Putting Away Hay

MikePA · Jun 27, 2002

Last evening about 6:30 our neighbor's wife (the same one who planted our pasture and the one we buy hay from) called us. Being the only one home, I answered the phone /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. She wanted to know if we needed any hay. I repleied we had plans to come to their place this Saturday to get some. Well, it seems their baler had broken twice today, they are behind schedule and could I come get some right away? It was in the 90s, both temperature and humidity for a few days around here. Cooler temps were forecast for Saturday, so that was the day we were going to get hay from them. I paused just a bit before answering her, in which time she added, "We can bring a hay wagon to your place. We'll unhook it and leave it since we need the tractor. We'll bring the wagon with fewer bales in it so there will be less for you to unload." They were obviously in a bind, so I agreed.

Well, about 20 minutes later their high school aged helper appears, driving their JD 4040 (?) hauling a hay wagon (Peoria?) filled to the top with hay bales. I thought to myself, I'd hate to see the 'full' wagon they didn't bring. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif The bottom of our hay loft door is about the same height as the top of the hay wagon, so I climb up to the top of the wagon and start tossing bales into the loft. Did I mention that he couldn't get the wagon all that close to the loft door, about 7 feet away? Toss 10 - 12 bales into the loft. Get down from the wagon. Go into the loft to stack the bales. Return to wagon and repeat process. The more bales you toss, the lower you get and the farther you have to tossthe bales. Eventually, I started putting bales into our stock trailer, which still had the winter plexilglass windows in it. It's not weather proof, but it'll keep the rain off the bales. There must have been 175 bales in the wagon. I got the pile whittled down to about 25-30 before the stock trailer was full, my clothes were soaked and I was no longer able to toss bales up and over the side of the hay wagon. So I could get the fence closed I had to use my TC25D to move the hay wagon. It moved it OK, but I'm not sure I'd want to move the wagon too far with my tractor, e.g., take it on a public road. The hay wagon probably outweighs my tractor!

I put a blue tarp over the remaining bales in the wagon and, if I am lucky, it wont rain today and I will be able to unload the hay wagon into my pickup truck bed, get it real close to the hay loft door and put them away. Putting away hay is a task I like having done /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif, but don't ask me how I like it while I am doing it.

RobS · Jun 27, 2002

Hey, thanks for the stroll down memory lane Mike. Your story takes me back to my days a the "high school aged helper". Always a miserable job, especially with hay fever and poor anti-histamines back then.

Hope the weather holds out for you and your neighbor /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

cowboydoc · Jun 27, 2002

Mike,
Go spend a few hundred dollars and buy yourself a hay elevator!!

Anonymous Poster · Jun 27, 2002

mike thats why they call it work it will free up your sat so you
can do some fun stuff- post hole dig-
pa

MikePA · Jun 27, 2002

Go spend a few hundred dollars and buy yourself a hay elevator!! 

I looked into those a long while ago and they needed more room than I had. Perhaps I was looking at the wrong gear. I have about 15-20 feet from the side of my barn where the hay loft is to a fence. I wasn't sure that was enough room to maneuver the elevator. However, I may be able to remove some of the fence.

Are most hay elevators electric? Can they run off of the PTO of a tractor?

A hay elevator might be an alternative to what my wife wants to do...contract with someone to deliver and stack our hay! Perhaps it's hereditary, but I just can't see doubling our cost per bale to have someone else deliver and stack our hay.

MikePA · Jun 27, 2002

Always a miserable job, especially with hay fever and poor anti-histamines back then.

I can sympathize! While I don't have allergies, my wife does, so getting hay is not one of her favorite tasks (see my other post for her proposed solution to this problem) and sometimes I get to do it all by myself. She takes an allergy pill the morning we get hay, wears a long sleeve shirt, and washes up thoroughly afterwards.

EdKing · Jun 27, 2002

Are most hay elevators electric? Can they run off of the PTO of a tractor? 

I have seen them with both gas and electric motors. I imagine you could rig one up to work off of the PTO, as they are usually a belt drive. You could attach a PTO shaft to the pully, and adjust your speed by the speed of the PTO. I'm not sure I'd want to be working throwing hay on the elevator unless you shielded the PTO shaft pretty well though, after a hundred or so bales you can get tired and posibly slip/stumble into the shaft.

RichZ · Jun 27, 2002

I've got a hay elevator, and it's electric. It works well. You can find them used pretty cheap. I don't know what they cost new, but I think they're pretty reasonable.

Just make sure those bales are dry when you put them in your loft. Hay fires start pretty easily when hay starts to decompose.

