Hay and haying equipment

We use a horse pulled mower to mow hay and put it in the barn mow loose not baled. Now the horse is getting old as he is 28 yrs. Bill still uses him to work with but not as much. He got a second hand walk behind mower.It was seized up but free. So he3 fixed it to use. It's motor pulls it along and he guides it. Because our weather is so unpredictable here he only cuts at one time the amount he can rake with a hand rake. He also shakes the hay out and turns it with a hay fork. If it looks like rain he can put the hay on the barn floor and bring it out on a fine day to finish drying. If you only have a few animals to put hay up for the walk behind mower, a hay fork and hand hay rake is all you need along with muscle power. Not costly at all but labor intensive.

THe baler you used was probably an AC Roto Baler. That might have been why they were so tough to handle. Thmy baler bales really tight roles. they are a little harder to handle but not much. THey dont stack well THey do but have to have scotched on the end. I bale mostl for a friend that has a tub grinder for feed. He chunks it all in string an all. I did 50 bales last year at autumn for 8 dollars a bale for decoration. One lady I baled mint for her goats like the round bales bacuse they had to eat from one end.

As for the dump rake you canfind them around here still in hedge rows and such. THe baler can be found as a chinese and indian copy as well fairly cheap. MIne was just luck I happened on. I have a friend that imports used japanese machinery. He thinks that he can bring them in pretty cheap.
Mr. Jims Aframe was a Cabin he had built when he first moved tere to that place. Then used it as a goat barn and later hay barn. His dump wagon was an old silage wagon he cut the sides off of. THe baler pick up on the front loaded it and when it was full he drove it to the barn and used the silage wagon chains to unload it. It worked great. He could stack it almost like a cotton module.

It was a fair amount of work to build what he built but he worked alon and enjoyed it. He had about 5 cows and a few horses and about 75 goats.

We are lucky in that we have a great neighbor that will bale our hay on a 50/50 split or he charges a buck a bale (square bales). His haying equipment is of 1940s and 50s vintage but it works great. We would love to have our own equipment but just cant justify the cost for our small 7 acre pasture.

But I am with FarmboyBill on the 250 bales off of 2 acres; that must be some extremely impressive pasture to get that much. Last year we got 390 square bales off of our 7 acres on the first cutting and it was extremely lush and in good shape. This year is our last year before the next liming and fertilizing and with the crazy weather we will be lucky to see 250 bales.

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www.salmonslayer-simplelife.blogspot.com

our family friend bought a bailer for 150, haybine for 300, rake for 175, and tedder for 275. the bailer and hay bine came from a recently widowed woman who wanted rid of everything it was a squarebailer.

yeah Trav, but was the bailer any good??

it was about 7 or 8 years ago yeah the bailer was in perfect working order. we had to adjust the knotters and the pick up had broken and had been welded in place but it worked perfect

Shame they don't sell these for $5-6K:

http://www.agriquip.com/star/mrb.html

Would seem to be the answer for small places, but they're just too expensive...

Well trav, I hafta say it. Im amazed. I have a Case 1960 140 W that the wire wraps around the bill hooks for whatever reason, and I cant find anybody ANYWHERE, includeing YT FORUMS that knows anything about it. It used to be a perfect bailer when I bought it. Its an engine baler with a 4 cyl air cooled Case engine setting sideways on it. Thats the main reason I like it, with my CC Case, or H Farmall its just perfect, but the dang thing wont tie. I cant figure how to get at the hooks to replace them. The rods their on have score marks near the hooks where the wire has wrapped and rubbed for so many times. I had found that if I swabbed the rods with Never Seeze that it would bale round 50 bales before missing again, but thats a pain.

How about this one? Baling with a hay sweep. It's loose stacked hay using a tractor.

