Hay baling by hand!

What would it cost to have someone mow it or use a sickle bar on it?

It would save you a ton of time and work, and might be worth the price spent.

I think the hand baler ideas would work well for you.

I would look at adding a way to tow the baling contraption with a lawn tractor if you decide to build one.

Clove

How much is your time worth?

find a old horse drawn sickle to cut with you can pull one with a pick up if need be. and if you check out farm auctions you might get lucky enough to find an old allis roto bailer you can drive one with 20-30 HP or an old truck engine and tranny as a stationary bailer .

The thought of trying to cut three acres with a scyth makes my back hurt.
Id get one of those mini sickle brush cutters first or find an old gravely.

with clover if you had a way to sweep it up you could cut it with a riding mower, let it dry and vac it up and bag it . mow it about every two weeks .

And that's if you're lucky enough to not get rain during that time.

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I can't believe I deleted it!

hhmmm... Now is an interesting idea... I do wonder how many goats I would have to hook up to one of them to pull it. I bet I could get by with 4-6.... things to think about

Some of them goats are pretty good sized depending on the breed.
Ive seen the smaller sickles pulled by a team of shetland ponies . Wasn't real fast but they got the job done.
Now see there you could run the roto bailer by putting the goats in a big hamster wheel .
for that matter if you want to make an old style stationary bailer you can attatch the plunger to a cam on the goat wheel .
just have to think out of the box .

keep records of your time inquiring minds wanna know the outcome. it will take you a week to cut that much if not longer if its heavy hay. it will take at least 3 days for it to cure in hot sun, im talking 90 and above. and baling by hand well add another week, i think it will rot before you get it done.

and if you do just a lil section at a time then its gonna go past and wont be worth cutting. maybe you could hire it mowed and go from there that would save you a lot of time. but just MO

better think about hooking up a lot more than 6 goats they are harder to pull than they look. not to bad when not cutting but when you drop them into the hay things chage really fast.

your weather must be friendlier to haymakers than ours. everytime my brother in law tries to make hay, it rains. if i need rain, i ask him to mow, lol. he has equipment and can't get his hay done...i would cut back on the breaks just to be sure, lol.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

someone linked a snathe video recently and the 14 year old girl made real good time with her snathe. i bet you could cut three acres in a day...well she probably could.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

Judgin' from that young feller's watch, looks like bailing recyclables pays pretty well hmmmmmm

donsgal

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Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)

You might try doing an online search at the US Patent Office. Often you can access the original plans and they just might have a hand bailer there.

donsgal

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Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)

Wondering if one could adapt the hydraulics from a log splitter or wool bailer so it wasn't so labor intensive?

I did see one horse drawn sycle mower adapted to be pulled by a riding mower. Worked great for ditches and under fences.

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If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

Maybe I'm such an amateur that I can't imagine it, but I do remember 2 years when we had to do the hay harvest without the big machines for some reason when I was young. We used this giant mower blade looking thing on the back of our mini-tractor and then we just pitched it up into the back of our farm truck later on. Then we just threw it in the hay barn without baling it. It was great fun for us kids because we did the typical "hay diving" until the level got low.

Is that not a good way to store it? Just curious since I am looking at using an empty field near my future home for hay. (negotiating) That would be how I would do it out of necessity and the small size (1 acre).

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Christy
Growing Human
http://growinghuman.blogspot.com

When wearing narrow lenses of hate and ignorance, is it any wonder one finds it difficult to see clearly? - Me

You've gotten some great responses with some very creative ideas and suggestions for things I didn't even know existed! I'm enjoying this thread quite a bit.

I don't have any more suggestions for how to bale by hand but I do have a couple of related comments.


Being a homesteader doesn't necessarily mean doing everything all by your lonesome. Maybe you could plant more than 3 acres to good hay, and then have someone with haying equipment come cut and bale it for you on shares. They keep part, you keep part.

Or if you don't have more than 3 acres to put towards hay, perhaps you could barter goat's milk or goat meat for someone with equipment to cut and bale your hay.

