Even if you have enough horses on front of it to make a bale you have to turn the bale quite a bit without feeding it to string or net wrap it. So this would be driving around a lot where there isn't something to pickup into baler while it wrapped. Hydraulics would be the next challenge.


5 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

I've explored the idea of using a ground-drive cart to bale with and it just seems very daunting. You also need to get a running start to have the PTO up to speed. So if you stop at some point, that means backing up before you can go further. I like the idea of avoiding any fossil fuel to make hay (also, I dislike the smell and noise of engines) and while it's possible to make it work with a ground-drve cart, it's inherently more problematic.

Didn't an Amish shop make a ground-drive baler and show it at Horse Progress Days a few years back?


5 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Like Scott says, if you stop moving you have no pto, these are best suited for rakes, mowers etc. don't be afraid to use a small motor or whatever size you need in order to use your horses. A small motor is better than no motor, a small motor is better than a large motor and less expensive than a tractor.

Some use horses for nostalgic reasons, but don't overlook the advances made by these manufacturers to make work easier AND cheaper if using horses. If it's easier on the horse and you throw a engine in the mix, at least it's cheaper than a 80000$ Kabota.

It's inputs folks inputs in agriculture that will make you or break you , especially in the cattle business.


5 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

How much horsepower does it take to run a big round baler


5 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Pioneer says 99 for 4x5 or 4x4 . Remember you don't have to move the tractor, transmission, reared, you just need pto horsepower. A 350 Chevy engine is basic 145 hp if you build your own.


5 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Sometime in the 80s, if I am not mistaken, the Draft Horse Journal had a report about the Martin Schmucker Family, an Amish family near Fort Wayne, who used a horse drawn square baler, which was ground-driven. IThey had added a big fly-wheel that would hum on for a while even when the 8 horse hitch stopped.
I do not have that issue anymore because a couple of years ago I donated 20 years of DHJ to a charity to hand it over to some nursing home, otherwise I would have looked it up.
I remember how amazed I was reading this.


5 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

I Know that it takes A 95 hp tractor to bale with 5x6 baler . what HP just to run the baler not to pull it, I know that would be less than 1/2 the total HP needed to operate the total baler.


5 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Like I say, pioneer says 99 hp for a 4x5 baler, that's their forecart. 99 to 116, minimum 45 for 4x4. 13 minimum for small square. I know on semi trucks it takes 13 hp for the air compressor so it amazingly adds up.


5 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum