Posted: 6/29/2017 10:50:22 PM EDT
[#17]
I can't answer all of this, and my experience is from long ago, so may not be relevant to your interests, but I will share because it's fun to remember.
Quote History Quoted:
Can those of you that make hay explain the process for those of us that don't have any experience with it? If this is too much of a thread jack then never mind, but I think it fits.
Some questions I have are:
What kind of equipment do you use?
We used a "mowing machine"--it was a single long blade with power-driven knife-edges that was dangerous as hell. It was a sickle mower that used PTO power to move the blades and...I don't remember what powered the angle/height of the blade from the ground. I wish I had one today. Very useful for mowing banks, stuff like road sides and ditches, because you can drive along and the blade can cut at any number of weird angles, without the tractor having to drive over the sloped ground. (okay does that make sense?)
Here is a video of one being used.
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Do you use a tedder?
never heard of a tedder until I had moved to the western part of the state..
Do you use a swather/windrower and if so why did you decide on that instead of tractor pulled implements?
We used what was then called a "hay rake" and it did pick up the hay and put it into windrows. This fluffed up the hay somewhat, but mostly it was about putting the hay into the windrows for purposes of realistically picking it up with the baler, without running over it and destroying most of it in the process. You could drive along beside the windrow with the tractor and feed it right into the mouth of the baler without running over it. Edited to add: There was sort of an art to knowing when to do what. You wanted the hay to lay on the ground for a day or so, to dry in place, THEN it got raked, into windrows, then it would lie on the ground for another day or so (ideally) before baling. This allowed it to dry sufficiently, but not too much. The possibility of rain was always the big deal. You had to time it so that you got your hay cut, raked, and baled with enough "dry" time before you put it in the barn. Farmers often got their hay wet, and that decreased the quality, even if you let it dry out some before you baled it. Sometimes they'd rake it a second time, to fluff it up, after it got rained on. Wet hay was never a good thing. It would mold. It would ferment in the bales. It would also catch on fire and burn your barn down.
How to rake hay the 1960s way!
See how he drives beside the windrow and picks up the hay? This is the same baler we had, pretty much.
John Deere 5095M with New Holland hayliner 268
So a skilled farmer knows how to approach the field after the cut, rake the hay into windrows without running over it in the process, then pick it up, so the hay never gets damaged by the weight of the equipment running over it.
What kind of hay do you make and why?
We made square bales (cuz that's all anybody made at that time---round bales came about during my school years.) Ours was fescue, or sometimes orchard grass. Sometimes it was a fescue/clover combo.
Do you make hay to feed your own animals or to sell to other livestock operations?
Feeding own animals.
If you make hay for your own animals, how does it fit into your feeding program?
The hay was mainly for beef cattle, and it was their primary feed in the wintertime.
How many cuts do you get a year?
We got two. But the spring/early summer cut was the heavy one, and made the most hay.
How often do hay fields need to be reseeded?
Good management used to go a long way toward making reseeding a rare event. Regular liming and fertilizer applications, where we were, and keeping the grass healthy enough to choke out the weeds, was the way my dad managed it. Good management meant you did not overgraze, when the cattle were on the grass, and you kept the grass healthy so there was more grass than weeds. Of particular interest to you might be that there was no synthetic chemical weed control application happening at that time, on most farms around us. It was all about managing the grass to good effect. I remember my dad having to renovate a pasture or two maybe once in the 20 years I was at home. That was after Johnsongrass became a serious problem.
Do you make small squares, big squares or round bales? Round bales and small squares are the only ones I've ever seen, so how big is a big square and why aren't they more popular?
Big squares have just arrived in our area. I know little about them. My guess (and it's only a guess) is that they're not more popular because it takes time for farmers to wear out equipment and decide to invest in new. Farmers who grow only grain....they get big grants and can buy new combines. Farmers who do not grow grain usually are the ones (around here) who raise cattle and hay. Those farmers are usually on the low end of the farm income in this area. (This is not huge feed lots like you see out west. We don't have many of those around here.)
Why do you make the bale type you do?
That's all anybody made back then. The round bales came when I was a young teenager. They caught on quickly because the idea was that you could leave them outside. My dad eventually chose to sell the baler and hire out the baling to people with a round baler. He stored a few in the barn, but most stayed outside. The quality of the hay was far lower with the bales stored outside, usually, but the cost of labor was increasing. It made less sense to square bale and haul and put up in a barn, unless you were growing alfalfa, which was high-end because the fancy horses demand it. (I love me some fancy horses, but we didn't own any fancy ones.)
How long does hay stay good for if it is stored out of the weather?
" Good" is too broad. When I was a girl, hay was good for "a couple of years," for anybody who cared much about quality. There was a lot of much older hay stacked in barns, and it got fed. But with each passing season, it deteriorated.
But in my early teen years, the analysis of hay for quality and nutrient value became a thing. The think tank universities learned how to really understand hay in that period. So....while farmers like my dad were harvesting good hay based on instinct (some were good at it and put up good hay, others got to it when they got to it and it was not much more than straw, as far as nutrient value), the "science" of hay came along and you could KNOW EXACTLY when you needed to cut, rake, bale, and how long you could store it based on how dry (or not) it was. It deteriorates over time, like any dried, stored product. Hay used to be considered bad only if it got moldy. Now the hay can be judged based on its actual nutrient content, and educated farmers know what they're looking at.
So "good" is too broad a word to get much of an answer.
Can you feed it five years from now?
yeah.
Will the animal eat it?
Maybe. Depends on the animal and how hungry he/she is.
That's about all I can think of at the moment
Not much useful in here for the modern farmer, but it was fun remembering. Hopefully you'll get more modern answers from some of the guys here who still cut hay. View Quote
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