20 years ago or so, there were quite a few people baling roadside and median grass hay because of a drought. This was being done in quite a few states. It was much less dangerous then because there were fewer distracted drivers, CB radio was popular for instant polite communication and there was more courtesy to tractor and machinery operators crossing the highways.
We set the mowers to very high cutting height (10 - 12") and windrowed the cutting. Same heights for the balers. Usually someone would walk the line to watch for the obvious and the not so obvious. A culvert was the most dangerous because it could/would stall the mowers and break the cutter bars, maybe bend the tongue. The idea was to run between entrances and exits and load transport trailers from there. We'd run a front scrap basket to collect the valuable stuff (usually hubcaps that the GM cars lost when you just looked at one of their wheels).
There has been quite a drought here in Michigan over the summer. Hay growth is way down and folks (especially horse people) are starting to wake up about a pending winter hay shortage. There are some hay sellers already pumping up the prices in true commodity form. $10 a bale, delivered, for what used to be $2.50 - $3.00.
So, folks are searching for uncut fields, unbuilt subdivision lots, and even ways to rebale roundbales into square bales by unrolling them to feed their critters.
