Got Hay Fever Alredy, Testing DK50

[whitmerlegacyfarm]

Thanks, Im going to give it a shot. I will have my rear tires loaded by spring so i believe that will help me out a lot. Really thinking of having my neighbor who has his own Welding Business try and make me a 10 bale accumulutor and grapple maybe but the more i think about it i'm thinking i should just cool it make sure things go well next summer. Im self employed and have 3 helpers so i can hire them to help load hay also lol so I think cost would be lower to just try this route first. Hoping we can find buyers for 3.50 a bale of timothy/orchard grass mix.

I'm renting a no till drill early spring to overseed my 10 ac. Should hopfully help things out.

 

[rvaitor]

Congratulations ! I am interested in hearing about your progress and results as I have a DK55 sitting on my dealers lot that I will pick up sometime after the 5th of January. I am having a WR Long Grapple & Third Function Valve added for the added step of land clearing before I can make hay so I may have a field planted before the snow flies in 2012. Best of luck, keep us posted on your progress.

I've done a lot of cleaning up with my WR Long 3rd function valve(different grapple, but they are all good).

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

Thanks, Im going to give it a shot. I will have my rear tires loaded by spring so i believe that will help me out a lot. Really thinking of having my neighbor who has his own Welding Business try and make me a 10 bale accumulutor and grapple maybe but the more i think about it i'm thinking i should just cool it make sure things go well next summer. Im self employed and have 3 helpers so i can hire them to help load hay also lol so I think cost would be lower to just try this route first. Hoping we can find buyers for 3.50 a bale of timothy/orchard grass mix.

I'm renting a no till drill early spring to overseed my 10 ac. Should hopfully help things out.

Here is a pic of me no till drilling in some alfalfa in the spring of 2008. A 10ft JD drill. It worked out pretty good. The hay field across the lane I no tilled in alfalfa and orchard grass in 2006. It was soybean stubble and worked a little better. I used oats as a cover crop and made oats hay in July.

 

[whitmerlegacyfarm]

Nice I duno what size the one will be i'm renting. They have 2 different sizes and i don't think i can run the bigger one w/ the DK50. I'm just overseeding in grass fields of mostly timothy/orchard grass can i still cut these come June for a First cutting? Do you guys do any spraying before firsrt cut or in between cuttings? This all new to me and i just don't really know lol i'm just hoping i can get a few hundred bales of my 10 ac or so.

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

Nice I duno what size the one will be i'm renting. They have 2 different sizes and i don't think i can run the bigger one w/ the DK50. I'm just overseeding in grass fields of mostly timothy/orchard grass can i still cut these come June for a First cutting? Do you guys do any spraying before firsrt cut or in between cuttings? This all new to me and i just don't really know lol i'm just hoping i can get a few hundred bales of my 10 ac or so.

We don't spraying unless we burn down to no-till. Generic round up works fine. We have been using leaf hopper resistant alfalfa so we won't need to spray for leaf hopper.
We do fertilize after first cut and try to again after 3rd some years. It seems that first cut always gets away from us with the early summer wet weather and it doesn't need any encouraging.
Fertilizer also has been outrages for the last 3 years and potash for the alfalfa never comes down it seems. We use the potash on our afalfa and the afalfa produces the nitrogen needed for the orchard grass. Lime in our area is real resonable.
I would soil test before you drill any seed just to see where you are. You local ag extension agent should be able to help with how to pull samples and where to send the samples. If you do need any fertilizer or lime you could put it on late winter and you should be ready early spring to drill away.

 

[FLHayman]

I've been using a DK65 with a Krone 9' disc mower. I don't mind not having a caddy for it since the lift arm adjustments can made so easily at the rear of the tractor. I used an old german 4 star tedder, and 3 NH rakes at once to give me a double row plus one more to the outside, or a large windrow near the center of the pull.

I don't hire anybody, and do round bales and square. I pick up the squares using a trailer style accumulator that drags and releases the bales in groups of 8, plus several hay trailers and a grapple to pick up each group to stack on the trailers. I only have to pick up bales by hand that fall out from the many turns and don't make it into the accumulator, or if one of the gates doesn't latch right in the accumulator. I used to run a haybine, but like the disc mower much better, especially for gopher mounds and anthills, which messed up the sickle bar knives much more than the disc mower blades. Plus, the disc mower can go faster, turn tighter, trim better, seems to use less hp, and you don't have any drama going through a gate.