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Good Ol' East Texas | In my experience you will save more fuel running a bigger tractor than a smaller one pulling the same implement and get more done with the bigger one. We run a Vermeer 604M making 4ft wide bales and 64 inches tall weighing 1200+ lbs in grass hay. Last year normally ran it on a Puma 210 (180 pto) and it is not overkill. We could run faster and save more fuel than running our mxu125 (105 pto) on the same baler. The mxu was barely big enough to pull it and strained it on level ground running about 4-5mph. A M110 Kubota will not pull our baler without turning the pressure down which the weight will be less and take a lot longer to get done.
Most people think that a bale of hay the same size will weigh the same even out of the same baler. Its all about what pressure they are running and if they can keep the baler full. So you can bale with a tractor with less horse power but don't expect to get it done in the same amount of time with the same bale weights. We charge 22 a bale with a 2 bale/acre minimum thats cut rake bale. 10 a bale just to bale. We use 30 ft mowers and 28 ft rakes.
I think its funny that people think that running older equipment can charge less and make more money than people with newer equipment. Those people need to sit down and pull out the pencil. Everything breaks if used I don't care if its new but the older equipment something always is going wrong or breaking. That takes time to fix which costs money. Time is money. Running newer equipment the dealer will be more willing to help you out in a bind than someone running 10+ year old equipment. Even if you fix it yourself you still have your labor costs. Some think that your labor is free so that is saying that you are doing charity work. I don't work for free.
If you do custom work and show up with older equipment and something little always breaks which puts you behind you won't be in business long. If you run newer equipment and something breaks it is not as bad in the customers eyes. Most of our customers like that we run updated equipment and know that things break but they also say if we run older equipment and break down then they will not be to happy. They also say they will pay more for someone running newer equipment than older equipment just simply because the newer equipment is not worn out yet. | |
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Just got this bill
