lastcowboy32
Well-known Member
Am I the only person that has regularly made hay without a rake?
I used to borrow a friend's equipment. The deal was that I performed and paid for the maintenance and he got some of the hay. All he had was a 467 haybine and a 269 baler. After a while, I learned that the 467 could be set to make a swath exactly as wide as the pickup.
Right now, I've only been able to afford the same two pieces of our own equipment: A Hesston 1070 and a NH 276 with no kicker.
Doing this, I've made some very nice hay with a few tricks:
1. Setting the mower shoes high enough to have a little stubble under the hay.
2. Cutting young hay when it's very young, so that there isn't enough of it to make a very deep swath.
3. Extra drying time (usually about a half day) as compared to tedding/raking.
4. Usually baling no earlier than about 2-3PM to ensure that the effects of dew are dried off.
5. If the hay is older, I have to let it get very old before cutting. There seems to be a certain state of vegetation where they yield is heavy enough and the hay is still young/damp enough that the swaths will never dry out this way. Around here...that equates to no baling of first cutting between about June 15th and July 15th.
I haven't put numbers to it, but I've made a few observations and was looking for comments:
-Pro...Second cut clover done like this about mid-July makes a bale of hay that cows will fight you for. Just about every leaf is there.
-Con...There is definitely more travel time with the baler and more plunger strokes/wear per bale made.
-Pro...If the swath width is set correctly, the hay is never driven on and mushed into the ground.
-Pro...I'm also saving between one and three passes of the field (depending on how many times you would typically tedd the hay before raking)
-Con...If it DOES get rained on after cutting, I either have to leave it a very, very long time (until the regrowth lifts it up and dries it) before baling, or just leave it, or bush hog it into mulch, or rent/borrow a tedder and/or rake.
Don't get me wrong. If I had the extra cash laying around, I'd probably have a tedder/rake. But, for our small group of dairy cows, it seems to work just fine this way. We get very young/tender hay with all of its leaves for fodder and then very old/stemmy hay to put through the bedding chopper for bedding or feed to yearlings.
If I was selling hay for horses, no way.
I used to borrow a friend's equipment. The deal was that I performed and paid for the maintenance and he got some of the hay. All he had was a 467 haybine and a 269 baler. After a while, I learned that the 467 could be set to make a swath exactly as wide as the pickup.
Right now, I've only been able to afford the same two pieces of our own equipment: A Hesston 1070 and a NH 276 with no kicker.
Doing this, I've made some very nice hay with a few tricks:
1. Setting the mower shoes high enough to have a little stubble under the hay.
2. Cutting young hay when it's very young, so that there isn't enough of it to make a very deep swath.
3. Extra drying time (usually about a half day) as compared to tedding/raking.
4. Usually baling no earlier than about 2-3PM to ensure that the effects of dew are dried off.
5. If the hay is older, I have to let it get very old before cutting. There seems to be a certain state of vegetation where they yield is heavy enough and the hay is still young/damp enough that the swaths will never dry out this way. Around here...that equates to no baling of first cutting between about June 15th and July 15th.
I haven't put numbers to it, but I've made a few observations and was looking for comments:
-Pro...Second cut clover done like this about mid-July makes a bale of hay that cows will fight you for. Just about every leaf is there.
-Con...There is definitely more travel time with the baler and more plunger strokes/wear per bale made.
-Pro...If the swath width is set correctly, the hay is never driven on and mushed into the ground.
-Pro...I'm also saving between one and three passes of the field (depending on how many times you would typically tedd the hay before raking)
-Con...If it DOES get rained on after cutting, I either have to leave it a very, very long time (until the regrowth lifts it up and dries it) before baling, or just leave it, or bush hog it into mulch, or rent/borrow a tedder and/or rake.
Don't get me wrong. If I had the extra cash laying around, I'd probably have a tedder/rake. But, for our small group of dairy cows, it seems to work just fine this way. We get very young/tender hay with all of its leaves for fodder and then very old/stemmy hay to put through the bedding chopper for bedding or feed to yearlings.
If I was selling hay for horses, no way.