Haylage

Managed to get my last bit of first cut cleared up yesterday(Tuesday). My 13 yr old daughter and some neighbours wanted some haylage for their horses and ponies, so I left 3/4 acre fertilizer free in the springtime, I mowed 20 ft around the outside for silage and mowed the rest of the field last Tuesday, tedded it on thursday and it would have baled on Friday evening but I could not find a baler that was not busy or broken!. My own baler was stored behind a load of other machinery and I had no time to get it out. We knew it was to rain last Saturday so we rowed it up to keep it from bleaching. It rained some on Monday morning but I turned the rows over on Monday evening and tedded it twice on Tuesday. I rowed it up at 4.00 pm and we started baling at 5,00pm. We had to make the bales heavy for the wrapper and we had 132 bales off the 3/4 acre plot. My old neighbour who done the baling would not use the collector so my 10 yr old son , my Mrs and myself picked up the bales on a buckrake and stacked them for to be wrapped. I don't know if you do this in America, but it is very popular with horse owners over here in the British Isles.
Sam

What do these bales weigh, and how are they to handle after they are wrapped. Never have seen small squares of wrapped hay here in Canada.Bruce

Bruce, my bale lifter is 49 years old and can just about lift them. LOL I can manage them OK. I would guess they are about 100 lbs/50 kilos. They are easier to handle when you have strings to catch, you sort of have to get your arms around them to lift them after they are wrapped......Just a bit like trying to handle my bale lifter!!!!!!
The horse wimmin really like these bales, they sorta roll them to where they want them and then cut the end of the wrap and feed the hay out in wads. Some even tie the wrap closed until they need more! They prefer it over regular hay as it is dust free and it smells great!
Sam

Looks neat, I've never seen small wrapped squares over here (Eastern Canada) either. Can you tell me more about your tedder? I have one almost identical and can't find any info on it? Thanks, Sam

I spent a week in the Cotswalds once and came across a fellow who was baling small rounds and wrapping them for horse people. they were about 60lbs and he had a miniature baler from Italy. I can't see them selling here.

The rake is a JF machine made in Denmark. They were the most popular hay machine over here in the '60s. A good operator could do all sorts with them. These little rakes or Hayflashes as they were called were great for flicking the swathe over the first time after mowing, lower one side and lift the other and they would spread the crop and they weren't bad at rowing it up in front of the baler either.
Sam

You need a Tawi Twin - I think thats the right spelling, it wraps squares as they come out of the baler. Alternates sides to keep a better but still ridiculously slow pace.

What is the moisture on the bales and what kind of small baler can bale high moisture bales?

Thanks. Mine has no markings on it and I"m having terrible trouble finding teeth for it. Sam