Making Hay

[cowboydoc]

Dave you're close enough to me that if you want I can bale you some square bales next cutting if you are going to be short. Just let me know.

 

[slowzuki]

We still haven't finished our first cut here!!!! The hay will have almost no food value but at least it isn't mouldy.

The season is late too so it isn't as bad as it could be.
Ken

 

[DaveNay]

I might just take you up on that. We just decided today that we are going to hold off on our second cutting until the first or second week of september, so that we get as much volume as we can. With as cool as it is this summer, the quality shouldn't suffer from a couple extra weeks of growth.

Dave

 

[cowboydoc]

Watch the heads. If it starts to head out cut it. You lose protein and digestability very rapidly as soon as the heading process starts. In this area you want to cut before Sept. 15th. This gives the grass a good survival rate during the winter. If it's after Sept. 15th we'll usually wait until the first frost. After that you're ok to cut it again.

 

[Phred]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( we can both get a new TS115A w/cab )</font>

Boy doesn't that sound good.

The only propblem is with the cost of diesel and the fact that you are ~ 2000 miles away, it would probbaly cost more than a TS115A w /cab to haul it up there..... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Thants the problem with round bales, they do not truck well. And the cost of moving a few hunderd tons of hard to stack material would get ugly in a hurry.

What we need are a couple of good large square balers to go with those new TS115s....

Fred

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I figured the diesel would hurt us some so that is why I decided we should settle for the TL100A instead /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I know a couple custom large balers but I don't think either of them want to drive down to texas to bale some hay /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Have fun down there. The weather is making me have fun by changing every few hours but it looks like I can get the rest of my first cutting off this weekend except for a couple fields to be round baled for a friend.

 

[slowzuki]

We were hoping to cut saturday but sun and mon are listed to rain now... /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Tues weds look good, hopefully it will stay that way /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[HayDR]

We need to get your father a V Rake so he can get the hay raked in 1/3 the time a NH bar rake will take. With a V-Rake you can rake 10-20 acres of hay an HOUR. With a bar rake you might do 3 acres an hour. How much time does a farmer have to waste when the hay is ready and the rain clouds are coming?

 

[slowzuki]

CCI, do people with heavy yeilds have trouble with the v-rakes? Looking at the width it would form windrows too big to bale in lowest gear with a square baler.

I certainly am interested in the 3 point style ones, we have PTO powered rake made by FA. It has a "belt" of teeth that rotate around, it only 8 ft wide or so but double windrows with it are too heavy for the baler (IH484, 485 tractors, JD336 and MF 224 balers) and the thing is noisy.

 

[cowboydoc]

<font color="red">do people with heavy yeilds have trouble with the v-rakes? </font> You bet there is especially if the hay is wet at all. It also makes hay much harder to dry. We have both rakes and use both at different times. It's difficult to use the v-rakes in first cutting if it's really heavy, especially when we use the swathers which take a 14' cut. Using a 9-10 mower conditioner it isn't as much of an issue. If you're having trouble drying hay you definitely don't want to use one as it's going to take twice as long to dry the hay. I've been caught more than once thinking it would be alright and raked two rows into one and it wouldn't dry. The v-rakes are also hard to get set-up properly as well. If your hay is damp or dry you'll have to set it different. The side delivery rake is pretty simple. They are both great rakes they just both serve different purposes and you need to use one or the other for different conditions.