​Customer Testimonial: “I Got Tired of Waiting for my Farmer Neighbor”

At Tractor Tools Direct we love hearing about our customers’ successes. Two years ago, Dave, located in MN, purchased a hay package from us containing an Ibex TX31 mini round baler, a belt rake, and a compact drum mower. Like so many of our customers, he wanted to bring haying independence to his small farm so that he would no longer be at the mercy of the farmer down the road who previously baled his fields. Having control of his own hay baling gives Dave more control over the quality of the hay he produces.

Read on to hear more about Dave’s experiences:

“I put up mostly grass bales and a few smaller plots with alfalfa. I did 2 cuttings last year on my 5 acres (roughly) of plots, and I think I did about 400 bales total and on average the bales weigh about 35lbs. The horse folks seem to really like the bales as they are smaller and easier for the ladies to handle. It's getting harder to find small bales in my area too.

I work in IT full-time (web developer) and I got tired of waiting for my farmer neighbor to find time to come and cut, rake and bale my hay. It’s nice that I can watch the weather and plan hay cuttings around my schedule. I didn’t grow up on a farm so trying to figure out an old baler

 wasn’t something I wanted to tackle. I have a 20 year old 33 hp tractor (New Holland TC33D), and it has no problem running the mower, rake and baler. The baler is easy to push to a corner of the shop when it's not in use so it's not in the way. It’s just me and my wife doing all the work, so it's nice that we can just cut as much as we think we can get baled and put away in a weekend. It did take a little practice with knowing how fast to go and when to slow down for a thicker windrow but you figure it out pretty quick.

I haven’t had any major issues with the baler. I got a flat tire and the siren horn quit working, but they sent me a new switch that triggers the siren and that fixed it. Baling hay is a dusty dirty job so I typically take the air compressor to the baler after each time out to prevent more issues. I have sheared a few bolts when I first started when I went too fast on too big of a windrow, but I figured that out pretty quick and the shear bolts are easy to replace.”

We take pride in the implements we sell and the customer support we provide here at Tractor Tools Direct. But more importantly, we take pride in the successes of our customers. Thank you, Dave, for sharing your story!