Another thing you could do is try to reduce your dependence on baled hay. I highly recommend Gene Logdson's "All Flesh is Grass". Learn about intensive rotational grazing. With those methods you can keep goats on pasture a LOT of the year, even well into winter.

Gene talks about rotating the animals through small confined areas - better for the pasture, by far, plus reduces disease and parasites. He also sets aside a pasture or two for "stockpiling" where he grows plants that do well in the fall. He lets those pastures get thick and lush and then when winter comes they go dormant and he lets his animals into the "stockpile" lots and doesn't have to provide much hay at all.

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Our homestead-in-the-making: Palazzo Rospo
Eating the dream

I kind of agree with hiring the hay to be baled. I have heard that balers are getting 1.50 a bale for it left in the field. Most have a minimum charge for coming out, and you cannot blame them with the extreme costs of equipment and fuel.

It might be money well spent, even if you only have them mow the hay for you.

Any chance you saw the PBS show about the people that went out and homesteaded in Montana like it was in the 1800's? I kept telling my wife: "Those folks better start putting up hay right now!" The point is that you may be able to start haying right now if you are going to do it by hand.

A little bit or haying each and every day will take a big bite out of your 3 acres.

Another thought, and I have wondered this for a long time: There are those machines that are used for clearing brush. They have a string that runs off of a small engine, and are a bit bigger than a push mower. They work just like a weed eater/string trimmer.

I wonder if either a string trimmer or one of the brush cutters would work well?

Years ago, as a kid, I made small amounts of hay from the tall grass that dad cut down from the fence rows with a weed eater. The grass stalk was long enough, and not shredded up like a regular mower would do.

An enjoyable thread.

Clove

Well you can always build your own old style bailer.
some channel iron for the side compression ,some steel rod for the top and bottom compression, a length of square or rectangle tubing for the piston chamber. a piston can be made from wood and attached to the crank by a push rod. then you put your goats to work in a hamster wheel feed the hay in the hopper drop in a wood bale seperator and push the wires through the grooves tie it off and make another .
Heres a very rough drawing.


I want to make one that will bale 8x8x16 bales or 6x6x12 for the pet stores

I understand that many of you see hiring it as a better alternative. However, that is not the way I will do my hay. I'll do it myself one way or another. The previous thread about scything was very inspiring and I think that is the way i will go when the time comes.

It may be tiring, I'll get over. My back might get sore, it'll get better. Some of my hay might get wet and ruined, not the end of the world...

What confuses me though is WHY people think its better to pay to have it done... Doesn't make sense to me. There has yet to be a GOOD reason for it apart from "worthwhile'ness" of my time. but even that arguement has flaws.

This year i paid 5.75/bale. In my job I make enough per hour to buy 2.33 bales. Surely, there can be no doubt that one can cut and bind MORE than 2.33 bales even if I do it by hand. So! Even using the "worthwhile'ness" of my time arguement, My time is still worth more cutting by hand than it is to pay it done.

I am sorry if this reply comes off as rude, I certainly didn't mean it that way. The point is that I specifically said in the opening thread that I will not pay to have it done. God gave me strong hands and a good back. I'll enjoy my time out in the fields, sweating under the hot sun, providing for my animals so that they can provide for me. And at night I'll gratefully fall into bed tired, but proud about what I accomplished.

I've have never fallen into my bed proud of what I bought...

Clovis that is a very intrigueing design you have... I'll definitely be giving that one some thought when I get around to building a baler/press. One question though, what is the "wooden bale block" and what is it used for? Thanks for the drawing!

Turtle head, I do like your idea about rotational grazing. I'll have to look into that book. I do not currently have the land or pasture available for that system, but Someday hopefully I will. Sounds like the easiest way to go, thats for sure!

At the very end of the pdf is the plan for the baler I have
http://texaspinestraw.tamu.edu/pdfs/...raw805-113.pdf

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!