Flakes 9 in. thick? 4 flakes/36 in.bale?

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Around here by the river valley, if you miss the dry spell in June and cut late, the hay is very thick. A windrow raked from about 14 ft of tedded out hay has to be baled in first gear and you have to ride the clutch. Sometimes when you hit a big chunk and have to clutch, a bale will come out and plop on top of the last bale to come out.

Bale weight is around 40-50 lb normally. Can be up to 60 lb when pushing the moisture levels when rain is coming. At this weight and 36" the double raked windrows can pop bales out like every 10-15 feet. 100 bales an acre sounds familiar.

That would be 2 - 2.5 tons per acre, similar to what irrigated guys get isn't it? Does alfalfa pack tighter or something? We sell our hay to horse people, they don't like heavy bales and if the slightest bit damp the hay will mold or heat and lose protein in the really tight bales.

Maybe the species of grasses are different? There are some fine/thin grasses here, I think called orchard grass in the US that make really dense bales. It isn't usually baled and only seems to flourish in pasture.

Our land is unirigated, unfertilized, and unlimed, was seeded about 10 years ago, and still produces about 100 bales per acre when cut late.

If we fertilized and limed and reseeded we could get 100 bales/acre in June and 50 / acre again in August.

After being out west this spring I can see why this seems weird, our pasture land likely produces as much grass as some of the hay field there.

On the flip side, it rains all the darn time and is extremely humid. We have 14 hrs of daylight most of the summer too. Ideal grass growing conditions, extremely poor hay harvest conditions.

So yes, if you try and hurry in big windrows here the baler will gobble up hay and stuff 6", 9" etc flakes into the bales.

I suspect adjusting the pickup speed would help stop this but we try to stick to single raked windrows.

Most places in the east are like this, we are bit more so due to a big river next to us and good soil.

Bale weight is around 40-50 lb normally. Can be up to 60 lb when pushing the moisture levels when rain is coming. At this weight and 36" the double raked windrows can pop bales out like every 10-15 feet. 100 bales an acre sounds familiar.

That would be 2 - 2.5 tons per acre, similar to what irrigated guys get isn't it? Does alfalfa pack tighter or something? We sell our hay to horse people, they don't like heavy bales and if the slightest bit damp the hay will mold or heat and lose protein in the really tight bales.

Maybe the species of grasses are different? There are some fine/thin grasses here, I think called orchard grass in the US that make really dense bales. It isn't usually baled and only seems to flourish in pasture.

Our land is unirigated, unfertilized, and unlimed, was seeded about 10 years ago, and still produces about 100 bales per acre when cut late.

If we fertilized and limed and reseeded we could get 100 bales/acre in June and 50 / acre again in August.

After being out west this spring I can see why this seems weird, our pasture land likely produces as much grass as some of the hay field there.

On the flip side, it rains all the darn time and is extremely humid. We have 14 hrs of daylight most of the summer too. Ideal grass growing conditions, extremely poor hay harvest conditions.

So yes, if you try and hurry in big windrows here the baler will gobble up hay and stuff 6", 9" etc flakes into the bales.

I suspect adjusting the pickup speed would help stop this but we try to stick to single raked windrows.

Most places in the east are like this, we are bit more so due to a big river next to us and good soil.