First day of cutting hay

[40Kchicks]

Well I feel kind of stupid now. I must have skipped over that last sentence of you last post. Oops /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Eric

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Its ok, it happens to all of us sometime /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[slowzuki]

Well, an aquaintance came and mowed with his huge disc bine. In under 3 hours he had hay cut for about 1400 bales. He was hitting 15 mph in the really smooth field he claimed! Hit one rock and bunged up a blade but other than that not too shabby.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

How is your weather holding out? I was suppose to have good weather till tomorrow but the rain came in late Sunday and I have 20 acres on the ground. We have a fund drive going here to lynch the weatherman as a lot of people got caught in this one. Hopefully you can have better luck and get the hay off the ground.

 

[slowzuki]

The weather man said good weather for a week so we were gonna get about 3000-5000 bales cut. The man running the disc stopped at 1400 saying he didn't think it was wise to cut more.

Look at the weather last night, changed to clouds, then rain, then 2 nices days, then 3 days rain...

We may be able to bring some in today if the humidity stays low, then the rain, then the 2 days to dry and hope to bring in the rest. 1000 bales in one evening picking from the ground... that will be fun!

We'll see what happens.

 

[slowzuki]

400 bales last night, only the stuff with full south exposure on dry ground was ready. Filled 2 wagons and 2 pickups. If we had more wagon we could have baled another 400.

I was walking the hay to to baler, I had been slowing when the hay compressors over the pickup hiting the sheet metal around the packers. Last night I picked it up a bit. Even with the tension backed off the bales where getting packed solid. The hay is for horse people and they want consistant small flakes for easy feeding.

Didn't miss a tie even when the new spools picked up, I'm impressed with this old MF 224!

Ken

 

[slowzuki]

Well much fun since my last post!

Total broken equipment:
2 tedders
1 rake
2 balers

All fixed now except 1 tedder and waiting on parts for one baler. Got over 1000 bales in on the weekend. 662 of them were in a few hours yesterday afternoon with only 4 people loading flat racks off the ground.

One baler the overrunning clutch self destructed due to worn out flywheel bushings.

Other baler just needed tucker finger adjustment.

Tedder 1 broke 2 axles, pulled threads out of a casting and 2 roll pins.

Rake the pto shaft seized up due to missing grease fitting.

Tedder 2 hit chuckhole, bent / broke axle, crashed and broke a basket and some arms. It will be out of commision this year!

 

[slowzuki]

Well, the fellow we have hired to do our mowing has decided to go AWOL, the tractor and his car are in the yard but he won't answer his phone or the door. He is known to go on drinking binges so...

Another neighbour is being kind enough to mow. Wish our haybine was working.
Ken

 

[slowzuki]

Never finished up the story! A neighbour came and mowed with his Ford 3000 and International Haybine.

It was an older model but the rollers are stacked cookies of rubber, impossible to delaminate!

He did the job but his knives and guards were in awful shape. On the way out of our fields he got a flat tire, had him patched up and on his way after a patch kit and a few pigs of air. He also didn't want to risk working the edges of the field so I fired up the 489 and drug it around the edges to clean up.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

No picture? /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif