windrow inverters

[Charolais]

>>You live in the lower Piedmont? If so I thought your winter was very mild and could graze your pastures all winter long.<<

I had worked my way to grazing 11 months the prior two years. The drought last summer/fall cut back on my stockpile this season. Had to wean calves early and fed a bunch of hay on them plus feeding the cows too. It's rare for me to feed hay in the summer or fall. Dry weather will be the only reason.

Mild winters? It has gotten down to 5 below here and can have weeks of below 25 deg. in Jan. and Feb. That's mild campared to the northern states but we do have winter here most years. I will say that's changed over the years and we don't have harsh winters like the 60's and 70's. Back then snow would be on the ground from mid Jan. to the end of March.

There's some Max Q fescue sold in this area for horse hay. It doesn't bring in the bucks like alfalfa and orchard grass though.

I unroll with a homemade unit. I built it back in the mid 80's and it's served me well. Just a hydraulic motor, chain and sprokets and a 2 in spear with grab spike on it. I've never seen a bale slicer except in pictures. Just about everyone around here now unrolls the hay.

My best year with stockpile I only fed hay for 21 days. That was 04-05 winter. Going into August I had 425 rolls of hay. With the drought and having to start feeding in mid Jan. this year I'm down to 140 rolls now. We're in a drought at this time. Haven't had enough rain to measure in March and was 2.5 inches short since Jan. There's been so many fires the last 3 weeks that a total burning ban has been issued in a bunch of counties. I spread fertilizer two weeks ago and it's still on top of the ground. I'd take 2 feet of snow right now. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Ice, sleet or anything wet will do. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif When you come to Va. you'll see we get all kinds of weather. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Good and bad.

 

[jimg]

>>I have no idea what type of profit I will make on grain as this will
>>be the first year growing oats.
I initially thought Id raise wheat and hay. On further investigation it would have taken all my production capacity just to profit from the wheat. To consider also was quality as there are stds and you get paid by that. I just didnt think I could put it all together and make any money.

There is at least one local mill (Roanoke) which I believe buys most local wheat. In fact theyve built (are building) a new mill so they can comsume all the local wheat plus some. As I said though its a completely different league w/ lots to lose if you make any mistakes. So, for now Im going to punt and gain some experience.

>>They can help you out a lot with spraying and such and advising
>>you what not to do.
This was an area I couldnt get much info about. It seems that local producers owned their equipment. I couldnt find anyone to contract harvest/etc to. I thought it was odd but thats what I discovered.

>>I figure if I break even on the crop then the profit is in the straw.
>>However, I should be able to make money both ways but only
>>time will tell.
I would be very interested in your experiences once you have a yr under your belt. I hope you can report back in the fall.

>>The farms that do grow grain bale their own straw. If I want
>>straw I have to grow my own. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
Oh well...

>>I run a Gehl 2340 (basically the same as the 2345) discbine. It
>>is a 9' 2" cut and lays a 7' 7" swath. Gehl has a couple models
>>that only move the swath in around one foot on either side
OK, thanx I missed that.

 

[jimg]

>> There's some Max Q fescue sold in this area for horse hay. It
>>doesn't bring in the bucks like alfalfa and orchard grass though.
Thats good to know. Im surprised alfalfa is used as horse feed...seems a bit rich. Is this common? Speaking of orchard grass that was another species I was interested in planting. Thats good to know it brings good money. Is it grown in pure stands or mixed w/ a legue (like clover)?

>>ground. I'd take 2 feet of snow right now. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Ice, sleet or anything
>>wet will do. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Oh my...thats has a ring of desperation. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

>>When you come to Va. you'll see we get all kinds of weather. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
>> Good and bad.
I grew up in E TN not too far from you and am familiar w/ some of the haying/weather concerns of that area. My dad still lives there and most summers he complains about the droughty comditions. I was there this summer and VA this past summer (in Shen. Valley and N Piedmont mostly) and was surprised by how dry it was. I think it must get hotter in VA than TN...at least it felt that way. The N Piedmint area is really beautiful...

 

[Banjo]

Just thought I'd chime in here. Hayed for the first time last fall and got lots of good advice here.

Went with a 7' NH Haybine (which is a lot handier in the tight gates and fields I seem to have). After trying a few different ways I set the haybine to narrow the windrow in just enough so I wasn't driving over the hay with the tractor tire(s) on the next loop. This seemed to give the best drying.

This worked well with the NH254 rake that I'm very happy with. It has created windrows that look just like the brochure ... much to my suprise. I can combine two windrows from the haybine into one windrow, which creates a good windrow for baling and reduces the number of trips around the field. If I'm on the ball the output from the rake will fall on one of the "bare" spots created during cutting which will be dry(er) when I rake. Some hay got wet again, so I just re-raked it and that seemed to do the trick.

Bale with a NH271 baler that I need to put new chains on as they're all stretched and sloppy, even with the tensioners at the max. It seemed happiest going pretty slow in the heavy windrows I usually had (just because I was "first cutting" in September!).

Picked up with a NH 1005 stack wagon that I got near the end and am a huge fan with already. The "two wide" is a good fit to the size of my farm and is plenty to manoever. All my fields are pretty close to the barn so the 56 bale capacity isn't a problem. For this season I hope to be able to set things up so I can unload straight onto the elevator and up into the mow so I can do things single handedly. I've got an elevator to put in the mow so I can dump piles into there quickly and stack them later. I'm hoping to rig up the wagon to unload as a stack which I'm hoping will work for hay that I'm selling. Just dump a stack for them to take away.

As for the inverter, I looked at one at an auction last fall. Wasn't clear to me that it would help much for what I'm doing. Maybe it's gentler on tender crops? In my limited experience I'd say that the NH254 would do what I need to do and seems pretty "gentle" as long as you keep the PTO speed down (as is recommended).

Not sure if this helps? I'm looking forward to seeing how it all works out this season when I'm cutting at the "proper" time. Hope to get better and more hay.

Thanks again for all the help from here, sure helped then, and continues in listening to what works for others.

cheers, Andrew