as soon as I could afford to.

So do you guys think I am nuts or does any of my ideas make sense? Any thoughts on what I should or shouldn't do? Look at? Avoid? Basically, whatever advice you guys can give me with experience with these systems I would appreciate.

Thanks