Baler Suggestions for 185

At least that's what my renter and I decided. His newer JD does both well after changing the pickup speeds. His JD 530 and my Ver Meer 605F didn't like corn stalks but were very good hay machines. 

But there will be a lot of variables, and some exceptions. Deere, NH, and Vermeer are the three big round baler manufacturers. Deeres are great units, but in general pull just a little harder than most others. Some of that has to do with them being built a little heavier: On flat land you might not notice much difference, on really steep hills you might notice a lot of difference.

Another part of how hard they pull is how fast they're geared. Most newer balers (especially Deere's and NH's) are designed to really boogey, and they're thus geared faster and take more HP to pull. Some balers (a lot of Vermeers are like this) have standard roller chain sprockets as their main drive sprocket - you can replace it with a sprocket with one or two fewer teeth, slowing it down a little and being able to run it with less HP.

Vermeer's always been known for getting the most done with least HP. Some of their models (like the 504's, 5410's) are great balers and can make full-sized bales at decent speeds with 40-50 HP.

I can't comment too much on newer balers, but I run an older Vermeer 504G (4X5) with my 180 gas just dandy - it hardly even notices it back there. If looking at newer Vermeers, it's hard to go wrong with the 5410 series: They make 4X5 bales with minimal HP requirement. The 180 would probably handle any 504 as well. If looking at 504's, I'd look for an 'I' series or later: The G's like I have are great balers, but getting a little long in the tooth and don't like cornstalks.

The Deere 30 series or later are great balers, but heavy and geared faster. At one of our farms we ran a Deere 435 (4X5) with a Ford 5000 with a rebuilt engine (65 HP - very comparable in size and HP to the 185). You'd have to go slow sometimes and watch the temp gauge around our steep hills on hot days, but it did the job ok. On flat land it probably would have been fine. We later ran it with a Ford 6600 (70 HP), which allowed us to travel at faster speeds and not worry about overloading the tractor except on the steeper hills. We now run it with a 105 HP White and it doesn't know it's back there.

If I were looking for a used baler for a 185 on flat land, I'd probably give equal preference to comparable Deere, NH, and Vermeer 4X5 models, and let condition be more of a deciding factor than brand/colour.

We ran a JD 635 which is a 5 x 6 with our 185 no problems for years.

A kicker would be fine on flat land, and really handy with the 185 because you can use the PD lever without having to back up. On hilly land, kickers pretty useless. We pulled the kicker off our Deere 435 in pretty short order: even when you make an effort to find the flattest piece of land to dump the bale, the kicker gets in rolling with enough momentum that it can often take off and roll away. We have some pretty crazy hills, however, so that's a pretty unique situation.

Even without a kicker, you can get by without an independent PTO just fine. Just don't feel you have to stop and dump the bale right where it finishes and starts to tie. When the tie cycle starts, just pull quickly out of the windrow and keep on moving while it's tying: As long as you're not sucking up hay you're not hurting anything to be moving forward while tying. I loop around while it's tying, and once you get good you can time your loop so you're right at the ideal spot to dump when it finishes tying. Hit the clutch to stop PTO and forward motion, dump bale, let out clutch and close gate while moving forward. No gear change required. You're not wasting any more time because you're just moving while tying rather than sitting there waiting for it to tie.

This system of looping around and not backing up works particularly well for us: Because we have so many hills, the spot where the bale finishes is seldom a good spot to dump - you often have to go searching for some flat-ish land to dump it. So I pull out of the windrow once it starts to tie and go find a flat spot while it's tying. I do this even with a tractor that has independent PTO.