Hobby haying pics with a compact tractor and bushog

Duffster · Jun 18, 2009

slowzuki said:
I still think loose hay is the most cost effective for small operators. Add a rake and you sped it up. Too bad they don't make hay loaders any more for loose hay.

Can't you get someone to make big squares for you at a reasonable price?

Dill · Jun 18, 2009

Big squares really don't exist in this part of the country. Plus the majority of my customers are small horse owners. 1-4 horses, they might have a compact tractor but nothing big enough to hanlde big squares. Which is one of the reasons I make 4x4 rounds and not anything bigger. I can put 2 round bales in the back of a pickup and people can muscle them around without a tractor. In fact we are selling a number of roundbales this way now.

Duffster · Jun 18, 2009

Dill said:
Big squares really don't exist in this part of the country. Plus the majority of my customers are small horse owners. 1-4 horses, they might have a compact tractor but nothing big enough to hanlde big squares. Which is one of the reasons I make 4x4 rounds and not anything bigger. I can put 2 round bales in the back of a pickup and people can muscle them around without a tractor. In fact we are selling a number of roundbales this way now.

Big squares have pretty much overtaken rounds around here (except to bale corn fodder). We bale for several horse people and usually make a 4' or 5' bales for them. Some handle them just like you say, the just manhandle them and just roll them around. The nice part is they can just feed the slices off the bales like they would little bales.

Our bales typically weight just under 100# per foot

I just can't imagine handling loose hay anymore.

Dill · Jun 18, 2009

No I can't imgaine loose hay, that's so 1910. But I couldn't imgaine not doing small squares. That's where the money is. It took me 10 years to convince my father we needed a round baler. And now there is a market for the round bales. No what the heck is "corn fodder"? We do wrapped balage for the cows, basically haylage in round bale form, ie marshmallows. And we used to do corn silage, but I'm lost on your term.

Duffster · Jun 18, 2009

Dill said:
No I can't imgaine loose hay, that's so 1910. But I couldn't imgaine not doing small squares. That's where the money is. It took me 10 years to convince my father we needed a round baler. And now there is a market for the round bales. No what the heck is "corn fodder"? We do wrapped balage for the cows, basically haylage in round bale form, ie marshmallows. And we used to do corn silage, but I'm lost on your term.

LOL It took me 10 years to talk my old man into buying the big square baler. Once we had that the round baler went down the road in a hurry.

They make marshmallows here to but we use the big squares for that too.

Corn fodder is just shredded corn stalks that is used for bedding cattle in loose housing and sometime fed to beef cows as a filler.

rankrank1 · Jun 18, 2009

slowzuki said:
To put any amount of hay up here you need a conditioner, so I now have a disc mower conditioner. I have to say, messing around with old haybines broke down all the time and the parts every bit as expensive as a discbine I'm happy with my choice and I've only mowed 15 acres so far. I will have to keep the disc mower about 15 years to pay it off.

Its all about scale and time. I still think loose hay is the most cost effective for small operators. Add a rake and you sped it up. Too bad they don't make hay loaders any more for loose hay.

15 years payoff on your discbine and you are doing at least 15 acres (sounds like you are even doing more than 15 acres from your comment).. Imagine what my payoff on any nice piece of equipment such as that would be with me only haying 4 acres, plus my small tractor would not be big enough to run some pieces anyway. Hence the improvise, with the bush hog and other very cheap equipment. I have less than $400 total in the baler and rake pictured. (I already had the tractor and BH which I have used for the last 8 years to simply keep my pasture looking decent so I am not counting them. If I were not haying then I would still be bushogging the pasture and leaving everything in field just like I had been doing the first 8 years that I owned the place. I am only in year number 2 of haying).

Sure the BH leaves some yield in the field, but I am not doing custom work with it for other people. In my case leaving some of my hay in my field may not be a bad thing for me anyway as I have only just begun organic fertilizing. If I were to take all the hay off all the time, then I am confident that I would need to fertilize heavier - which is costly.

The BH does also serve as an improvised conditioner too which is a real added benefit. Maintenance on the BH is next to zero - sharpen the blades with a grinder which is free to me. I have used the old BH for 10 years on the place and have invested zero extra dollars in it - grease it regualary and sharpen the blades as needed and thats it. Another benefit is that my wife can operate the BH while I am at work and it is virtually indestructable. No way she could handle running a tempermental sickle mower. Plus, While I do have an old sickle mower that I hope to eventually get operational; How many acres can I mow in a best case scenario before I have to replace sickle sections? This will cost me $40-50 each time and I better hope nothing else breaks/wears such as ledger plates or the guards or it adds up real quick - much more costly than what little yield savings I might hope to achieve. Plus if I use the sickle mower then I lose the conditioning benefit of the BH.

I totally agree with you about loose hay being the best/cheapest method for the few acre operator if the plan is to simply use all the hay themselves for their own personal use. However, loose hay is not an option if the plan is to try selling the hay. I sell all the hay that I currently make as I do not have any livestock.

slowzuki · Jun 22, 2009

RE the big squares, not an option around here. The only big square baler headed west a couple a years ago as he couldn't make it pay for itself. He was baling and filling containers with hay to ship.

SPYDERLK · Jun 22, 2009

rankrank1 said:
I prefer to run my bushog level as it discharges cleanly. I agree running some models with the back tilted higher may help some brands of rotary cutter discharge better, but having your cutting blade not level can also potentially increase the number of small clippings that will not be able to be raked or baled. (e.g. when the front of you blade is cutting 4 inches from the ground then the back will be cutting 7 inches from ground. When the fast spinning blade spins around it will then leave a short 3 inch clipping that may be missed by the the rake or baler further decreasing your yield). In short, I think running it tilted will create more short clippings, but may not if you travel slow enough with the tractor so the that front blade edge does all the cutting so to speak.

It takes greater than 7mph to overrun the front cutting edges of a bushog spinning at 600rpm and most spin faster. The rear swing of the cutters is not very effective at cutting because the grass is laid over by the dull part of the blade several times before it can get to the sharp part and the back swing carrying front cuttings make it even less effective. I would try an inch or so front tip. Should take less power and give cleaner less chopped hay.
larry