putting up loose hay? modern way

JD2ACWD · Mar 26, 2016

Anybody put up loose hay,I've seen some Amish doing it the old way,is there a more modern way? show some pix if you do. thanks

Bob Collins · Mar 26, 2016

We put up a small amount of loose hay each year, at first we pitched it onto a wagon with a 3 tine fork and unloaded it the same way. Then we got more "modern" and use a McCormick- Deering cylinder style hay loader, still put it in the mow with a hay fork. Can't imagine a more modern way than that! LOL

farmerwithmutt · Mar 26, 2016

When I cut the grass put the collector on the mower and toss it over the fence. I heard you can make silage that way by using garbage bags.
Also mow the yard by rotational grazing and poly wire

coshoo · Mar 26, 2016

If you're in dry country, you could probably pick up a Hesston Stakhand for a song (and sing it yourself). Google it.

Ken Macfarlane · Mar 26, 2016

self loading wagons are used in parts of Europe to do dry hay. They were later adapted with knives on the pickup and beefed up parts to do silage which is now far more common. The newest wagons are monster units with 300+ hp tractors up front to drag them around.

rrlund · Mar 26, 2016

I don't,but there's something called a beaverslide.

sd pete · Mar 26, 2016

We used to pile loose hay in the field with a F 10 Farmhand. A more modern way would be a Hesston stacker or the JD copy.

teddy52food · Mar 26, 2016

Anybody got the link to the lady hay stacker?

Mel in SW Iowa · Mar 26, 2016

In the late 50's, early 60's, we put up loose hay in outdoor stacks using a JD B or 530, a New Idea loader, and a steel stacker head that was about 10' wide, teeth about 8' long, that we picked up hay out of a double raked windrow until it was full. Then it was lifted 3 or 4' off the ground and carried to the stack site. When you started a stack, you stopped the tractor, lowered the stacker to the ground, backed up leaving the hay on the stack site and went after the next load of hay. After stacking the first layer by approaching from all directions to lay out the size of stack you needed, you started on the second and succeeding layers by tripping the stacker head with a rope. The stacker head would pivot at the mounting point and drop enough for the hay to slide off of it as you built up higher layers. The stack had to be topped out here in SW Iowa with tar paper or plastic under the last layer to minimize rainwater damage. Mel

brutus49DC · Mar 26, 2016

There's still some loose hay put up in western SD and Nebraska and other area's. If topped right it keeps pretty well. Hesston stackers were not good for alfalfa around here. When you got it dry enough to keep the stacker would pound all of the leaves off. I have a picture of my CC Case with a Jayhawk stacker on it. Farmhand and Dual loaders were popular for putting up hay. Some also used Haybuster stackers but I haven't seen one for awhile.

curtkeiser · Mar 26, 2016

I have put a lot of hay with a Hesston. Dirty, hot job without air conditioned tractor. Haybuster handle alfalfa with less leaf separation a stood up to wind better.

rotten robert · Mar 26, 2016

We stacked a lot of loose hay back in the 50's and 60's with a Farmall H and a Farmhand F10 loader. Went to bales and brought them into the stack or loaded on a truck with the same rig. That same loader went through the Farmall H' an MH44 and and a Frmall MTA diesel. Finally went to a Hesston Stack Hand in 1972 and had the mover and feeder also.

Dick2 · Mar 26, 2016

We put up loose hay until Dad bought a Case wire tie baler in 1947. Dad had an "overshot stacker" that my Grandpa had designed and made that worked pretty good. I started driving a team of horses on the stacker when I was 6 years old. Dad would bring the bucker of loose hay to the stacker, back the bucker out and leave the hay on the stacker teeth. I would drive the team and pull the hay up and over to drop it on the other side. My two older brothers forked the hay around to keep the stack level.

In the winter, we went out with a team and sled with a hay wagon on it. We used a hay knife to cut down through the hay as we loaded the hay on the sled wagon. Putting up loose hay was a slow, labor intensive project. Some companies made stack forms that a loader could drop the loose hay into to form a stack; less labor but not a great way to stack hay.

There have been technical advances over the years in putting up hay, but I kind of have the feeling that we're still searching for a better way to put up hay - and it hasn't arrived yet!

JimS · Mar 26, 2016

I ensiled oat hay cutting it green and putting it in 55 gallon drums (I got a jillion of them free from the local wineries before they found a market for them). I also used to ensile brewer's waste the same way.

Dairies around here ensile in open pits. I am not sure how it is done. I know they dig a pit, usually on a hill side to keep water out, put the cut grass in, compact it with the tractor, and cover it with plastic or tarps. If anything more is done, I am unsure.

It was interesting to note that when I put up loose hay (I would simply cut and stack), the cattle preferred the loose hay to all other types of hay. Good baled alfalfa was passed by for medium to low quality loose hay.

72supr · Mar 26, 2016

We stacked our hay till about 81 with a 520 JD and F10 loader.Use to run a stackmover and hauled hay for a guy that put up the best looking prairie hay stack around without a cage.Neighbor north of us here still stacks his hay as well. Oh, I got that 520JD from my Dad it's a sweet little tractor.

Ray IN · Mar 26, 2016

We used to fill the barn with chopped loose hay and feed about 50 head of beef cows through the winter. It was probably at least a hundred wagon loads. Blew it in the barn with a hay blower which is like a silage blower only with a bigger pipe. It was easier than lifting bales, but still a lot of hand labor to unload out the back of a silage wagon wagon and get it in the blower. Had one front unloading silage wagon, and that one was much easier to put up.

Jerry/MT · Mar 26, 2016

In the Little Blackfoot River country of Western Montana they still put it up this way. It"s on US 12 between Garrison and Helena, MT.

jwal10 · Mar 26, 2016

Dad put his hay up with the silage equipment, cut, raked and then chopped it with chopper into silage wagon, then blew it into the barn with silo blower. The barns were old houses that he built gambrel roofs on and a shed on 3 sides. He used cables to tie the walls together. He cut holes in the walls for the cows and sheep to eat from. Just had to pitch it to the walls. He did have to walk the loads to get more in. These old house walls were just 2-1"x12" boards half lapped vertically. He cut the holes with a chainsaw. Worked for him....James

Bill in Colo · Mar 26, 2016

I did hay with a IH"M" with a Farmhand F10D still have the tractor with the loader on it, put up loose hay until 1982,did about 100 ton the rest we baled and used a NH 1049 balewagon to stack. From experience cost of equipt to hay with loose is low but fuel and labor costs are much higher than baling and stacking with a stacker.

Little Ed · Mar 26, 2016

You tube Girl Pitchforking Hay Don't know how to link it.

notjustair · Mar 26, 2016

By the time I came along we had moved to trench silo. We ensiled sedan grass. I grew up in western Kansas so we didn't have a hill - our pit was basically two hills that had straight inner walls and the silage went in between them. It was kind of nice because packing silage meant never leaving the forward gear. Over the hill, whip a turn, and go back over the mound.

Bret4207 · Mar 27, 2016

I know one guy that stored chopped hay, the laziest man I ever knew. That's the "modern way" of storing loose hay in the wetter parts of the nation.

putting up loose hay? modern way

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