FULL Size Hay Baler, Subcompact Tractor, John Deere 1025R!

Not seen before on YouTube! Full size square hay baler being ran by a John Deere 1025R subcompact tractor. Hobby farmers take note! Tractor Time with Tim and Matt use a John Deere 327 hay baler to bale his hay field.

Tractor Time with Tim Information:

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[thom]

My youth was spent pulling a new holland baler behind a Massey 165. I loved that tractor and my uncle still has it. He had three daughters and so I would spend all of my time helping him farm because my dad didn't have any tractors. He lived down the road from me and from the time I was about 12 I would ride my minibike there and help him farm all day. As I got older I got to drive the Ford 9700 and plough and disc and cultivate. My uncle is still here and 40 years later I am still helping him farm a bit when I can. I am going to his place today actually to get my deer stands set up for bow season that starts next month. What great memories you brought up, Tim. I think the kids of today are getting a disservice not having to bale square bales of hay. The old barns were better equipped for it, and the round bales seem like a fair bit of wastage.

[PEI_Guy]

Oohhh the memories of blistered hands and sweaty brows from putting up hay on my Uncle's dairy farm when I was a young teen. Thousands of bales into the loft. The shower at the end of the day always felt good. We pulled a wagon behind the baler and stacked the bales on it. The wagon was hauled to the barn and the bales were unloaded onto an escalator and moved up to the loft where we stacked the bales. Eventually they purchased a baler with a thrower that tossed the bales onto a wagon with high steel cage walls.

[markmccoy]

Got to say I’m very impressed. That little Tractor 🚜 deserves an 🥇 award.

[stephendawg]

Tim, for future reference, one of the most critical adjustments on the knotter is the location of the twine needles as the come up though the bale chute into the knotter frame. I owned a custom baling business as a teenager and custom baled hay for years. I ran a JD 336. The needles need to just barely rub the knotter frame during the tying cycle. This assures the twine is placed squarely in the twine disc notches before they rotate. If the twine misses the notches in the twine discs the billhooks will pull the twine away from the disc assembly thus creating a “dropped” knot (as we used to say). It’s very frustrating when a customer sees all these busted bales laying around in his field. Creates a lot of extra work for the crew too. An old timer taught me this trick and he cussed me out when I explained that the operator’s manual doesn’t describe the needle adjustment that way. He said, “Do you want to follow that manual or do you want your knots to tie every time?” We were having a though time getting through the season so I tried it. Fixed it immediately! Never had to worry about it again. Experience trumps technical manuals a fair share of the time. As a Hoosier farm boy growing up in the ‘60s I appreciate your videos and insight. I own a 1025R too. Love it! Blessings my friend!

[jackbrunner]

I am a retired city slicker. I never knew how bales were made. The amount of knowledge, problem solving skills and complex dangerous machinery farmers have is staggering. You have my respect!

[bradmeacham]

A knotter story on an old JD 24T baler... Never, ever, EVER remove a link from the roller chain that drives an old knotter! Im my case, the chain was loose, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to remove a link to tighten it up. Giant mistake! That shortened chain completely changed the timing of the entire knotter mechanism. It seemed to work, right up until when the knotter tripped to start tying a bale and shot the twine needles up into the bale chamber JUST as the plunger was coming forward to compress the next bale flake! Luckily the baler had a safety mechanism that lifts some plunger stops up as the needles come up. These caught the plunger, which immediately stopped by breaking the shear bolt on the flywheel that drives the plunger. Took a while, and some knowledge gained from an old JD mechanic, to realize my mistake and correct it. Life lesson learned!

[johniac]

Love those old square bailers. Grew up running them for the farm across the street.

[donaldmikolajak]

Memories, not sure good of all the square bales I tossed on our farm from our baler. Wanted to mention when I was a real small kid, the first baler I saw was one that used wire not string. Had seats on the back for someone to twist the wire in each bale. Finally got my 2025R to help me with chores in my older years. No farming any more but living on the old homestead. Your videos have really helped in setting up and using my tractor, a lot of good advice.

[bradmeacham]

Ah, memories... Spent several summers of my Colorado youth (mid/late 70s) "custom" haying upland hay fields (AKA low yield non irrigated) with a JD 1020, a JD sickle bar mower, a JD 3-pt roll bar rake, and a JD 24T small square baler. 'Course back then, there was no such thing as a big square baler, and I do not recall round balers even being a thing yet.

[stephenphilbrook]

I love how you test what these small tractors are really capable of. Great informative video. I really like the explanation of how the baler works.

[dieseldavo]

Howdy. In NY we call them needles that bring the string up to be tied by the knotter. We also called the sections of hay in the bale a wafer. Grew up on a dairy farm south of Syracuse. Tractor size for baling is about horsepower and weight. We had a hydraulic kicker on out JD baler and pulled a wagon around. We used a JD4020 and on hills you would not want anything smaller with a full wagon of hay. Great video.

[philsmock]

This video brought back a lot of memories of being on the farm. I think we had a New Idea or a New Holland. I can't remember. One think I do remember is trying to figure out how those knotters worked. I thought to myself that whoever came up with designing those knotters was someone pretty darn sharp. Thanks for sharing a day on the farm.

[melmot]

As usual a very comprehensive test. Well done.

[KirtH]

Brings back memories! Helping our neighbors and uncle and cousins standing on the hay wagon stacking behind that chute stacking bales. Fun times in the middle of summer! Built character

[truckerray]

WOWWWIEEE WOW!!! I would have never of dreamed about a 1025R would ever of pulled & worked a standard size bailer! Iam thouroughly impressed to say the least! It sure is a funny looking john deere tractor pulls a standard size square baill bailer!!! If you were doing this all the time, i would be keeping an eye on the frame of the 1025R as well as the tranny/axle housing components for st4ess fractures!!! Perhaps i worry to much about these little, i dunno

We had a 235 Massey Fergison tractor that we used on our JD 336 & 337 john deere bailers. Good job Tim. Take care & God bless!!!

[williamdonovan]

In the late 1950's we had a John Deere 116 baler. The ram went from side to side which caused the baler to rock that way. This eliminated the surging feeling on the tractor. The problem was that the bales came out the side and had to turn to fall on the ground. In general, round balers are for persons that feed what they grow. Wrapped bales are sometimes left in the field until they are needed. Our use of square bales was because we sold the hay which required that it be stacked on trucks. Stacks waiting on the road side for pick up often resulted in some of the bales being stolen. While we later went to 3 wire tied bales that could often weigh 300 pounds or more but this still happened. The later development of the really large bales seemed to solve this issue but their use was limited to commercial feed lots. Sales of hay for horse owners seemed to be best served by smaller 2 wire bales.

[martineastburn]

I enjoyed visiting Mat - that is cool to small bail - many a person with a hose and need to feed it may not have anything but a pickup. Round bails are pain due to weight once home. Depends on the customer and their needs. Big operations need big and have big to tote and distribute. Thanks !

[pyroman]

Back in my farming days, everyone used John Deere balers around me- just like this. They typically used a utility tractor to pull it, and most had the kicker on the back. I remember the one dairy farmer used his (then) new 2955 to bale with- because it had the cab with A/C! Those were in the 70 hp range, like a 5075E, but larger. Nice tractors. My neighbor growing up baled with a small Ford utility tractor- which he also plowed with! (they did have bigger tractors)

The one who didn't use a kicker had a wire tie model, and the 1/4 turn chute. He had a New Holland Stackcruiser to pick them up. Like you said, Tim- he packed those things as tight as he could. They were for sale to the horse tracks, who paid by the ton- so the more tonnage you could put on the truck... Busted my butt a few summers stacking those ones. He pulled his with a 120hp JD cab tractor (not sure of model). When stopped, it would rock the tractor back and forth, just like Johnny.

[jameshayes]

I always wondered if it would work. Thanks for showing it! I knew it had enough hp, just was wondering about the weight. Now to hook up a wagon full of hay bales as well. Ha!

[lin]

Tim, you just answered so many of my questions. So grateful!