warhammer
Gold Member
Wish we could get some of that rain in Central Texas. Stock ponds are about dry, my Spring sprigged coastal field is looking like straw and the corn fields look like one match and it would all burn for many miles.....
a rough day :(
- Thread starter Robert_in_NY
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Dill
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Had a nice little "micro burst" come through town last night. Trees down all over. Got to back into emergency management mode, for the 6th time in 3 years (3 floods, tornado, ice storm and now this). But no injuries or no major damage other than hail stuff. But the forecast looks like rain all of next week too.
two_bit_score
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Robert? Don't you love it, though?
OP
Robert_in_NY
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Usually I do. Some days I just want to sell everything and forget about it though
two_bit_score
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Usually I do. Some days I just want to sell everything and forget about it though
We all have days like that no matter what we do. Glad to hear you worked it all out and can get back up and do it again tomorrow.
We has a similar day on Wed baling. 1st load no issues, took 25 - 30 minutes to fill the wagon with about 150 bales. The next 2 loads took 3 1/2 - 4 hours. 1st the twine guide that is on the needle arm broke off. So when the baler would tie the twine would get pulled to fast and got knotted inside the twine box. Had to go back to the farm and wire the guide back on. Reset the twine and knotter and just getting baling good. Next the arm that goes from the trip up to the hydraulic valve (JD kicker) broke, so a trip home to weld that. Next one of the pan guides broke, these center the bale on the pan. Of course the spare isn't in the baler, its back at the farm. Next the shear pin breaks, probably from all the other issues. Then we get into a bad bale of twine and have to cut that out and put in 2 new balls. Seems like something more happened, all I know is I've never had so many different things go wrong in 1 day baling hay. We were not able to finish due to all of these minor problems.
As I tell my friend who I was helping (it's his farm, I just help out when I can). The great thing about farming is you never have to worry about what to do with your money. The farm takes care of all that and more.
As I tell my friend who I was helping (it's his farm, I just help out when I can). The great thing about farming is you never have to worry about what to do with your money. The farm takes care of all that and more.
ToadHill
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I sold my 20 acres of hay to a neighbor, it's been too wet to cut it's past its prime now.
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Robert_in_NY
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The kicker was I haven't had my tools in my truck all season but I put everything in there the day before because I wanted to be prepared for anything and as luck would have it I used some of the tools I brought so I lucked out. I use to keep my truck loaded up like a service truck all during hay season but this year has been different and I have not really had to worry about making quick repairs so I left everything home.
Today I spent a bunch of money buying parts to fix up all my hay equipment and make sure it is all ready to go for the next round. The thrower is almost all back together. I have to replace 8 rake teeth (as the rubber ones break I am switching over to the springs) and then the rake has a full set again. The tedder lost a tine clamp so I bought two of them today (one for a spare) as well as a spring to help raise the one arm as that spring broke. So when I get to cut again I should be set to go. All that I want to do is buy new blades for my discbine and change them before I get to second cutting.
Oh yeah, I brought my busted wagon home today and have to inspect that and get the materials to fix it up properly.
I have never had a year like this one. I have not had to stack any hay in my own barn yet as everything I cut is being sold. I just looked at my figures and I am $700 short of meeting last years total for hay sales which is surprising as I haven't advertised at all but gained a few new customers when I sold last years hay real cheap to get it out of the barn. Now they are buying this years hay as well so it was worth it to cut my price. The hay is gone and I gained new customers.
We have got all of our hay in the barn now (small bales) but it has been less than plain sailing this year...
All cut fine, drying nicely last week, thought we would get the baler out on Friday night, bale a bit then.
It was all working well the day before, baled about 4000 bales.
Half way down the first windrow the left knotter snaps twine.
Rethread, restart, miss a knot, then bang.
Shearbolt gone. Replace bolt.
Then constant misses. Look at everything, turn over by hand, have no idea what is wrong.
Get on phone to dealer (the baler is under warranty thankfully) and he comes out at about 7PM.
2 hours later, 1 new needle and a lot of spannering, the baler is almost tying perfectly again.
