Gathering and Storing Hay in Bulk?

[2manyrocks]

Years ago, hay was pitchforked into a hay wagon in the field and pitchforked off the wagon into the hay loft in a barn in bulk. Then square bales came along that were put on a wagon or truck by hand and unloaded by hand. With labor being scare and expensive, people switched to round bales here which meant using FEL's and larger tractors. I see that others use bale accumulators and grabbers. It looks like we've gone from labor intensive to machinery intensive to do the same job.

Our barn has a second floor hayloft that isn't suited for round bales. Square bales either seem to involve lots of manual labor or several types of machines to move it from the field to the barn, and once in the barn, it still has to be stacked by hand.

Could the hay be blown in bulk into a wagon and then blown into the hayloft with something like a strawblower? Is there a way to gather a hay loft of hay without totally going back to manual labor and without investing in so much hay equipment either?

 

[aczlan]

Could the hay be blown in bulk into a wagon and then blown into the hayloft with something like a strawblower? Is there a way to gather a hay loft of hay without totally going back to manual labor and without investing in so much hay equipment either?

probably not, the problem with moving hay loose is that is that the leaves will fall off and then the animals wont eat it.

Aaron Z

 

[ChuckinNH]

Well, I have gotten more than a few acres of hay in by hand many years ago, and still do small areas that way. You couldn't use a straw blower since it would break the hay up enough to waste most of it's nutritional value. Too, the knack to loading a hay wagon with loose hay is to put the haycocks on the wagon in a systematic order. One puts it in the loft the same way. If you don't do that, it can be almost impossible to unload, or to get down from the hay mow. You stick your fork in the hay, and it's attached to the whole load! One learns these things very quickly. Perhaps with some creative raking (we used an old dump rake pulled by our little tractor) and a grapple on the loader arms one might reduce the labor involved. The other option, of course, is to not get it in as hay but as green silage, which is chopped, and blown into a truck, or trailer. My uncles do that with well over 3,000 acres of grass, and corn. Back to loose hay. The trick is to build the haycocks so that they are tight, and just about a fork / grapple full. Then they can be placed, and lock each other in much as stacked bales do. Once you lose that small individual pile the whole mess can get locked together. Not much help, I know.

 

[slowzuki]

The locked together mow of hay is solved with a hay knife. Quite common in these parts years ago when selling hay so the buyer knew the volume. Looks like a really aggressive saw with a handle.

 

[Egon]

hay knife.

Hey, I've used one of those!

Some years ago there was a trailer-blower system made by McGee ??? sp. that blew a hay swath into a wagon and the wagon was in turn unloaded by blowing the hay into a stack or ?? This piece of equipment was not all that popular and fell from favor quite quickly.

If one would do search for hay blowers there is equipment available.

Many barns of old had grapple systems rigged up to load hay into the loft.

 

[2manyrocks]

I really do appreciate these responses. As you can tell, I need a lot of education about hay.

My daughter wants to raise a 4H goat this year, and I suppose that got me thinking about hay.

We don't have any hay equipment. We have some smaller hay fields which are round baled by someone who gets the hay for free to keep the fields cut. I think there were 5 or 6 round bales produced each cutting last year. Guess I could buy back a couple of roundbales and have him put them in the lower part of the barn with his FEL.

 

[zionview]

Could your neighbor make the hay on the half, or for a third? Or just custom bale it for you? That would be an easy way out. I hate to see hay stored loose because if the bottom of the stack isn't dry enough, it will mold or spontaneously combust. Storing in bales gives the hay an opportunity to breath and finish drying as the air moves around between the bales.

 

[funny farmer]

You could buy one of those fancy hay loaders, like the one the egon has as an avatar. I'm sure you should be able to find one around somewhere that still works.

 

[2manyrocks]

I'll be sure to check on Craigslist for one. And if that falls through, I have a book with the plans to build a wooden hay fork that mounts on the front of the tractor. I'm sure you all will enjoy seeing it in the build it yourself forums a little later.

 

[Egon]

buy back a couple of roundbales and have him put them in the lower part of the barn with his FEL.

That would be the wisest most economical choice.