Re: Hay baling game plan help

Posted by JRSutton on July 09, 2015 at 07:15:36 from (96.237.169.35):

In Reply to: Hay baling game plan help posted by Southtowns27 on July 09, 2015 at 05:58:02:

As usual with hay - I think the right answer is "it depends".

It depends on how thick the hay is. Depends on the type of hay. Depends on how wet the ground is, how high your stubble is, wind, humidity, what moisture content you're comfortable with in your final product, what cutting this is.

Very generally speaking - If you're not in arid conditions, 2 days CAN be good, but still wetter than 3 day - and therefore a lot heavier, and a lot more work if any of your processes involve touching the bales, so don't overlook that reality.

When your testing it before baling - be SURE to sample your worst areas as a guide, not the best. Go to the edges. It's easy to walk into the middle of a field, grab a bunch of bone dry papery goodness - start baling and realize when you're done that the other 3/4's of the field was still green.

Here's how I do my wet field that stays wet: First I should say I don't count on the field for a lot of volume, so I don't heavily fertilize it so it doesn't get too thick. It's pure, weed free timothy.

Anyways: Day one morning, cut and follow immediately with tedder to spread the hay out. This gives vastly more surface area to the sun, the grass is least vulnerable to the thrashing at that time since it's all green, AND it helps "crimp" the stalks a little more by thrashing it.

I leave a good 4 to 6 inches of "stubble" to help hold the hay up off the wet ground. (And I'm talking sopping wet ground, splashing with the tedder in many places)

Ted again in the early afternoon.

Day two, ted in the morning while the dew's on the hay. Might ted again in the early afternoon if it's real dry on top and green underneath (which is the norm).

Day three I ted once in the morning - rake noonish-to 3ish - start baling before 5.

If you're trying to cut on day two - just do day three instead of day two.

Local conditions matter of course - I wouldn't bale any later than 5 because the hay starts picking up
moisture from the cooling air. So obviously adjust your second tedding time to give the hay enough drying
time before baling, to justify the second tedding.

If you get that much rain, it sounds like you don't have to worry too much about "beating the goodness out"of the hay by over tedding (within reason).

I should say I'd always go three days in that wet field. So it really depends on how wet your field is.
"Moist" I wouldn't worry too much about, but wet trator tires would make me question the 2 day effort.

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