First Time Square Baling From Scratch (Start to Finish) 

A lot of people are going to be giving you advice on how to make hay. I put up around 15,000 small squares a year, and another 5,000 5 X 6 rounds. Trust me, you are doing good for your first time. You will slowly figure out how to do it the best you can. If it means anything, I wish my first 1,000 bales sold that easy. You are doing well. Welcome to haying!

This is essentially a real-life survival challenge at this point.

Love how you put the cost and profit into it very rare these days 👍

You need a little jockey wheel on the end of your sickle bar, just to stop it bending too far and ground striking. New teeth might be expensive but once you get two sets, you can resharpen one set each winter and fit them in Spring. Fun job in March

I know I personally will never have a reason to product hay bales but I found this to be a fascinating video. I never fully understood what it takes to start producing a salable commodity ( tractor, rakes, baler, trailer, labor….). Thanks for including us on your journey!

Awesome series, I grew up in the 90s/2000s on a dairy farm using the same equipment you have (except we had a New Idea disc mower). Older equipment if maintained is still pretty capable. Matt from Diesel Creek put it pretty well, "These machines were meant to be maintained, not just replaced." Keep up the hard work, and hopefully you have a decent crop this year.

John Deere Sickle Mowers can be a real pain, but if they’re adjusted well they cut like a dream. The angle of the cutting bar is something important to keep in mind that makes a huge difference in the way it cuts. It looks like your bar drags behind you as you drive, but the tip of the bar should be slightly angled forward as you cut. This will keep it from breaking apart so much. The sickles are like scissors too so the gap between the teeth and the rock guards makes a difference too. You wouldn’t cut a piece of paper with scissors that have a gap between the blades and cutting hay is no different. Besides that for a first time cutting you did great! Love the video keep it up!

I'm 70 now but I remember my parents used to go to upper michigan deer hunting in the fall. We stayed at this farmers place and would help with the chores in return for room and board for a week. I was the tractor driver when they bailed hay, it was the best! driving the ford tractor all over the place. I couldnt have been more than 9 or 10 at the time, but I loved every minute of it.

I left a Iowa farm over fifty years ago and never looked back. As I was watching I could almost smell new cut hay. Farming really takes a lot of skills and knowledge, often much of it gained the hard way. You seem to have some fundamental skills and knowledge. Time will provide what additional skills you require. I marvel at how ill informed most Americans are about how food is raised. There is often a built in prejudice that farmers aren’t very smart. Of course to be successful the opposite is true. As you were cutting the hay I could almost hear from grandfather yelling, “you doing it wrong”. Good luck in your endeavor. There is a freedom in farming (of course less so today) that is difficult to emulate.

This was a real step back in time for me, I haven't used this type of hay making equipment for fifty years. Very brave to take this on with some limitations you have. You have learned a lot about the equipment, I know why we replaced all of these models over the years, I could see it in the issues you were having. Thanks for the video, jogs a lot of great memories for me. Btw, I'm an ex Dairy Farmer from Victoria Australia.

Hey, love your vids, I have a 250 acre horse farm so we do hay every single year for the past 30 years and i think if u want to do the hay better maybe you should buy a hay tedder to just turn the grass and then it will dry better

I started out like you about 35 years ago. I bought old equipment, fixed it up, used it for a while and then sold it for generally a small profit which I then put into a newer, better piece of equipment. You are doing great. You've probably figured out there are as many different ways of doing things as there are people. Listen to the advice then interpret it to your situation. A tedder and a mower/conditioner will make your life easier, especially in less than ideal conditions. I'm still working on my first cut. We had 22 days of rain in June and July is looking to ne the same.

Man this is so awesome to watch. I bought old tractors to take care of my property and I barely knew anything. I’ve learned that there’s no shame in trying to figure things out and making mistakes. Don’t be too hard on yourself. We are all learning how to do things.

When you are stacking on the wagon you need a couple of hay hooks, pick up at a farm supply. Let the bales come up the shoot a bit more then hook on the top and bottom, flip over, hook either end place your knee in the center pull up to straighten the bale. They will stack better on the wagon and stay in place. Good luck!

You're doing fine. Learning is the easy part. Implementing your knowledge is all the hard but fulfilling work yet to come. Sometimes old machines just need to be used again.

I love hay baleing it's pretty fun!! The racking and cutting and the smell of cut grass I just love it all!!

I like channels like this. Buy old equipment, fix it up, maintain it properly and put it back into production and make a living. I find this more interesting than channels that get sponsored and the videos become commercials. Show more of your maintenance work and how you refurbished the equipment

I'm beginning my farm journey and it's great to watch your videos of your upstart and equipment. I hope you continue to post because it's informative and entertaining.