MikePA · Jun 27, 2002

Thanks, Rich. I found a good site, <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.loyal-roth.com/Bale_Handling1.html>Loyal - Roth</A> that lists all the info I'll need to determine how long an elevator I need. Prices for a complete 16' elevator (the smallest one) is $590 for everything but the motor. The motor adds another $110. This does not include a transport. If you don't have a transport, how else would you move the elevator or get the one end up to the hay loft?

gerard · Jun 27, 2002

I can sympathize with you MikePA. Picked up 144 bales last off the field in 90 deg weather. Then had to stack them on my trailer (18 in the pickup, rest on the trailer). Truck them 80 miles and unload them in the barn/arena. Went 8 high so had to put 7 in the bucket at a time, lift bucket, climb, ladder, unload, repeat. AND I DON'T EVEN RIDE!!! Don't put up enough to justify an elevator and I DO need the exercise but it DOES make me appreciate my day job!!!!!/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

MikePA · Jun 27, 2002

AND I DON'T EVEN RIDE!!!

Ditto! I don't ride either. It's a labor of love, I guess! The rain held off long enough to get the last 30 bales in the loft. A total of 155 bales. I'll get to do it all again in September when we stock up for the winter. We have to have about 200 bales (about all we can store) in the loft to make it until spring. My wife says, "They have hay in the winter, why do we need to get it in the summer." Yep, that's what I want to do, drive to a hay barn, through the snow to get hay. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

gerard · Jun 27, 2002

Guess we got spoiled. Used to get hay from our neighbor 1/4 mile up the road. Didn't mind getting a pick load at a time, even in the winter since we're in the same boat re minimla storage. He's 80 and is finally calling it quits so we have to make sure we put up enough to get us through.

MikePA · Jun 27, 2002

Just make sure those bales are dry when you put them in your loft. Hay fires start pretty easily when hay starts to decompose.

Rich, this guy is pretty good about not baling when the hay is too wet. He's also good about how long it dries in the field and then he uses a moco so the hay we get is pretty good. If we're in doubt or the hay looks too green, we leave the hay loft door open to keep air circulating.

Frosty · Jun 28, 2002

Mike -
My Dad had a hay elevator with an electric motor on it. He ran it off a small generator. The neat thing about that setup was he would set the generator AWAY from the barn/hay so no chance of catching fire./w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif

We would set one end of the elevator on the tail gate of the truck or on the ground and the other end up into the barn. Sure saved a lot of bale dragging!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

MikePA · Jun 28, 2002

Frosty, how heavy are these things? I'm wondering how I'd get it up to the hay loft door which is 15 feet from the ground.

EdKing · Jun 28, 2002

how heavy are these things? I'm wondering how I'd get it up to the hay loft door which is 15 feet from the ground.

They are not much heavier than one of the old wooden extension ladders. The end with the motor is the heavy end. If you put a pully up above your hayloft door, you could pull the elavator up to the door and then move it into place from the ground. I have placed them in to posistion by myself when I had no one available to help me.

mikim · Jun 28, 2002

As a kid I remember working for a fella that had a system for putting hay in the barn that lifted about 8 or 10 bales at a time. It was 4 large tines that jammed into the bales on the wagon, and a center pivot where the rope connected to. The rope then ran up to a pulley on a track that ran the length of the barn at the peak of the roof - the end of the rope was pulled by an 8N on the opposite side of the barn with his daughter on board (good lookin' daughter in a halter top as I remember) He'd jam the tines into the stack, hook a catch at the center point, yell at his daughter to pull 'em up, they'd rise to the top til they hit the track then she'd continue pulling and the whole mess would travel along the track until we in the barn would pull the trip rope to undo the catch at that center pivot which would let the tines relax and drop the load. Then we'd yell at her to whoa and we'd have to hustle to get that load stacked before another was ready to drop - sure didn't take long to unload a wagon that way - but I'd bet you have to stack your wagon to accomodate the tines.
mike

Carl_NH · Jun 28, 2002

Mike,

We put up 3000 or so 40-50 Lb bales every year and finally got an elevator, but before that my dad (and I when I got big enough) would pick the bales with a 8' three tined pitch fork using his hip as a fulcrum point then raised the bale to the loft - could get about 14' with this method.

Takes some practice to do this but is easy once you get the hang of it. Builds a good back and arm in the process.

Carl

Frosty · Jun 28, 2002

Mike -
I think Dad's was about a 16 footer. Like EdKing said, one man can muscle it around and the motor is the heavy end so leave it down. Weight-wise I would guess around 200 lbs with little electric motor but you only really "scoot" it around or lift one end (the light end /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif) at a time.

We just had a small electic motor with V-belt drive. Worked great and saved a lot of sweat and labor! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

EdKing · Jun 28, 2002

Weight-wise I would guess around 200 lbs with little electric motor

I just saw an elavator on ebay, Sweet Tractors is selling it, they posted the weight at around 120 lbs.