Want to get into haying - need some advice.

5030 · Feb 14, 2006

Richard:

'bout time the troops arrived. I thought I was all alone on tis one. Though my wife's mares aren't show horses in your sense, their offspring are all over the country serving as carriage horses, work horses for the Amish and yes, ocassionally show hitch horses.

BTW: nice barrel horse and a good rider too.

Hay is hay if it's made right. Whether small squares, large squares or rounds. The keyword is "right" and my statement still stands the 99% of horsepeople don't know good hay bad hay. I've seen that proven countless times.

I have an extra 55 gallon drum of buffered proprionic acid. Need some?

I don't want to post a link to our website. The mares in the picture have just foaled and they have a little "potbelly" /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

cowboydoc · Feb 14, 2006

Daryl,

PM me your website. I'd enjoy looking at your horses. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I'm sure I will need more acid this year. You know how it goes!! If you're this way or I'm up there I'd be glad to buy it off of you. We're in Michigan running at a couple of pro rodeos this weekend. We'll be in Ann Arbor saturday night and at East Lansing sunday afternoon.

kensfarm · Feb 15, 2006

I've found a lot of info from this site..

http://www.hayandforage.com/

they also have eHay weekly newsletter you can sign up for.

Dano1124 · Dec 6, 2008

Hey,

I just got on the site today...I'm starting to do some custom baling my self...there are two of us. We have about 170 acres between us in mid-central Missouri. We have a number of folks that want us to do theirs too.

I have bought a 2008 Kubota M9540 (95HP), a New Holland round and square baler, A 10 wheel V rake, Bale Buzzer 36 FT bale mover, 36 ft flat bed trailer. My partner has a Mahindra (50 HP) tractor, side delivery rake, we are getting ready to by a disk mower.

The question I have is on the disk Mower...what brand do most folks like and have the least amount of trouble with.

I try to pay cash when I can so $$$$ vs. value/reliability is important to me.

This is not our only income we do it as fun and a little profit as well as helping out at tax time.

dawoodwa · Dec 6, 2008

I use a JD 328 baler, haymaster accumulator, kuhn v rake, khrone disc with a KMC caddy, and a vicon tedder. We bale bermuda hay and wheat straw.

Hoosier Hay Man · Jan 1, 2009

Hi Dano1124,

I have been making hay for over 30 years in one capacity or another. I do some custom also. It is just a part time op as well.

174 acres will make alot of hay!

At as little as 3 ton to the acre you would have over 20,000 small square bales and over 40,000 bales at 6 ton to the acre. WOW! That would be over a little over 1,000 large round depending on size of baler. Should be fun!

As far as mower I am a fan of NH and John Deere in my area because of the dealer network. I do prefer NH hay balers and NH Haybines personally. The local dealer always has the part I need and the part on the shelf during hay season. Disc mowers are faster than sickle haybines. I would buy a conditioner /mower though. It will help dry down. I personaly prefer the rollers instead of flail conditioners.

Here are some pics of my much smaller op using NH 9ft haybines. Pulling with a IH1466 and a JD4430.

Dano1124 · Jan 3, 2009

Thanks for the intel..

We have been looking hard at a NH...My partner has a sickle bar haybine. It works good just slow going. we figure with a disk mower we can knock it down pretty fast.

Dano1124

chh · Jan 6, 2009

I bought two Krone mowers last year. I got a much better buy on them than anything else I priced. I have never run a NH and don't have a convenient dealer. I have run Kuhn and Fella mowers and really liked them also.

Dano1124 · Mar 29, 2009

Well went and did it...just bought a NH 6750 disk mower...could not pass up the finance. 15% down and three years at 1.4%.

I took the cash and put it in a CD that is getting 3.5%....

9'2" cut, this along with my buddies cyclebine 7' we sould be able to do some damage this year.