Article: Hay in a day (when to condition . . .)

[Renze]

I think it is partly because we have the ability to collect the grass much quicker than we can cut it, and have contractors do everything.

In Holland, contractors also do everything... yet most farmers still have the grass dry 1 day in perfect conditions, and 2 days in average conditions, use their tedder 2 or 3 times and rake a couple of hours before the contractor comes, to stay ahead of the chopper.

In Finland, my eyes hurt from the load of sour they sprayed in the swath, even when i kept myself at 5 yards distance from the baler

Letting it dry a bit more, makes much easier to handle, lighter bales, that dont need a conservation additive (=cost) and lighter bales, as well as NOT having to spray sour in them, makes it much easier on the equipment.

My friend from Finland says that they have different grasses than us (not rye) that are winterhard. These species are more prone to sugar loss when drying, he said.

I thought GB had a pretty mild climate, so are you using 70% English Rye mixtures like we have ?

 

[Deereman4020]

heres a start of the pics i said id take this is how we cut the hay so fast








the tractor is a Case IH 7230 magnum we installed the front 3pt. hitch on the farm my dad bought the tractor for $50,000 a whole **** of a lot cheaper than a new one there are 3 10Ft mowers that cost about $50,000 total the mowers lay the hay as flat as possible so it dries quick then we come back with a H&S 30ft continous merger around noon if the field was cut at 9:00a.m. then around 3:00p.m. we start chopping the field that was cut first we use a John Deere 6750 Self Propelled Forage Harvester with a 15 ft pickup head on the front we blow the copped hay in to1 of 4 H&S 7+4 18ft chopper boxes we have 4 tractor devoted to pulling chopper boxes during chopping season we have 2 Case IH 7110 Magnums and 2 Case IH 7120 Magnums we store the feed in to bunker siloswe pack and pile the feed using a Case IH MX270 with a 12ft blade mounted on the rear 3pt. hitch note only the picture of the Case IH 7230 with the mounted mowers was taken at our farm the rest of the pics were pulled off the internet

 

[mark.r]

On your 7230 that you cut with, what do you mean you guys installed the 3pt. hitch? You can do that? Did it come from the factory with a front PTO? That seems like a lot of work. I wasn't aware that this could be done on a tractor that was not built like that from the factory.

Great pics! Thanks.

 

[Deereman4020]

yeah the front pto is run off of the crank shaft of the engine and goes through a converter that converts the crankshafts speed to 1000 rpm at the pto when the tractor is at full throttle it took us about 15-30 hrs of work to install the front PTO we could of bought a Fendt tractor but they were a little pricy $60,000-$100,000 for a used one and since we already had other Case IH magnums it would be a lot easier for peopl to drive the tractor when we dont have the mowers on it and its a lot quicker for us to get parts for the cases compared to fendts and case parts are a little more readily avalible by me but except for a lot of grinding between the radiator and the frame the front 3pt hitch was pretty much bolt on and it was pretty heavy it was about $10k for the front hitch(not installed)

 

[mark.r]

yeah the front pto is run off of the crank shaft of the engine and goes through a converter that converts the crankshafts speed to 1000 rpm at the pto when the tractor is at full throttle it took us about 15-30 hrs of work to install the front PTO we could of bought a Fendt tractor but they were a little pricy $60,000-$100,000 for a used one and since we already had other Case IH magnums it would be a lot easier for peopl to drive the tractor when we dont have the mowers on it and its a lot quicker for us to get parts for the cases compared to fendts and case parts are a little more readily avalible by me but except for a lot of grinding between the radiator and the frame the front 3pt hitch was pretty much bolt on and it was pretty heavy it was about $10k for the front hitch(not installed)

LOT of WORK

 

[Deereman4020]

sure was

 

[Grrrr]

Nice pictures.

Those Magnums were nice tractors for their day. The 7100 series tractors are built like houses and have a huge ammount of grunt. One of my favourite tractors to run, with that big engine roaring away.

Just a shame about the ridiculous gearbox jerking around and the position of reverse, all the way over to the other gate. Soooo annoying. But at least you don't have to clutch.

The 7200 series are nice as well, and a improvement in the cab department from the predecessors. Does yours have the little height limiter thing on the three point linkage control? That was lacking on the older models and most frustrating not being able to control how high the linkage went easily...
In Europe they had 40kph 'boxes fitted as standard and the one we used to have would zip along on the roads. Great tractor.

I think you could order a front linkage from the factory on the 20 series, but there are also a lot of people who sell addon on units here in the UK.

 

[Deereman4020]

oh i really like those magnums they still are a great tractor all of our 7100 series magnums can hit at least 20 mph on the road except 1 oh funny story i was hauling hayledge to the main farm an i just crossed a high way im in a 7110 magnum im fully loaded theres some kids in a go kart they wanted to race me going up the hill im going about 21 mph up a hill fully loaded i beat the kids in a go kart in a tractor pulling a 16 ton rated chopper box loaded to capacity oh man that was fun and i wasnt even trying

 

[AKfish]

Great thread!! Appreciate the pics and the difference between the UK and WI. (I think it must be on the WET side of things in the UK... and the gulls were a good barometer of conditions, too!)

I'm gonna guess that all that haylage was gonna end up feeding dairy cows - WI and the UK?

Thanks again -- great fun for a farmer-wanna-be and tractor junkie!

AKfish

 

[Grrrr]

Great thread!! Appreciate the pics and the difference between the UK and WI. (I think it must be on the WET side of things in the UK... and the gulls were a good barometer of conditions, too!)

I'm gonna guess that all that haylage was gonna end up feeding dairy cows - WI and the UK?

Thanks again -- great fun for a farmer-wanna-be and tractor junkie!

AKfish

Yep, dairy cow feed. The beef producers tend to prefer bales, because they can feed in the field then easier.

We call it silage, in the US it seems to be known as haylage.

In the UK, haylage is just slightly damper hay, like baled one day earlier.