What you can do with those two hay patches, is brush hog them low, then clean them up - rocks, sticks, and fill in any holes and knock off high spots. When you can run a high speed mowing, raking, and baling, you can get the production up and lower your labor rate

Your baling rig is exactly what I owned in 1976. I had a ‘68 4020, 336 baler, New Idea rake and 6 hay racks on JD running gears. I custom baled hay all through high school. Ran 15-18,000 bales a year. Great business for a 16 year old farm boy. Never wanted to be an athlete going to practices all summer long. Wonderful memories of my youth. You’re doing great! Best wishes for continued success!

God bless the American Farmer. My grandfather had a small, small farm and had the exact equipment of a sickle bar mower and square bailer. He also had difficulty with the mower and replacing teeth. The bailer we had was painted red, so I don't think it was John Deer. As a kid, I was amazed on how it made the hay bails square and even tied the string around them. A true engineering accomplishment.

Very much enjoyed the fact that you showed us the whole learning experience, equipment tune ups, and all. Just like we did it in the 50’s and 60’s. Awesome. If you’re going to be doing this in the future, get yourself a bale hook, or blacksmith yourself one or two, for pulling the bale from the baler on the hay rack.

That was really good, man! You did a great job all around! You definitely brought back a ton of memories. I LOVE the old school approach too; what better way to learn your stuff?! It's a pioneering mindset. Very healthy imho. And money making projects like this one are really great, and stir the motivational juices too.....I'd say this shows some of how much you have learned in the last couple of years/your comfort-competency zone is getting much bigger. Also, really glad for the nice long length of video, and all the detail you put in. When I listen to your commentary, I feel exactly where you are, and it all makes sense to me what I'm hearing/which things you choose to accentuate. That is: I do feel I am seeing it through your eyes, and that's a good essence of communication! So thanks again Spencer! Glad you are cluing us in on your adventures!

Good luck. Brings back lots of memories working with my grandpa and my uncle. The had a small dairy farm.

Dude this brings me some great memories. When I was about 13 or so, I was trying to fix an old snowblower, and I needed 2 small pieces of metal (wheel cogs), to make the thing work. I put up an add on craigslist in search of a machinist, and I get a call from a man named farmer Greg. I go to his farm, and he made me those cogs for free, and told me to pay it forward. One day, I was across the street from his farm at a friends house. I had honda three wheeler, and I needed a place to ride it. So I park the 3 wheeler at the end of the farms driveway, walk up and ask farmer Greg if I could ride it on his property. Not shortly after, my parents and I went over for dinner to meet them, and we made a deal that I would work on the farm and for every hour I worked, I got an hour to ride my 3-wheeler. I would help with bailing hay, putting it up in the barn, spreading manure, cleaning stalls, and whatever else needed to be done. I could talk for a long time about the great memories I had working with farmer Greg. When we would bail hay, he had a bailer that would throw the freakin bail into the wagon like a catupult! hahah that was harrrd work. Fun times

Glad to find a farming channel where someone will be straight about cost and the ups and downs, I don't know if other farming channels have something to hide or just don't want to which I'd say then wh u have a channel putting your business out there if you're not willing to share, America is in desperate need of more farming and like a lot of the people following is to learn and grow as fast as the Lord will bless, God, bless and keep the video coming

Nice video! Its nice seeing someone running a siclebar mower. They are the newest craze here in germany, because they protect the insects much more than the disc- or drum mowers. for your siclebar, you might want to cold rivet the blades to it, because of the clearance, and for easier maintenance. For removing them just get a flat sharp chisel with which you can knock the keads off. Then its just a matter of punching the headless rivets through the holes, it speeds up the whole maintenance process. The problem is, that the bolts are gonna rust and wear to a point, where its nearly impossible to unscrew them again so rivets are the way to go. Also they are much cheaper for an item that doesnt have that much lifetime. Best wishes and sorry for my bad english.

This reminds me of when I was a much younger man. Hauling hay on a hay crew. Made six cents a bale to load and stack. I hated the heavier alfalfa bales. Lol. Nice job Spence. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Hey spencer I have done hay my whole life. I have some advice for raking do it in the morning so you don't lose the nutrients in the seeds same with the bailler cows and other animals love the seeds farmers look for that stuff in hay. And if thay really like it thay will come back to get more

As a beef farmer in the UK your going back in time with the sickle bar mower,,,we used to use these in the 70s 80s.. Great video.Great content.👍💯👍💯

The sickle bar and baler should be run at 540 rpm. The tach should have a line that says pto, which is about 1900 engine rpm.

If I were you I would just replace all of the rock guards. It’s best not to mess with the old ones since they’ve seen a lot of wear over the years. I did that myself and my sickle has almost no clogging issues. Also making sure your bar is slightly tilted back makes a great difference.

Your farm and grants farm are so different and i love it, thank you grant for showing yiu dont need a million dollars to farm

Learning step by step, you are patient and not afraid to ask others for help and/or information; good trait to have. Lou in Apopka, Fla.

Looks like your doing good for just starting and you can and will make adjustments as you go. Live and learn

Good stuff mate. Looking forward to seeing your farm and seeing how it grows with time

Btought back memories when we used to have to pull the bales and stack on wagon. Thanks for this was fun watching older equipment used and brought back to life

I love how your basically doing a 70’s rp in real life. I love it.

Best part is the sketchy part when he took the rake of the trailer lol I’m city dweller recently fascinated by farm equipment great channel

The JD4020, mower, rake and baler really took me back. You really did a good job and learning to adjust equipment is not always easy. Great content and please keep it up.

I really love how the video went from mowing, raking and haying hay to the progress show showing not only his brother's new game but also meeting Nick Welker from Welker farms Really awesome!

You did good job....Learn something everyday.... Yesterday I learned I aint no spring chicken and helped out bucking 800 bales of straw hungover....Lol

I super proud of you and grant 🎉

Back where I grew up, haying all summer every year, our local school teams were the cyclones too! (different colors, though) I was around ten years old when I started work in the hayfields, pulling a rake just like yours, with a little Fordson tractor. Dad was pulling the baler with a John Deere tractor like yours. I never used a sickle bar mower, since grandpa had a windrower.

Bro if the horses love your bales then your doing it right it’s the love 😂 you made them with and I’m proud of you for doing this I was hoping you would definitely you and grants farms need I’m curious to see what you can get from them love you bud you truly are a golden child 😂 This was wholesome. Also awesome thumbnails bud keep it up very captivating

Hey Spencer great video! 👍 Love the “ old school “ equipment. Much more fun to watch than all the new stuff. I remember the days of bailing hay, covered in hay and dust. 😂 You have a great channel!

I'm not a farmer. At all. Nu guess is they your doing alright. Maintaining a bit of land, getting a few bucks off of it. There is something so satisfying about watching this old stuff being used. I liked it. Thanks for the video

Nice job. This sure brings back memories growing up as a kid. Baling hay was hard work but it sure beats cleaning out silos and detasseling.

Hi Spencer, just wanted to say how much I’m enjoying your channel. It’s well-shot, honest, and cool to see your experience as many of us learn with you. I grew up in SE Ontario and worked as a farmhand for a couple of summers and always had that “what if” I pursued it instead of my city life. Nice to scratch the itch of one of my interests through your videos. Keep up the good work, man. Thanks for these videos!

probably the most interesting youtube channel for poeple that are thinkin to go back to farmland thanks a lot to share !

Love your videos right along with your brother You guys are something else Learning as you go to But do a good job at it all in a very caring and safe Keep up the great work and keep making videos take care of

Another great video Spencer. Funny I remember when you were clearing that land a year ago and here we are a year later putting it to use. Great idea haying the unsuitable acreage near the corn/beans bean fields and just another example of you thinking outside the box. Keep it up kid, you're doing great

I love this series

Two things I've learned about mowing with a sickle bar, they don't cut really fine grass well, and sometimes the grass has a "grain" to it and will only cut well in one direction. I have a 346 baler, same baler except my pickup is wider, Your bales are shaggy on the edges, you need to look at the plunger knives either sharpen or replace them.

You keep working hard my friend, you will learn new ways to fix things, and you will learn new ideas, for new projects, keep going AND certainly DON'T WORK TO HARD, 👍🇺🇲😁👌💪🤠👍

Hello i am farmer in estonia and i make a lot of good hay for horses. first thing to do is buy youself a good tedder that helps to make a good dry hay then upgrade your hay rake and after that upgrade your mover thats the things you should do after that you will make good hay. But right now if you move dont leave spots and make sure you mover is cuting like 5-7inch off the ground and make sure your hay is very dry like 10 max 15% moisture not more. i can tell more if you have some questions ask me.

you dont know till you try, im loving this farming series this is so cool to watch

Similar situation here, first time bailing on my own, bought a JD number 5 sickle mower, wheel rake and using my grandpa's JD 60 to do all the work. Trial and error has been the way I've been learning as well. Keep up the good work!!