Call it a night, bring bales in. We use a bale sledge that puts them into eights, then a loader on front of tractor to stack on trailer then in barn.
Finish at about 1AM.
Next day, row up field, get baler out. Works fine for 20 minutes then mis ties every bale.
No messing this time, dealer straight out (I think we're lucky to have such a good dealer, the engineer was here within 10 minutes).
He spanners with it for a while and it seems to start working again. But not perfectly.
About 3 hours later, hundreds of missed bales, and we are running again.
Dealer goes, 10 minutes later, sledge mounting point snaps in half, no way to get it welded up in any short amount of time. Rain coming.
Hmmm.
We start collecting what is already baled, but then it starts to rain. Get what we can in and have to leave the rest.
Next day, half an inch of rain later, go out and split open all left out bales. Start turning again.
Today, row up again, take out baler and sledge, both went like a steam train, 1500 bales baled and accumulated in 4 hours.
Took a further 7 hours to collect it all in. No more problems
Lessons learnt:
It doesn't matter what colour machinery you run, just make sure you have a dealer who will come and fix it.
Hay equipment is almost guaranteed to go wrong when you need it most.
It's better for you baler to play up when baling your own hay than when you are baling a customers hay
All cut fine, drying nicely last week, thought we would get the baler out on Friday night, bale a bit then.
It was all working well the day before, baled about 4000 bales.
Half way down the first windrow the left knotter snaps twine.
Rethread, restart, miss a knot, then bang.
Shearbolt gone. Replace bolt.
Then constant misses. Look at everything, turn over by hand, have no idea what is wrong.
Get on phone to dealer (the baler is under warranty thankfully) and he comes out at about 7PM.
2 hours later, 1 new needle and a lot of spannering, the baler is almost tying perfectly again.
Call it a night, bring bales in. We use a bale sledge that puts them into eights, then a loader on front of tractor to stack on trailer then in barn.
Finish at about 1AM.
Next day, row up field, get baler out. Works fine for 20 minutes then mis ties every bale.
No messing this time, dealer straight out (I think we're lucky to have such a good dealer, the engineer was here within 10 minutes).
He spanners with it for a while and it seems to start working again. But not perfectly.
About 3 hours later, hundreds of missed bales, and we are running again.
Dealer goes, 10 minutes later, sledge mounting point snaps in half, no way to get it welded up in any short amount of time. Rain coming.
Hmmm.
We start collecting what is already baled, but then it starts to rain. Get what we can in and have to leave the rest.
Next day, half an inch of rain later, go out and split open all left out bales. Start turning again.
Today, row up again, take out baler and sledge, both went like a steam train, 1500 bales baled and accumulated in 4 hours.
Took a further 7 hours to collect it all in. No more problems
Lessons learnt:
It doesn't matter what colour machinery you run, just make sure you have a dealer who will come and fix it.
Hay equipment is almost guaranteed to go wrong when you need it most.
It's better for you baler to play up when baling your own hay than when you are baling a customers hay
Lessons learnt:
It doesn't matter what colour machinery you run, just make sure you have a dealer who will come and fix it.
Hay equipment is almost guaranteed to go wrong when you need it most.
It's better for you baler to play up when baling your own hay than when you are baling a customers hay
These are all true, one thing around here though. Small square balers seem to be going away, more round or large square balers. Our baler is a JD 336, probably about 30-35 years old. There are only 2 people who have been able to get it set up correctly. Myself who I was taught over many years picking up from different people what I could and 1 guy at a local dealership. If he isn't around forget having one of the other service people come out. The newer guys come adjust it or repair whatever it needs and then leave sometimes without seeing it bale 1 bale. It has never worked after one of these newer guys has worked on it. One time he got it back from the dealer after a "winter service special" and it wasn't timed correctly. Another time they forgot to tighten something down and a needle hit the knotter.
Now a few of these were mistakes anyone could make, but it really suck that it seems like the smaller balers are becoming a lost art as far as set up. To some degree it may be the age and wear on the machine. I have had to set it up from the "book" and then adjust from that point by walking along and watching it tie to see why it is having issues. Over the years though it's been a very good machine.
