Best Hay Year on record!!!!!!!!!

[MikeF]

This has been far from BEST for us here in MD /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif !! Too much rain and only 2 days of sun in almost 2 months. Here it dosent matter what equipment you have, all the local farmers have made ok catle hay at best. Actually I was able to cut one day sooner than some of the big guys because my L4310 & NH 474 haybine didnt tear up the field that was still wet when I mowed it.

But I'm glad some of you have had better luck. Tx Mike

 

[5030]

I know you are in the business to sell hay implements and assorted stuff, but let me tell you something and please understand this is not my personal opinion but the opinion of professional forage management specialists from the Michigan State University. Also let me state that we (Forage Services, L.P.) are commercial forage growers catering to horse owners and dairymen.

Michigan State University did a case study concerning the impact of implements on a hayfield. In their study, they used infrared aireal photography to study that impact. Their conclusion was that using lightweight tractors and implements can increase forage yields up to 20% PER CUTTING. This is fact, not fiction. As we are in the business of forage production, it behooves us use the lightest prime movers available. I would like to have a discbine, but my MoCo can be handled by a prime mover less than 50 pto horsepower, which equates to a tractor of less mass and thus less impact on the field. The majority of our hay fields are on black sandy loam and the crushing impact from large tractors could be substaintial. I can mow and condition with my 13' MoCo at 5.5 mph in dense stands of alfalfa/timothy and the sch cutterbar gives phenominal wear. Basically, the machine is trouble free and paid for. That's good for our bottom line.

 

[HayDR]

The drum mower is basically the same cutting system as the disc mower. The drum mower actually came before the disc mower. The small drum mowers work great and pull with little HP. Drum mowers work best when there is an even number of rotating drums. So a 4 drum tractor needs 85 HP or so and cuts 9'. The 2 drum mowers match the large compact and utility tractor market to 60 HP. Any MFG drum mower is more rugged than a disc mower. We sell lots of disc mowers but 2-3 times as many drum mowers because of the tractor market. 96,000 compact tractors were sold last year in the USA, 40,000 - 40-75HP utility tractors and 5,000- 85HP and above were sold last year. Each tractor is a customer for implements. Look at the numbers and realize where the customers are and what size machines they need. The average 7' disc mower sells for $4,000. So a drum mower for $1,800 that cuts the same as a disc mower looks appealing to someone harvesting 50 acres or less. A 60 HP tractor can handle a 9' Lely 3 point disc mower. 60% of the all beef cattle are owned buy farmers that farm 100 acres or less. Most of those farmers have those 40-60HP utility tractors. In round balers the sales numbers will tell you that the 5'x4' balers out sell the other sizes 4-1 country wide. In the south it's 8-1, this is where the largest number of compact & utility tractors are sold.

 

[cowboydoc]

Do you have a link for that study Daryl? I searched MSU's website and couldn't find anything.

 

[Woodbeef]

Yes,the drum mowers are nice for small tractor owners that is true. But what do you do about conditioning of the hay for quicker dry down?

As for your bale wrappers. Yes they are nice if you need the high protein of haylege. But not everyone does need it nor want it. Most livestock should do better then just maintain weight on good high quality dry hay through the winter.

Also you never answered my question about how much weight you safely need to run that Vermeer Rebel? Especially with less than ideal conditions and non-level fields?

 

[RichZ]

First, I don't appreciate your little humor about horses.

Secondly, here in upstate New York, the dairy farmers were able to make haylage, since it doesn't need any drying time. But those of us who bale hay, so far, have been out of luck. I asked several dairy farmer friends, if they were interested in my hay to use for haylage. I would have let them use it for free, and even would have cut it for them for free. But they had to use all of their hay for haylage, since they were unable to bale it, so they already have all the haylage they will need for a year. So I had no choice, but to brush hog all of my hay fields down, and hope I have better weather for the second cutting.

Unless you make haylage, the amount of growth of hay,does you no good, if you are unable to dry it, so at least for the notheast, saying that we're having a record year for hay is misleading, and even untrue.

Everyone I know who grows hay is having a miserable year, as most of the posts here will document.

 

[utahmule]

Sorry to hear the east is having such a hard time. Out here in the SouthWest, if you can get irrigation water to it the hay is going wild.

We had a good little bit of spring precip, and then it got really hot really fast. Guys out here are getting fantastic yields, and if thing keep up they'll be able to get an extra cutting in this year. Good new for hay buyers.

 

[Phred]

Similar problems in the sothern widwest. Rain was late so it was stemy in most fields then it just would not stop raining in late may early june. Not a lot of rain just a shower every day or two...
that was the pits for hay. Not enough water but just enough to prevent drying it properly.

I got the first cutting completed but lost some due to bad weather, to much moisture in one field of bales and they will likely rot.

Fred

 

[F350Lawman]

I have been getting this years hay for about the past month. Before that is was always too wet to cut. It is way past it's prime and very stemy, but it's all we have for now.

Hopefully the second cutting will be better. I can feed this stuff noew because our horses also have our pasture but come winter this will not cut it.

 

[5030]

You need to borrow our International Model 34 roller crimper. It makes those stemmy plants palatabile.