Making hay is fun when everything works!

[workinonit]

I like your positivity but my recollection is that nothing about haying was fun. That's almost like saying farming tobacco was fun.

 

[SwingOak]

Great videos - thanks for sharing. I noticed your preservative system - good to have here in the UP! I looked at one this year but they wanted $7k! Bought a no-till drill instead

Thanks!

This is where I got mine: CropCare 25 gal Electric Liquid Applicator

I also got the Agratonix BHT-2 baler mount hay moisture tester through Amazon. Total cost was around $1300, so not terrible. The crop preservative was just under $500 for a 55 gallon drum.

I've found the bale chamber moisture sensor is the most valuable part of the system. The Case IH 435 has been a good baler, but it hates anything except very dry hay. So I only use it when I run into a damp spot, usually from places under trees, broken drain tile, springs/seeps, etc.

It would probably work better if I put an air or hydraulic baler bale tension system on it, which I'd only do if I fabricated one myself.

 

[5030]

Oldest piece of equipment I own is my NH disc bine, it's 10 years old and I've thought about offing it as it's fully depreciated but it's very reliable and easy to adjust plus the knives are pretty cheap to replace as well

Looked at a NH Mow-Max and the Kubota disc machine earlier this year but didn't spring for one. The Kubota disc machines are quite complex plus I don't like their center swing drive line at all. If I trade it in next year (disc bine), will probably be a center swing NH with the Mow Max heads.

My Kuhn rotary rake is 3 years old as is my seldom used tedder and the Kubota BV round baler is just a year old this summer.

really like the Kubota round bailer because I can vary bale density as well ads overall diameter on the fly, plus the pickup is extra wide and totally hydraulic driven, plus it's super easy to thread net in compared to a NH round bailer. No need for gathering wheels and it has centralized lubrication for both the chains and the rotating / reciprocating parts and it's a European totally enclosed design as well so even dry hay stays in the bale chamber almost 100%.

 

[5030]

I also got the Agratonix BHT-2 baler mount hay moisture tester through Amazon.

I use a Delmhorst myself because I can hook it to the co ax moisture sensors in the bailer or I can use it handheld with a probe. Great tool at hay auctions, makes liars out of marginally honest sellers

 

[Hay Dude]

I like your positivity but my recollection is that nothing about haying was fun. That's almost like saying farming tobacco was fun.

Beats construction work any day.

 

[workinonit]

Sign me up for construction over tobacco farming any day.

 

[Hay Dude]

Sign me up for construction over tobacco farming any day.

Really? I did 30 years of construction back to when I was 12 working for my dad up to owning a construction company with employees.
In addition to construction, I started to farm 22 years ago. Once I caught the farming bug, I never looked back.
Still do a little construction, but it can kiss my @ss far as I’m concerned. I’d farm any day over building.

 

[workinonit]

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love farming and living my life as close to the way it was when I grew up. But tobacco farming was brutal. especially those of us that suckered and cropped tobacco. A few years of that and I made up my mind I needed an engineering degree.

 

[Hay Dude]

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love farming and living my life as close to the way it was when I grew up. But tobacco farming was brutal. especially those of us that suckered and cropped tobacco. A few years of that and I made up my mind I needed an engineering degree.

Yeah, well I know little about tobacco or tobacco farming. Maybe it sucks. I liked chewing a little Levi Garrett though.
Quit that 25 years ago.

 

[workinonit]

I chewed Redman Golden Blend for 40 years and stopped in January. Sure do miss it every day. My early life was entrenched in tobacco. Grew up farming it and my first real job before I became an engineer was a tobacco buyer. Worked the US markets for a company out of Wilson, NC and traveled to Brazil buying for them.