That was great for me Callie. Liketa never came back outa there lol.. As to the hay sweep way of putting up hay, I didnt see the purpose of putting his little tinker toy JD lawn tractor on a sweep, AND, I know from experience that you cant just pile on the stack and thats it. If the center isnt packed down good and hard/tight, then it will shrink and turn/look like a volcano, and that will catch rainwater, and rot the entire stack. Found that out the hard way, cause we used the hay loader and then forked it onto the stack. First X &n me. If anybody watched those 2 guys pitching on the hay rack off of the loader, Its a wonder one didnt fork the other, as close together as they were. When We did it, one would stay as close to one end at the back of the rack and the other, the other end. That way we was as far away from each other as the rack was wide. Then, we would let the loader bring down so much and then we both would fork it from both sides and pitch it forwards and try to build the front and bring it back. We would decide if one side or the other needed a load and when it was time pitch it to whichever side needed it. When the load came back to where we were standing, we would step around mid way up the rack, and then let it drop down the back and guide it as needed to fill in the sides. When I did it, it seemed like there were 2 windrows comeing up the loader at the same time. Sure made one, OR 2 work. I used an IHC loader the first time I did it. Now I have a NI loader that ive yet to use.

We make our own hay but couldn't justify the equipment just for my animals. We don't do much custom work because we have to get our good fields up and in the barn for our cattle,and horses. We do round rolls and square bales. My own 30 acres we don't cut we use it as pasture. I think it would be hard to pay for equipment with just cutting hay for a few animals not to mention there is alot of upkeep and fixing. you have to be a bit mechanical to keep the equipment up even/especially the newer stuff.

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Chris
http://aberryvinefarm.blogspot.com/

I wonder if he was storing that hay for winter? or was he just cutting and lett them eat it. The #2 video had some cows standing IN the stack. Also - where did he live - some places don't get much rain. Or maybe he was going to tarp it or something? Why not pack it down with the sweep? or a bucket loader? I'm going to start another thread about making a hay stack....I am not sure how to do that. DH is interested in learning about putting up our hay that way. We though of packing it, then putting an tarped A-frame over it. Maybe just putting a gate in the front and feeding from that end so forking it isn't a huge problem either.

Please read the other posting about hay. That way I wont have to give my advice twice.

Chris, I grew up with a dad who didnt know nothing machanically. so he couldnt teach me anything about machanics. My brother learned more than 2 general type farmers, while I learned nothing. Well, I moved down here in Okieland, and after a few years knew that I was going to have to be my own machanic if I wanted to get anything built and accomplioshed here on my farm. S L O W L Y, kicking and whineing all the way, I became a proificent machanic on all but engines. I recently bought a stuck JD A and a video on how to take it apart. I picked a JD A for 2 reasons. #1, They have hundred and more parts less than a 4 or bigger cy; tractor, #2 Cause that was what we had on the farm when I was growing up, and I miss that 2 cyl sound and I wanted to get one before they were all gone.

Point is. If your a farmer, and not a machanic, youve hindered your growth, and you become dependant on somebody else, and there time. Im that way now with a neighbor who does all my automotive work, and I hate it. I likely will never be completly free from him, but Im trying to get that way as much as possible.

I agree farmboybill you have to be your own mechanic or it isn't cost effective. We have newer and older equipment. The newer tractors are like cars and designed so you have to pay someone to replace some of the components or go to school to learn how. If there is a manual I can usually figure it out. We don't live in farm country so it is hard to find someone locally to work on stuff or even get parts, which should be taken into consideration when buying machinery. We do sell lots of hay all over Ga. so we can pay a bit to get some of the parts and service we cannot do ourselves. If I can learn to do it anyone can.

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Chris
http://aberryvinefarm.blogspot.com/

Im like you in that I cant work on new stuff, and barly on old tractors. Thats why I have them. I can manage with my grandads 34 CC Case, and my 48 H Farmall and 50 Demonstrator Cub, Well, forget the Cub. I cant work on it LOL. The smaller they get, the more finiky they get, and the smaller their tolorances for varying.

Callie, pardon my ignorance, I like going into your u tube of haying and just wondering around. Can u tell me why, sometime it just plays and plays, but most time it has to rewind a minute at least foe 3 sec play time??