not many 200 series 2 tie Freemans,, but 300 series 3 twine bales,,, they're like farm dogs,, everybody's got at least 1 many have 5-7 balers.

In 'my area' there is maybe 1/2 dozen N.H. 3 twine balers everything else is Freeman.

I agree completely with you about Allied's business tactics.  I fail to understand why a company charges 2-3 times as much as another manufacturer making the same  part.  I compared a bill hook price between N.H. and Freeman,, bill hook was 3x as much for the Freeman. (according to internet parts catalog I looked at)

The only thing 2 twine balers are used for is baling Alfalfa and some timothy to meet the local horse, dairy market's.  Know there is one guy close that bales all his alfalfa with J.D. 348 2 string balers.

What the major hay dealers are telling growers is the big block bales are NOT popular at all with exporters and dairy's have moved away from the big blocks as trying to mix up the feed rations with the big blocks takes more time/effort than the smaller 2-3 tie bales.

Freeman baler's are still built in Oregon as far as I know, how come you have to mail order from out of state ??   Local "green store" is also a Freeman dealer and they have a fairly good supply of parts.. (granted you have to fill your P.U. with dollar bills to trade them for the parts... but,, they do carry the parts..)