"new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!

   / "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please! #21  
Re: "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!

In europe we have a thing called a haybob, a two rotor, dual-purpose machine running off the pto. Set the tines one way, it teds. Set the tines the other way, it rows up. Are they available in the states? On ebay you can pick one up for £500, even now in hay season. In winter they are about £200!

I use one behind my 25hp chink and it works like a charm. teds or rakes about 4 acres an hour. Last week I was keeping ahead of a New Holland T5.115 and baler on a fairly heavy crop.

Mind you, we've also tedded with my 25 and a Claas 4 rotor tedder, and raked with a 16' twin rotor. On flat, it works pretty well.
 
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   / "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please! #22  
Re: "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!

Lots of good advice here, I'll just add that having your own equipment won't fix a drought, nor will it allow you to hay fields that are too wet to access. It'll certainly allow you more flexibility, but it won't fix uncooperative weather! :cool:
 
   / "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!
  • Thread Starter
#23  
Re: "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!

Let there be hay.

First bale:
bale.jpg


Slightly banana shaped, but they got better as I worked. I need to do some messing with tension to get things dialed in. Ran through my small field last night and pulled about 40 bales out of it....got them all stacked in the barn before the storms came through.

Looking forward to working in a larger field where I can turn and maneuver more easily -- it was very though dealing with the close quarters.
 
   / "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!
  • Thread Starter
#24  
Re: "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!

If your first cutting is tall and leggy like alfalfa or clover, you'll be cussing your rake. That type of rake will rope the crop and you'll be hard pressed to get it dry.

If you ever move up to a mower conditioner, especially the older sickle bar style with a rotary rake above the sickle bar, you really need to pay attention to ground speed. Either too fast or too slow and the reel will be clawing at the incoming crop and power needs go WAY UP.

No alfalfa in my patches so far, but one of them had some viney weeds that bunched things up pretty good.
I think I do need to get a conditioner to get my hay to dry faster...it took a long time after using the sickle. I think my best bet is a 7' haybine like my original plans. An older friend of the family has a 9' Hesston swather that he uses with a ~35 horse tractor and has used for years. I may borrow his and give it a try just to see how my tractor does with it. Should give me a better feel for what I'm potentially getting into.

The 3-point tedder/rake combination is looking very attractive. If for no other reason than to be in the air conditioned tractor cab to do the raking!. Maybe if I had a good tedder the conditioner wouldn't be so necessary.

Also thinking about one of the SFI drum mowers too, but want to get my hydraulic lift arm installed on the sickle before i make any final decisions.

thanks for all the help from everyone so far!
 
   / "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please! #25  
Re: "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!

Looking at your pic of the first bale, you do need some adjusting. Also you want to make those bales twice long as the bales are wide. Makes for easier stacking, assuming you interlock the bales in the stack.
 
   / "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!
  • Thread Starter
#26  
Re: "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!

Looking at your pic of the first bale, you do need some adjusting. Also you want to make those bales twice long as the bales are wide. Makes for easier stacking, assuming you interlock the bales in the stack.

Yep, for sure! That was actually the second bale, the first one came out with (only) one string that popped off as it dropped. Second one came out complete, but malformed.

Previously, this baler was used a hoelsher accumulator made for 10 bales, but it was accumulating groups of 15. I think the bale size had been modified to fit 15 bales on the accumulator. I plan to do some tweaking to get things more properly sized and less banana-ish so they stack and handle better. Thanks!
 
   / "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!
  • Thread Starter
#27  
Re: "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!

About 3 acres are cut and baled now -- these are the small pasture sections that I most likely won't mess with next year, but they were good for testing and getting equipment figured out.

Bales look pretty good after adjusting the forks and the pivot point to increase the chamber penetration.
finalbale.jpg


They stack really well
balestack.jpg


Tractor has no issues powering or maneuvering with the baler. The hydrostat transmission makes it very easy to find the right ground speed & gearing combination to keep the baler adequately fed without lugging the motor.
 
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   / "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please! #28  
Re: "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!

For what little acreage you are going to be haying you don't need a haybine. A sickle mower is all you need. Up until recently we put up 300 acres of hay using two sickle mowers and one disk mower. As for your grappalator, that too is unnecessary. You only need a wagon and two guys to manually pick up the bales as the wagon os pulled through the field and throw them up on the wagon where another guy will stack them. That is the way people made hay long before the grappalator was even concieved. You may also need a two basket tedder, which is used to fluff hay for faster drying after a rain. Sitrex is a good brand to look for in tedders. As for your side delivery rake, I like New Holland 256 dolly style rakes.
 
   / "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please! #29  
Re: "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!

Your 273 looks great in the pic
The hay rake is I believe a GL100 model good old rake if you look after it the wheels at front though look like after market
the rake I know has 7.50.16 wheels
if your tyres are smaller than that then the machine will operate slower
International harvester first made these many years ago with steel spoked and steel rimmed wheels
IH sold these with or without wheels as many IH machines used the same wheels eg their sickle mower had one of those crazy castor wheels
on it but the rakes worked well
I had a shiboura SE 4040 40 engine hp compact and it struggled badly on a slightly larger baler (72 strokes per min and a 14" by 18" chamber) when in hills
Your gear looks vg for age built solid so should give good service
 
   / "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please! #30  
Re: "new" to haying - validate my "wish list" and comments please!

I also have a New Holland 33 crop chopper and a forage wagon, and up until snow flies I chop grass and feed it, that saves a lot of time drying and baleing for no reason.

How much power does it take to pull that crop chopper and wagon? It looks like something I could use.
 
 
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