Hay and Forage Frequently Asked Questions

The equipment you will need to harvest hay will largely depend on your operation size and location, but you will definitely likely need a reliable tractor to pull the equipment used, which typically includes a mower, rake, and baler. 

There are a variety of mowers including disk mowers, mower conditioners, batwing mowers, and stalk or flail mowers. Which type of mower you need will largely depend on your crop. Mower conditioners, for example, condition the crop by helping to remove its waxy coating, which allows it to dry faster.

According to our database of over $20B in equipment sales, the following are the top 10 pieces of hay and forage equipment based on the number sold at an auction or dealership since we began collecting data in 2017:

1. John Deere 568 MegaWide Plus

2. John Deere HX15

3. John Deere CX15

4. New Holland 256

5. John Deere 569 MegaWide Plus

6. John Deere 567 MegaWide

7. New Holland 258

8. John Deere 560M

9. John Deere 336

10. John Deere 566

Forage is plants, or more specifically, the edible part of a plant (outside of the separated grain), that can be used to feed grazing animals and wildlife. There are many different types of forages including grass, silage, legume, hay, and more.

Hay is a type of forage. It is a grass or other plant (clover or alfalfa) that is cut, dried, then used as animal feed or bedding.

Tractor Zoom currently features over 7779 pieces of hay and forage equipment for sale from dealers and auctioneers around the country. Narrow down your search with our easy-to-use filters to find the exact make/model you’re looking for or view only hay and forage equipment in your state. From there, sort your search results based on what is closest to you, what has been most recently added, and much more.

Yes, hay is a type of forage.

Tractor Zoom partners with 720 auctioneers and 1747 dealer locations across the country. We feature all auctioneers in your region or equipment dealers near you that sell hay and forage equipment on our website, or you can simply complete a search for hay and forage equipment and results will automatically populate with available hay and forage equipment for sale that is closest to you.

Tractor Zoom is not a bank but we do help facilitate financing and loans for hay and forage equipment with our industry-leading lenders. Compare loan interest rates and terms for your hay and forage equipment purchase from multiple lenders so you can select the best financing option that meets your unique needs.

You can access a full list of dealers that have hay and forage equipment for sale in your region or state on Tractor Zoom.

This will depend on your operation size and how you plan to transport, store, and use the hay post-harvest. Square balers produce a large volume of smaller square bales, typically ranging in size from 40-60 pounds. In contrast, round balers produce larger round bales that weigh anywhere between 100 to 1,000 pounds.

Farmers have largely adopted round balers because of their efficiency and time-savings – because of the bale size, they spend less time in the field converting hay into bales. However, round balers typically cost more, and the shape of their bales make round bales difficult to stack, so they typically require more storage space

The value of your hay and forage equipment can vary based on its category, make, year, location, number of bales, and hours of operation, among many other factors that are specific to the model. Understanding what equipment is worth is a challenge many farmers come across. In fact, 82% of the farmers we surveyed said it was their #1 pain point when buying and selling farm equipment.

With that challenge in mind, Tractor Zoom built a feature called Equipment Lists, which allows farmers to quickly and accurately gauge the value of their hay and forage equipment (for FREE) based on its unique specifications. We leverage over $20B in equipment sales, and update our transaction data weekly, so farmers always have up-to-date auction and retail values to gauge what their hay and forage equipment is worth in near, real-time.