Midwest/Southern hay cutting/baling... Why is it done the way it's done?

[AKfish]

Gee, all these SD guys.... I grew up in central, eastern SD and there was no hay crimpers or conditions to be found. Untll I got out of that area, I seen one for the 1st time.

Arly, will be there to visit family and friends come June. A

Yup.. I didn't know conditioner from condiment.. Back in those days. Never knew what a tedder was, either! 'Til I went someplace were there was more water!

SD is a great place to be from... More money - leavin', though.

 

[ArlyA]

My folks reside in Chamberlain who should have retired, have a 60 head beef operation. One brother-in-law has a farm in Highmore. Another has a large operation up in Onida. They are seriously into JD products. Funny I asked him about compact Deeres and quickly learned he knew nothing about them.

 

[Turbys_1700]

When I was a boy back in the day we used a sycle mower, roll a bar take, and square baler. We finally got a haybine and round baler. Cut mostly grass and sudex for cattle. Disc mowers are not popular around here. Mostly discbines and haybines. My dad sold New Holland and they had the majority of the hay market.

 

[Texasmark]

You wouldn't believe what I went through to get this mess bailed. I couldn't get it cut when it was a reasonable height due to an unseasonably wet June. The crop was a small stem, late maturing sorghum-sudan hybrid plant that kept growing well past the time a normal SS would have topped out and turned to flax. i worked on in for over a week....course I work alone and that is a hindrance.

Going to plant it again this year but hopefully the weather will cooperate and I'll be cutting it at around 4'. That length will tedder and rake up nicely for my round baler.

 

[AKfish]

Whoa... Looks like you were puttin' hay up in Vietnam! Very good lookin' bales, too. I'd like a 30' trailer load, please.

What width is your cutter and tractor Hp?

 

[Turbys_1700]

You wouldn't believe what I went through to get this mess bailed. I couldn't get it cut when it was a reasonable height due to an unseasonably wet June. The crop was a small stem, late maturing sorghum-sudan hybrid plant that kept growing well past the time a normal SS would have topped out and turned to flax. i worked on in for over a week....course I work alone and that is a hindrance.

Going to plant it again this year but hopefully the weather will cooperate and I'll be cutting it at around 4'. That length will tedder and rake up nicely for my round baler.

Nice Sudan. I always called it Sudex as a boy. Great hay. It will suck the life out of your ground. Takes a lot of fertilizer but cattle love the stuff. We usually got 2 cuttings, sometimes 3.

 

[Tx Jim]

Mark
I agree that your rd bales look very good. I still remember my 1st discussions with you about the correct way to bale your rd baler. As tall & thick as that crop was it's a wonder you ever got it dry enough to bale & not mold.
Jim

 

[Briar Hill Brittanys]

"When I was a boy back in the day we used a sycle mower, roll a bar take, and square baler."

That's how I do it now. JD #9W sickle mower, NH 256 rollabar, and a JD 24T baler. Slow, but it does keep me outta the bingo parlors.

 

[AKfish]

My folks reside in Chamberlain who should have retired, have a 60 head beef operation. One brother-in-law has a farm in Highmore. Another has a large operation up in Onida. They are seriously into JD products. Funny I asked him about compact Deeres and quickly learned he knew nothing about them.

One of my neighbors is from the Chamberlain area. His place is a former 10-head dairy farm... Small even by "zero-Ag Alaska" standards. His family farmed just north of Pukwana, near the Wanalane (sp) dam.

He's got about 2.5acres of timothy that he'd like me to bale. (It needs work! Scared to throw my mower and balers into that field!)

Small world, nonetheless!

 

[Texasmark]

Mark
I agree that your rd bales look very good. I still remember my 1st discussions with you about the correct way to bale your rd baler. As tall & thick as that crop was it's a wonder you ever got it dry enough to bale & not mold.
Jim

I guess because it turned off dry. I sold my JD 1209s several years ago when I downsized and didn't have a swather....using a drum mower which I love. But it's not a MOCO. So I found a couple of old crimpers, one an IH 404, the other from Corsicana iron works or Corsicana machine and foundry or something like that so that I could crimp the stuff to hasten curing.

Problem was both were draw type and the stuff was so thick and so long, the crimper would grab a leaf of a stalk and a dozen would follow and with the length, they would grab more and just chaos. That's one of the reasons I hope I can get to it at about 4'.

The other change is I took one of them and had a old 3 pt blade scraper. I whacked the front end off both and put the scraper 3 pt on the crimper so now I can selectively pick and choose when to crimp, by how much, and when to pass over.