Conditioner for Grass Hay?

[Littleleroy38]

Greetings to all on this board. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Brian Jackson. I spent my teen years working on my grandfather's farm in Iowa back when the family farm did a bit of everything: cattle, hogs, sheep, chickens, hay, oats, corn, and beans. While I baled a lot of hay then, it was back when you could count on 7 people showing up to help!

Recently, my brother purchased a 150 acre farm in Vermont with 55 acres of grass hay in bottom land. Thanks to all of you on this board, he has been able to make much more informed decisions about which equipment to choose. He has already purchased a New Holland bale wagon, tedder, and a rake. Next week, he'll have a square baler.

All of this is prologue to asking everyone for his opinion on whether or not my brother is going to need to condition his grass hay in order to speed up drying times. Personally, I think that if he uses a disc mower and tedder, he should be all right. However, this is bottom land, and from what he gathers from his neighbors, haying is a race against the weather. Any and all thoughts in this regard would be very appreciated. You guys have already helped us tremendously.

 

[Littleleroy38]

Greetings to all on this board. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Brian Jackson. I spent my teen years working on my grandfather's farm in Iowa back when the family farm did a bit of everything: cattle, hogs, sheep, chickens, hay, oats, corn, and beans. While I baled a lot of hay then, it was back when you could count on 7 people showing up to help!

Recently, my brother purchased a 150 acre farm in Vermont with 55 acres of grass hay in bottom land. Thanks to all of you on this board, he has been able to make much more informed decisions about which equipment to choose. He has already purchased a New Holland bale wagon, tedder, and a rake. Next week, he'll have a square baler.

All of this is prologue to asking everyone for his opinion on whether or not my brother is going to need to condition his grass hay in order to speed up drying times. Personally, I think that if he uses a disc mower and tedder, he should be all right. However, this is bottom land, and from what he gathers from his neighbors, haying is a race against the weather. Any and all thoughts in this regard would be very appreciated. You guys have already helped us tremendously.

 

[HayDR]

A disc mower and a tedder is the way to go with grass hay.

 

[HayDR]

A disc mower and a tedder is the way to go with grass hay.

 

[jwcinpk]

All I use is a disc mower and tedder and it will dry almost as fast. 2 days in the kind of weather we've been having here in Ky.. Disc mowers are the most trouble free invention yet as far as I'm concerned.

 

[jwcinpk]

All I use is a disc mower and tedder and it will dry almost as fast. 2 days in the kind of weather we've been having here in Ky.. Disc mowers are the most trouble free invention yet as far as I'm concerned.

 

[farmerjim]

for the northeast/new england area i would def reccommend a conditioner. it will def make a difference in your drying time, esp when the weather is against you, and esp on 1st cutting i'm sure the grass is very thick up there in vt as it can get here in ct, esp since you said it was bottom land. i would say a moco, if its in the budget or even just a disc cutter and a seperate conditioner, they're a bit harder to find and then you'll need 2 people when cutting 1 running the cutter and 1 on the conditioner, 1 person can do it but its going to take a while longer.which is the way we've been doing it for about 28 yrs.

 

[farmerjim]

for the northeast/new england area i would def reccommend a conditioner. it will def make a difference in your drying time, esp when the weather is against you, and esp on 1st cutting i'm sure the grass is very thick up there in vt as it can get here in ct, esp since you said it was bottom land. i would say a moco, if its in the budget or even just a disc cutter and a seperate conditioner, they're a bit harder to find and then you'll need 2 people when cutting 1 running the cutter and 1 on the conditioner, 1 person can do it but its going to take a while longer.which is the way we've been doing it for about 28 yrs.

 

[plowrup]

I'm a JD and Hesston Dealer, and where we are we have a lot of high Mountain Grass (Timothy) Hay-we use the Impeller Conditioner and have had very good results with decreased drying time. I would highly recommend you take a look at them-

 

[plowrup]

I'm a JD and Hesston Dealer, and where we are we have a lot of high Mountain Grass (Timothy) Hay-we use the Impeller Conditioner and have had very good results with decreased drying time. I would highly recommend you take a look at them-