Anybody put up any amount of acreage of hay loose?

The only thing I couldn't do now, at 70, that involved serious physical effort was the actual process of getting the horses actually harnessed. Work horse harness is heavy, horses are big ... and I'm 5' tall. Once the horses are harnessed, driving a working team isn't any more physically demanding than doing haying or fieldwork with a small tractor.

As far as needing lots of people to do it, I know for a fact that my grandparents hayed with horses with no extra help. The two girls helped when they were growing up but after they were both gone, my grandparents did it themselves. The most people I can ever remember being in the hayfield during haying, actually working, was three ... one on the buckrake and two on the stack

Well, Im not going to use horses, which puts me only on the tractor.
Problem is, My bailer is so old, nobody alive knows anything about my bailer and why it continues to wrap wire around the bill hook shafts. I dont want to, at my age invest in another bailer, and I was just looking at the prospect of putting up the hay loose.

In our area there are plenty of guys who will cut rake bale or roll your hay for cash, or shares of the hay. This of course varies with areas so I have no idea if thats a valid option for you or not.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Are you putting it in a barn or building a stack outdoors? I have seen a sling built on the wagon bed and a rope run up over the stack and the whole load "tipped" off the wagon bed. That hay loader will be the ticket for loading. I see no problem using it except maybe if the hay is really long or you have to rake it many times and it gets too tangled up. Still will be a lot of work as you need to "build" a stack to shed rain, if outside. To get it out of the stack, just dig it out or use a hay knife....James

Yvonne. Yeah there maybe still somebody round who has a square bailer. Dont know now who it would be. When there were many of them, before I had my own bailer, Id have to kiss there ___ to get them to come here. Never did get one. Thats why I bought my own bailer. Wont try to find anyone now.
jwal10 I havnt got a barn, so it would be in a stack. Its pararie hay. Thought bout setting 4 posts 10ft above ground 16ft apart in a square. Running 4 cattle pannels around it, then laying another 4 against those, and wireing them at the tops. the raiseing them one at a time and propping them up against the poles and wireing them to the posts also. That would make a wall 10ft high.16ft sq.

As a kid we had a wheel driven hayloader with hay wagon following.
A small farmall tractor pulled it after the horse was retired.
Block and tackle was used to offload the hay with a big iron hay fork with 2' long prongs which you push into the hay hard and set to lock
hold of a load. We then used a car or truck or tractor to pull the the load toward the barn ceiling.
The Block and tackle hanging from the barn ceiling which the fork was attached to was offset from the wagon by 10-15' .
The hay bin was probably 25-30' deep. Another block and tackle was attached to the barn wall or beam down lower i think.
When the hay got high enough you would pull the trip rope and whoosh !
It took three people to do the offloading.one just for signaling and hollering whooooa.
Before the hayloader we would pitch it into the wagon by hand.
We often jumped from great heights in to the hay bin. Crazy kids.

I think we hayed about 5 acres.

Dump raked windrows, sometimes both ways to make piles for hand forking before the loader.

Woodsy, When I made loose hay, the wagon was behind the tractor and THE LOADER followed. When I put it up in bales and used the loader, it mounted to the front side of the hay rack. My first job at grandpas was pulling the trip rope as u describe. Whoever had built the farm put a long hog house around 18ft from the barn, so he couldnt use an elevator. Anyway, grandpa would run the team. His nephew fresh from Korea run the forks. Dad and uncle Milt was in the barn stacking. Anyway, to make sure the rope didnt slip through my hands, and maybe, so I thought, the hay go out the back end of the barn, and then id be in ALOT of trouble, and also to show them I could do the job assigned me. So I wrapped it 3 or 4 times around my hands and waited. Soon the hay went up and into the barn. Bout that time I went up the side of the wagon and hit the barn wall. Grandpas nephew raised me up with one hand and jerked the rope . After that, I kept the trip rope as far away from me as possible. I was afraid that it would get wrapped around my feet and id go up the barn wall upside down lol

Later, Wilbur did the forks and tripped the rope, and grandpa quit useing the team on the rope and used his JD A. I would follow and unhook the rope when the load was tripped. He would wait a bit until the roap had went back to the barn. Then he would back up and Id hook him up again.

Hmm, maybe the loader did trail the wagon, its been so long and my memory is getting short.

That was a good description you gave of how the hay fork was operated.

That sounds doable. Do they put anything down on the ground under the hay or just lose the bottom parts? Does loose hay stay green? anyway to use the tractor bucket to pack the hay? how do you know how tight to pack it?

