Hay Equipment Update 9/29/14

Got my first field mowed - finished this morning. The MF32 did a good job IMHO. This field hasn't been cut and hay removed for a number of years, so it was thick near the bottom. Thatch I guess.

Hooked up the JD350 to my MF50 and made one windrow from two that I cut a couple days ago. Tomorrow, it will be the test bed for my NH68 baler.

Bill

Looks very but you have to wait so long to bale it since it is 8-29-14 not 9-29-14. LOL. In my area it may well be 9-29-14 before the hay has grown enough to get a 2nd cutting and only if we get some very much needed rain

Thanks! We cut this field, bush hogged it, on Memorial Day weekend, so there's been some time for it to regrow.

After the first cut, that's when I came up with this cockamamie idea I'd put my teenage boys to work and hopefully get them some hay experience and maybe make a little $$'s to offset some college expenses.

Knock on wood, so far so good.

Bill

Good on you for rescuing a hay field. When they go more than two years the work to bring them back is pretty much prohibitive. I hate seeing perfectly good hay ground growing brush.

I hope that's not hemp dogbane I see mixed in there. That stuff is toxic to livestock. It's never-ending fight against it around here.

Tim,

Thanks for the heads-up. No dogbane that I can find anywhere.

Thanks again,
Bill

Put one of my boys on the hay rake today.

Baled some hay we cut and that had been sunning for two days and gave the NH68 a try. Before hand, we tried to move the plunger knife over a bit and had some success, but need to close the gap more. Got a bag of new bolts for it and will try again tomorrow. The old/rusty ones on the baler cause me concern.

I had some windrows that were single wide (from a 7 ft JD350 rake) and I've read so much about large windrows, I raked two rows together to see how it would do. The double row made for some slow ground speed, but lots of bales out the back. Single row allowed me to cruise in 3rd low range (3.6ish mph) on the MF50 and the baler seemed to like that feed rate. Wasn't at full 540 PTO speed, probably 80-90% of it. Didn't want to have something fly apart on the first time out. Hay isn't terribly thick either. Didn't shear any bolts, though I stalled the pick-up once. Even with the long tongue and two piece drive shaft, the baler doesn't like sharp turns - the U-joints sound like they want to chatter.

The bale shape was mixed. Some banana bales, others square like a brick. Was trying to get a 30 inch bale, it settled out at a consistent 32 inches. I couldn't tell if a packed full load of hay into the baler, medium or feeding pick-up centered, left or right made a difference in the banana shape. I'll play around with that more as time goes along.

First time my boys have made hay. What a great learning experience. Even my 13yr old daughter was helping with picking up loose hay, but most important, doing the microwave moisture test on the hay. My Wife/Boss, drove the Jeep pulling the trailer - so it was a full family outing.

Thanks!
Bill

Is that Massanutten in the background? Color wars with balers are right up there with tractors, LOL. Everybody's baler bales bigger windrows than anyone else's. A good sized even windrow will help to produce better bales, but just as importantly, raking two-four together, depending on conditions, will result in fwer trips around the field with the baler. In order to make it easier on the baler, keep your RPMs up fairly close to 540. Inertia relieves strain on loaded moving parts

You will find bale shape is a function of consistent feeding and finding the sweet spot with the feeder tines. You'll find your mower and rake tend to make a certain sized windrow on average in first cut and another in second cut. You observe what works best with each type and try to stick with it. Corners will always give you problems and so will areas of real poor ground. I had to move my tine closest to the chamber towards the chamber 2". Makes a big difference. Now with a new chain I'll probably have to adjust it again. Thin hay never gives as consistent a bale as thicker windrows. But choking the baler isn't the way to go either.

(quoted from post at 03:52:20 08/31/14)
.... Was trying to get a 30 inch bale, it settled out at a consistent 32 inches....

Click to expand...

I think you will find that 32" to 34" will be the shortest you want to make the bales anyhow.

Explanation: I believe your baler has a 14" x 16" bale chamber. When you turn the bales sideways to interlock your stacks on the wagon or in the barn loft it; then I think it works best when the length is roughly egual to 2 times the width. (2 x 16 = 32 would be my absolute minimum length ) (or better yet with gaps 2x16 works well with 34" long bales as there is always some slight gaps in the stacks.).