Great job, Spencer!

Well done. Love seeing you use the older equipment, reminds me of my days on the farm as a kid. Glad to see you are wearing ear protection as well, that's important. :)

Cool time lapse of the bale stacking. Thanks for posting.

Great video, love the transparency.

Sometimes I wish I could go back to doing it this way, but I will say that the air conditioning and satellite radio isn't bad when I'm cranking out big squares all day. Glad to see some guys are still out there just doing it, and making a little out of what they've got.

That scrub hay is excellent for goats.

The square bailer is one of the coolest pieces of mechanical engineering I’ve seen. It’s like a clock inside that thing with all those gears and linkages. And all powered by one PTO that’s cool

Spence I like your plan. I’m getting into the hay crop myself. No experience but I’m committed to make it work. All my land must produce including water ways with hay.

Love that you are buying old equipment. That stuff was built to last. Regular maintenance and care and a few spare parts will keep them running well for years to come. Glad you got your bro to put in some sweat equity as well LOL

I think this is great man. keep this up, brings joy to watch.

Glad to see that you still have the maroon truck. 😃

Awesome content! Love it! Greetings from Poland

Spence you should service the gear boxes.

Great video. Thanks for disclosing your numbers and showing your problems.

Awesome video Spencer. We'll done and will be looking forward in seeing more. Best wishes

Respect dood. Glad the weather held out for ya

I remember when me and my brothers did square bales, now we only do round bales, and we only use Case IH, I love your channel by the way, keep it up!

Small hay bales will make you appreciate every penny you make off of them

you are now my favorite youtuber..keep up the good work

we need more people on YT like him. I love the videos bro. 👌

I use to HATE bailing and stacking season as a teen. Now,in my 40s, I miss it! Lol

God bless the farmers! ❤

I think the sickle bar cut is the best. It does not chew up the grass so much.

Great job!

Looking good Spencer can’t wait to see what’s next

Well for this old man Youve brought back many years of memories. Started as 10 yo steering a 68' F100 pickup then 13 i was wlaking behind the baler chunking bales at 10¢ a bale hired out by my mom to our land lord. Then by 15 was running a 9 N Ford @$3.00 a day cutting, & raking, then getting 20¢ a bale loading and stacking. Best ever made was $1.50 a bale hauling 125 lb. Alfalfa. Oh Dear Lord the sore backs.

Hey, just stumbled across your videos. I have been having fun watching them. I thought the house looked familiar. Then I saw it was burning and thats how I remembered it. I drove past that house on my way to work that day. Crazy.

Experience is priceless...and you're gaining experience.

Dang these Fs22 graphics are unreal

Great channel very inspiring

I have always found the best thing to have happen when running a cycle bar mower is hitting a yellow jacket nest, fun times. Making square bales is how I spent a good portion of my teenage years. However, we dropped the bales in the field and came back to pick them up. Work like that made going to boot camp kind of like a vacation.

Back in 1968 ti 1972 Dad did custom hay work for a man in Basin City Washington. He had 1000 acres of alfalfa. My sister ran the 880 John ??Deere swather cutting 100 acres a day. Mom, Brother and Dad baled at night when the dew was on with three John Deere 214 Wire tie balers and I ran the Haro Bed stacking 3 to 4000 bales a day.

Love this kind of stuff thanks

Good experience!!!

Love this video and what you were up too

hay kook helps while loading wagon, makes it easier, nice to see some one out doing the simply and small scale , with that said it not easy work and your doing great job keep videos coming.

Thanks for sharing your journey. Great entertainment.

Most interesting!! I grew up on a farm using equipment just like you are using except we had Allis Chalmers tractors. You are a fine young farmer, Spencer. Keep up the good work and documenting it with videos. Good on you.

You did well for your first time Spencer. Up until 3 year's ago, we baled about 6000 bales for our dairy cows. Now we bale about 2000 at the farm for selling and feeding to our small calves and for selling. We also contract out round bales of hay and beanstalk bales to large dairys. We also have a horse stables and small bale about 2500 bales a year. Other than having a large haybine at the farm and a discbine at the stables, I think our balers and hayrakes are even older than yours. We literally have been small baling for exactly 50 years. Weird. Keep up the good work my friend! The only way to learn is to do it. Also looks like you got yourself a really good baler! Take care and stay safe!😊

Good luck brother❤ your doing preety good so far

You have done a great job with the tools you have. It does get better with time. enjoyed your video Sir.

Watching from South Africa. Cool video