Hesston Hay Equipment

New TTT Member:  Matthew Adamson

I’d like to introduce you to the newest farm toy collector and TTT member, Matthew Adamson. Matthew was born Wednesday, April 21. Mom and baby are both doing well.

A lot of you probably remember a little company called Mini Toys Inc. They were known for making various plastic farm implements. Models included such pieces as a manure spreader, dry fertilizer spreader, anhydrous ammonia wagon, hay wagon, grain auger, grain cart and a machinery trailer. One of the lesser-known models was the Hesston 4600 square baler. The first models off the line had a white painted pick up head on them. This was quickly changed to a Hesston brown making the white head versions hard to find. Ertl bought Mini Toys in the 1980’s and continued for a while to produce the common toys with minor changes. However, Ertl decided to drop the Hesston baler from the line up.

It would be several years before the first piece of Hesston haying equipment would hit the market from Ertl. First, you can start by cutting the hay with the 1340 mower conditioner. This is the same casting that is used on both the CIH 8312 mower and the most recent model, the Challenger Challenger PTD12 mower. I’m not up to date on all the OEM mergers, but a unique feature on the Challenger mower is that Hesston is stamped on the rear of the mower in the same location as it is stamped on the Hesston mower. The 8400 self propelled swather is also available for field work. Again, this is from the same casting as the CIH version.

Mini Toys Hesston 4600 Square Balers	Ertl Hesston 8400 Swather	Ertl Hesston Hay Rake
Ertl Hesston 1340 Disc Mower	Ertl Challenger PTD12 Disc Mower	Ertl Challenger with AGCO Hesston Decal

To prepare the hay for baling, Ertl painted its generic hay rake with the Hesston brown color. There are no decals on this rake.

Lastly, there are three round balers variations to look at. The first is a 565 round baler. Mine has cream rims. The next two models are both 565A’s. The first model has white rims and the second model has gray rims.

Hesston Round Balers

To date these are the only Hesston models available. I must admit though, that I have not dedicated enough time for my search for more variations in any of these models. If you have another variation that I have not listed here please email me so I can put it on my “need” list.