Successful haying with a compact tractor(and now I need advice)

[quicksandfarmer]

Dow AgroSciences — GrazonNext(R) HL herbicide

Grazon is a good choice for many pastures. Not sure what kind of grasses you are growing so read the label directions. Also ask your extension agent.

Grazon is very persistent. I've heard of it still having herbicidal properties after it passed through the digestive tract and came out in manure. When the manure was put on a crop it killed that crop. I wouldn't put it on my land.

 

[powerscol]

You can do it. I have been very successful with the equipment in my signature, and also posted about it. Just go slow and pay attention to what your tractor is telling you. If it loads up slow down.

 

[Texasmark]

Grazon P+D is a restriced herbicide. The P is for brush control and the D is for broadleaf weeds. I used it once and it made no excuses. Wicked stuff. Too hot for my needs.

Rakes are necessary for several reasons as are tedders when you have to have your hay cured in short order.....like most of us having to get our hay in when the weather is accommodating...usually in the spring and fall. Rakes are also necessary to prepare the grass (wind row) for ingestion into the baler. Combining WWs helps when forage is light, cuts down on baler usage and makes for a better bale. Raking just before baling, flipping the WW flufs up the crop making for better ingestion. Drying is accelerated by scattering with the tedder and then recombining with the rake in making the WW.

Soil samples keep you from wasting money on nutrients. State Ag. schools usually have a www site with a request form and other information for them to analyze your sample.

Expect a sickle to clog....nature of the beast. Get yourself a drum or disc and you won't look back.

Watch what other folks do in your area when haying. Go and talk with them. Ask questions.

 

[DigitalCowboy]

Glad to hear..how many bales on how many acres?

We got a kioti CK3510 this year - similar to yours in power with the thought of maybe haying with it, so i'm interested in your results.

The horses don't eat it all - last year and in the past the brush hogging was hire out but it got to be too hard to get someone to come and do it..so now I do it. Last year only got cut once in the fall - EVERYTHING went to seed.

How to rehab the pasture? Mowing..let it mature and flower and mow to 5" or so, no shorter (grass needs to come back and that is, i've read, ideal height).
They have equipment that uses a wick (aka rope) set at a height above the groud to distrubute glyphosate/2-4D - it rubs on weeds of a height, so you don't kill everything like you would if you spray.

reseeding/overseeding...haven't got a good answer on how to do that.

Thoought is we should get enough hay off 10-12 acres that we don't need to buy any - saving $4-5k a year. So the equipment would be paid for in year 1. BUT we need a place to store all that hay...so costs involved there.

Time wise...we hog 20 acres or so monthly or so (very wet thisyear so it's growing like mad). 5 or 6 mowings. Haying you'll mow 3 times - BUT also rake/turn the hay and then bale it..and another trip 'round to pick it up -so no time / fuel saving over mowing it, perhaps even more time spent - BUT - you get something for your work.

Next year we'll see what the grass looks like. The two 'paddocks' are beautiful grass/hay...the big pastures not so much. The paddocks were mowed (2 acres total maybe) where the big pastures were not and when the brush hog 'guy' couldn't come...it got bad.

So I only actually cut and baled a very small area due to weeds/other factors and it was fall grass which wasn't too thick. I probably had 1-3 acres in total and got around 36 bales out of it. Not that much but I plan to do a little more grooming so I cut closer to 6-10 acres next year, hopefully with some good rainfall and fertilizer so I'm hoping to substantially increase that yield. This year was late in the season and mainly done as an experiment and to test equipment I bought cheap because the hay season seemed to be over.

I think someone trying to save money doing a small area like this is barking up the wrong tree. Part of this for me is just playing with hay equipment and tractors and part of it is the security of being able to do it myself rather than rely on hay to be available and farmers who say they'll bale for me to actually show up and do it(both of which I've had trouble with in the past couple of years).

I've now purchased an old hay rake so I'm better equipped for next year. Need to talk to some of my neighbors too- I'm surrounded by outfitters some of which have a few acres of potentially baleable ground. Some of them might be willing to let me cut and bale their ground too and if I can grow a bit maybe I could end up producing more than we need and be able to sell a little.

 

[prof fate]

The self-sufficiency is nice, but economically..one has to wonder if it much of what we do it worth it. Iguess if you enjoy the time spent that counts for something. You could buy a 20k harley or 40k classic car and spend time on rides or car cruises instead.

We raised turkeys this year..didn't count the food costs in detail as we have chickens also,but it was $45 for 6 turkeys, 2 died in the first couple of weeks. We already had the coop and such, so no cost there. 6 months later we had them 'processed' - take them to the 'guy' and later in the day pickup turkeys, 50c a lb for his efforts. Ignoring our time, gas to the processor (75 miles in the truck at 11mpg and 75 more in the car for pickup, trips for feed, etc) - figure $7/week for food, 24 weeks is $190 say, $56 for processing and the purchase price is 300 as a round figure. for 113 lbs of meat (and bones...). the tom weighed in at 46 lbs...the hens a bit over 20lb each. $2.65 a lb.

You can buy turkeys for under $1/lb in november...

IF we processed them ourselves, bred them ourselves, grew the food for them the economics would improve - but our time investment would also.

Tempted to try meat chickens..but again, is it worth it? A local store sells beautiful skinless boneless chicken breasts for $1.69 lb...fresh. Zero work.

As for hay..how much yield can you get and at what cost? Pa ag stats say you get about a ton/acre..if a bale is what, 40 lbs that's 50 bales an acre. I assume that's all three cuttings. When I SEE people haying I see what looks like double that...so 100 bales maybe?

Does one need to fertilize, plant, weed the field also? I lack the equipment to do any of that...a beef producer (been here can be had 2.85/lb per side) says fertilizer runs $600/acre...don't know more details,but OMG that screws the economics completely.

I read that garlic is, per acre, very profitable, and the big garlic farm owners here just retired...

 

[Nissan197]

I have been cutting, raking, and baling my 10 acre hayfield for the last 5 years. I only have a Mahindra 3215, which is around 27-28 PTO and it has done just fine with a MF sickle bar mower, bar rake, IH square hay baler when I first started and now a NH. I usually do an annual soil test with the local extension office and will put down Urea in Feb/March.

It has been a couple of years since I have been through Pike County, IL. I have family that lives in the Jacksonville area.

 

[keljan11]

IMHO, yes it may cost a bit to grow your own turkeys, chickens, etc., but you know what they ate, whether they had antibiotics, etc. You don't with the stuff you buy from the store.
As for the haying, at least the land is being utilized, and you have some interesting fun growing/cutting/baling, and sometimes the frustrations as well that comes from farming. (At least I do anyways). At least you're not depending on someone else to show up when you want them.
Just my two bits.