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Alberta, Canada | Kenny,
The problem is, our situation was kinda sprung upon us, and we need to get a baler soon. A new one is unrealistic for a small cattle farm, and we don't like to buy used. So I found one I'd be comfortable with, few bales, optioned the way I want. Waiting to find another that fits my guidelines (same options, under 10,000 bales) could take a while, especially since square balers are very sparse in this area. The only guys with them are big dairy farms or custom outfits.
The budget consideration is that I don't want to throw money around, but I think a gently used big square will turn out more profitable in the end. Compared a round, it offers more capacity, less time/fuel spent gathering bales, ages better, and since it's already had the (first?) major depreciation hit, won't loose as much in depreciation as in a new round baler in 5-10 years. From my quick calculations, it'll take 7 years before this 3x4 pays for itself completely (as opposed to having someone custom bale in rounds), and then the added resale I expect a minimum of $30,000 CAD, which should hopefully cover all repair and maintenance costs, as well as input costs such as fuel, twine, added hours on the tractor, all of which would be less than on a round baler.
I agree with you on the cutter, and in this situation we are the final consumer, no (or VERY little) custom work will be done. We don't need it chopped, we put nearly all of our bales through bale processors, one of which has a "Feed Chopper" on it that further chops the feed down to an extreme. Baled silage will come out identical to pit silage through a TMR mixer. (See the attached picture.) Without the feed chopper engaged, the feed can come out anywhere between 6-10 inches in length, with it engaged everything comes out shorter than 6 inches. We just got this latest processor with it, and have found that it should only be chopped when it's fed into bunk feeders, or on to frozen ground. Did make an exception when this picture was taken this spring, feeding the heifers, as we were trying out a new, higher aggression setting on the processor, and wanted to see how the tractor handled it (verdict is, a 7830 would be nicer).
We have run a TMR with round bales of silage and found the mixing time was too long, among other things. Our neighbor also runs the same TMR, and has now gone from the bales to the pit silage.
The only reason why I was interested in a cutter baler, is because I was hoping to get denser, heavier bales. The cutter baler is a factory order, cannot be added as a dealer installed option. The cutter can be engaged or disengaged.
Thanks,
-Josh
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Badger and others --- that 4790 price.
