Haying

[cowboydoc]

I know alot of you guys are new to haying and just wanted to share some exp. and advice. I went on shares with a guy this year on 25 acres of grass/alfalfa hay that he has. He was going to do the mowing and I was going to rake and bale. Then we were both going to do the stacking with some other help.

What you have to be frightfully aware of is that with hay you are fighting the elements. Once you start haying you get it down and up asap. Well to start with we decided to cut it on a wednesday. We should have been able to bale by friday or saturday. Well the guy gets started late on wednesday and then quits before the job is done that night. So now he doesn't finish cutting it, actually I go and finish it thursday afternoon. Now we're pushed back to saturday for baling and they're calling for rain saturday and sunday. Well it gets dryed and I get it all baled by about 5:00pm on saturday. Bale counter says we have 1876 bales. He says now he has to go and so I tell him that we have to get the hay out of the field. He says the rain will hold off and goes on to some dinner that night. I get most of my half out of the field by about 3am. Sure enough on sunday about 5am it starts downpouring and coninues for three days. Now the hay is ruined.

Just remember be prepared for three or four days to put your life on hold when you start haying and get it down and up asap or you will lose your crop.

 

[rf33]

Sorry to hear about your hay getting wet doc, I know that is dissapointing. It sounds like your partner on this deal needs to be a little more comitted to getting the hay put up. Do you think you guys could have left it out there unbaled if rain was in the forecast, then come back and ted and rerake it after it dried back out? I suppose you did not know your partner to be an incredible flake/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif.

BTW - My Tifton85 is coming up pretty good, and they just planted it on Sat. The guy who did it had a pretty amazing system for sprigging, and also puts up ~70,000 square bales a year.

 

[heehaw]

doin hay on shares just doesn't seem to work, i tried it a couple years myself, the last year, i spent a total of 10 full days doing the hay, using my tractor an my mowing machine, and helping to haul an put up all the hay, including the 600 bales the guy sold..i helped haul 40 miles, one way, with my truck and trailer,an stack in the buyers barn...and i got 200 square bales of hay...plus a couple comments from the guys son about me getting my hay free!!!! i decided after that, i could just buy my hay..funny how he didn't finish his haying the next year until he hired someone to round bale it.
heehaw

 

[cowboydoc]

Well I got my half. He was actually ok with that. He said oh I guess I should have stayed around instead of going out. Just hate to see all that good hay go to waste. It sure could have been raked and baled after the rain but I baled it all thinking that we would just have to suck it up and get it all put up that night. His thinking was it didn't rain today like it was supposed to so it won't tomorrow.

I agree with you heehaw. This guy is a good friend though and I thought that it would work out ok. I think he kind of learned his lesson. We'll see next cutting. But no more for sure!!! I'm busy enough with my own hay but he wanted help this year so that he could learn so I figured I'd do it this year and then he would know what to do for next year.

 

[JoeR]

Sounds like you are a very nice friend to this person.

Joe R.

 

[Chuck52]

I have maybe a two acre field where I'm slowly putting in a walnut grove. I kept it mowed last year, but this year the early wet weather, too many other projects, and the fact that I didn't have easy access to the field for my tractor, kept me from getting it cut. So, last week, I was over there with my <font color=red>finishing mower</font color=red>, the only cutter I have /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif, trying to cut stuff that was over my rear wheels from around my saplings, when my neighbor drove by. He was about to hay his many acres, and offered to cut mine with his sickle blade. He didn't really plan to collect the hay, just knock it down for me, becuse it wasn't great quality grass and he didn't need it. However, he ended up having the fellow with the round baler roll it up anyway. Field looks better than where I was cutting with my mower, and now I can keep it under control. He got eight 5x5 bales. Hope they're good for something...maybe mulch! Nice neighbor. Think I'll keep him.

Chuck

 

[MikePA]

doc, I've heard that hay that's been rained on can be fed to cattle even thought it's not good for horses. Around here, hay that's been ruined can be sold to mushroom farmers although at a substantial reduction from hay sold as horse feed.

 

[patrickg]

I guess the important thing is that the ant wasn't totally wiped out by the grasshopper.

I recently agreed to let someone cut and bale at least one of my 40 acre pastures (stock has been off of it since it starting greening up this spring) I will get 1/3 of the round bales. If it were higher quality I would get 40%. My first go at any sort of "shares" deal on hay. Hope it works out well for the guy paying the custom baler to do the job cause I would want him to be happy with the deal and ready to go again shold I agree. Lots of Arrow Leaf clover and various other grasses inclulding some annual rye I spread thin with the overage from doing my moms building site as an errosion control measure.

Patrick

 

[Carl_NH]

Been there done that more than once when a storm is on the horizon got to get the hay under cover. For the first 5 years we had no wagons just dropped the bales in the field then I was the bale herder - gathered and stacked them on their sides (to prevent water entry) then we came around with a pick up truck and did just that.

We finally got wagons for a few years then graduated to a thrower baler which was OK as long as you were driving the tractor and not stacking the hay in the barn.

Never forget the day my parents were on vacation for two weeks and my best freind and I were charged with doing the hay on 50 + acres, we lost a shear pin on the thrower & didn't know what happened, hooked the baler to the truck towed it to the delaer 10 miles away, they replaced the shear pin and on the way home the baler blew a tire and made a fine mess.

We got home just in time for a thunderstorm. That's life on the farm, and some days I would much rather be doing that.

Carl

 

[EdKing]

<font color=blue>I was the bale herder - gathered and stacked them on their sides (to prevent water entry) then we came around with a pick up truck and did just that.</font color=blue>

When I was in high school I used to work in the hayfields to make a little extra cash. The one guy I worked for used a "bale buncher". It was a sled like deal that you drug behind the baler. It had a gate on the back with a rope on the latch that went to the seat on the tractor. As he baled, the bales would come out of the baler into the buncher. When it filled up, usually around 8 to 10 bales, the driver would pull the rope and the bales would be left in a small pile in the field. Made it a lot faster to pick the bales up in the field.