Oooph hay making

paul

Well-known Member
Baled about 380 small squares today. Well baling is easy, with the bale basket.

As a one man operation, stacking from the basket into the hay loft is tough for an old fat man when it is 98 degrees, about the same humidity. I left the last 100 bales on the basket..... now I know 280 bales isn't much to accomplish stacking in a day, but with the heat, it was a real battle. Stack about 20, take a rest, repeat. Lots of water. Couple trips to the house and sit in front of the air.

It was a hot one.

I'm whooped.

Nice to get some hay in the barn that only got 2 rains on it, 1/4 inch the day after I cut it, and .02 yesterday. Been a few years since I have been able to make ok hay in any quantity, it just rains and rains around here. When it's washed off junk I just round bale those, I have lots of hay sitting around, just not good hay! :) so, I couldn't let it go and risk the rain that's coming tomorrow at noon, despite the bad heat and humidity.

Paul
 
Been about 2 years since I hooked up the NH271 and did any square bales of hay. Now that it is pretty much me and me alone I am not even sure I would even want to try doing any square bales. It would be hard to bale then go and pick them up out of the field then stack them in the loft. I'd catch my self coming and going up to the loft to stack them as I was putting them on the elevator to get them up there. LOL
 
NH 270 here. I bale into a bale basket, the baler pushes the bales up into the triangle shaped basket, holds 80 bales easy, over 100 if I go up and throw a few to the back and rearrange a bit.

That part is easy. Get to the barn, and I have to back up around the silo to the hay now door. My barn is built into a hill, and the upstairs is at ground level on that side. Backing up a baler and a basket is an art of itself....

Then open the basket up, grab a bale, and walk it in the barn and stack it. I stack 4 high across the floor.

When that is done, then I can use a bale elevator and elevate in a hole in the barn wall, and let the bales pile up on what I stacked.

If I don't stack the bottom layers, the bales drop pretty high, could go through the floor or could bust up a lot of bales. As well they don't stack very tight, wouldn't fit so many bales in the hay now.

Using the elevator is a lot easier, only have to sort and carry the bales a couple feet, instead of all the way in and back to the barn.

Of course, on the hot wicked day, I was stacking them inside on foot.....

Back as a kid I kinda enjoyed being on the hayrack stacking. Usually not too bad out in the breezes, and the 270 isn't a terribly fast baler. Then we would push the hayrack load in the hay now, and was often a fairly short walk to stack.

The bale basket is almost exactly the same size as the hay now door, wouldn't hardly fit in and not at all with any bales above the top, and as a one person operation getting it in and out would be nearly as much work as just walking the bales in from the door.

Originally I had hoped I could back the basket in, trip it, and leave a load on the floor, then bale another and stack the bales away the next morning or so. But that didn't work out. Doesn't really fit in the door, and if you open the basket and drive away it makes a rather long pile of bales, not a tight clump.

Still like the basket, it works nice for a one person operation.

Would be nice to have 1000 bales in the barn, handy in bad winter weather and for feeding a few individuals, even sell a few.

Then 600-800 straw bales on the other side.

Paul
 
Back when I was a kid a number of other kids who lived on farm would make tunnels in the hay in the barn as hide outs and places to go to get away from people LOL
 
Well, as an old fat guy, if I don't do the hay I'm likely to get fatter and not much older, so this is kinda my nordictrack machine health care plan. :)

Had it planned out for a two day deal, half one day half the next, but that 1/4 inch of rain messed up the plan, and then the heat indexes of over 100 just made it so extra special.

Haven't even gotten any rain today, could have left some for today, although the temps and humidity are just as bad as yesterdsy so no help there. And we all know what happens if you leave hay an extra day with the weather.....

They just got us along in on the flood watch for over night, 1 to 3 inches of rain with possibly heavier local totals. Only reopened the road from river flooding a few days ago..... it's getting hard to tell what disaster they are warning us about, still have a river flood warning, as well as the new general flood watch, and the great warning kinda overlaps too.

Oh yea. When will this year be over.

Paul
 
3/4 ' s of a century old .......still baling hay...327 JD small square baler with thrower. I have 4 bale throw wagons and can get 3 out of the weather. I work alone , cutting , conditioning if needed ,tedding , raking ,baling , unloading and stacking in barn. Have tried hired help but no matter how much I pay cannot get help to show up second time !

All my hay is sold so cannot be dumped into the barn. Works for me....set my own pace and time.....usually unload in morning when cooler.
 
Send that rain down to me Paul, we need it badly! Did a field Friday that produced 35 4x5 last year, got 8 bales Friday. Just as much work but no production. We got a sprinkle yesterday 78degrees this morning 80 percent humidity, now that is pleasant. I have been suffering this year from nurapothy in my feet and it is a b1tch to say the least, doing good to get in my tractor let alone do square bales.
 
barn is always worse then out in the field.. However I mounted a squirral cage fan from furnace near the top of trusses in my shed it makes a huge difference in temp in shed especially if its plugged in ahead of time...
 

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