We had a hay fork for getting hay in the loft as a kid. Dad would stack six small round bales on it. A sister, behind the barn, would pull the fork up with a very heavy rope via several pullies and the tricycle tractor. When the load got where dad wanted it dumped, he would pull the trip rope and drop the bales. The rest of us got to stack them while he readied the next load up. We put up 100's of bales a year this way. It was a rite of passage when dad let us kids get the hay into the loft on our own while he baled. I always wanted the one sister's job that got to pull with the older tractor. She said it was very boring going forward and then backing up again - not letting the rope get tangled under the wheels, not going to fast or too slow, trying to stop exactly when yelled at....I think she got off pretty lucky compared to being in the loft.

I can see how you could easily do this with loose hay.

if you have a front end loader on your tractor you can rig a hay fork pretty easily to handle the hay both to and from the stack. I dont have any pics, and I dont do drawings but if you can visualize a tined bucket.... similar to a manure bucket only wider and with longer tines, and a pivoted "arm" that is hydraulically operated over the top of the load of hay. With this rig you could simply drive along straddling the windrow, scooping up a serious wad and then lock it down with the top arm, lift and move it to the wagon, dump and repeat. When your wagon is loaded, hook it to tractor and take to barn or possibly even stack outdoors in your climate, unload the hay with the same rig and put it where you want it. Feeding is trickier. You first need a hay knife to cut off sections from the stack. once you have a "chunk" however your front loader can move it to wherever the cow is hungry.

P.S. I happen to have a pretty good square baler I no longer use. its a new holland 271 (I think) I personally guarantee it will bust the first two bales every time it sets for more than a month, but kicks in and does good after that. I would be happy to sell it to you for whatever scrap price per pound is if you would be willing to come and pick it up. I am in south central Ky, so the freight alone may make that not worth the effort to you but its here if you want it.

awww heck, I been thinkin... just bring me a jug, I will share it with ya when ya get here and help ya load the baler!



This is it about 3 years ago, while I had it in the shop giving it a facelift. I used it that season, and it has set ever since.

__________________
"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

I would put brush or scrap pallets down first. Hay on that, and just walk it down to pack it. once the pack gets past the top of the ring, it should hold its shape fairly well. But round off the top or it will catch water.

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Home is the hunter, home from the hill, and the sailor home from the sea...

This may be of interest. http://www.onescytherevolution.com/1...haystacks.html Looks possible, especially his Pyramid-framed Haystack at the end of the article.

HB Dawgs I wish you were ALOT closer. Looks like a fine bailer. Hope somebody close to u sees it and wants it.

Do you keep packing as it gets above the ring? Is there a size of stack that works best?

i missed sumpyhin. what ring?

I think they are talking about one of those round feed rings used for the hay rolls. When we stacked chopped hay we used a section of lathe fence in a similar fashion. We would set it up in a circle about twenty feet in diameter, as the hay was brought in and blown into the circle it could be stomped tight to form a stack. done correctly it worked fairly well, but it was dangerous if it wasnt packed properly. stacks would settle and could collapse pretty easily. With loose hay most folks just started piling on the ground, and keep stomping and tromping as hay is added. It takes some practice to build a straight stack!

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

I've lived on a couple of ranches that still put up stacks as opposed to bales. They don't use horses anymore, though.

It's mowed down with a sickle bar mower, raked with a dump or wheel rake swept over to the stacker with hay sweeps (which is a tractor with a multi-tined fork-lift type of assembly that has been mounted on the back. It then runs backwards) and the stacker is usually an overshot stacker.

So far as acreage? Beats me. Probably around a thousand on each place...

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Seems to me a modified version of the European tripod haymaking method could be made using cattle panels to hold the stacks, with air drying inside. This would be a weatherproof system for a couple of people to do on small acreage. The hay is put up wilted, but dries by air circulation from underneath, as it is draped over the cattle panels, sort of like Quonsut hut style....Would require the sickle bar mower, a dumprake on a three point hitch, and a front end loader with buckrake attachment.(Or lots of Amish kids...) The steel posts holding up the cattle panels would serve as rakers to allow the hay to slip off the buckrake and drape over the cattle panels, with another person shaping and packing at ground level. Tarps and electric fence would allow self feeding and feedlot storage until needed.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=...d4c53375cf906e

http://www.scytheconnection.com/adp/hay/turner.html

http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm...turner2ch5.htm

The last website shows a similar system like I'm suggesting

geo

What I was calling a ring would be cattle panels tied in a circle as big around as you wanted the stack to be... and yes, the stack needs to be packed clear to the top. Just the cap should be left looser. Even it needs to be settled with the back of a hay fork. Tried several versions of the tripod in AK. What worked best for me was 3 or 4 tripods in line with a sort of ridgepole down the length. Had to keep the footprint narrow due to wet summers.

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Home is the hunter, home from the hill, and the sailor home from the sea...