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Hay Time
William81
Member Posts: 25,332 ✭✭✭✭
Just getting started…..
All 16 acres are finished now !!!
Comments
Where is the hay? All I see is a green monster, chasing a tractor!
.
Better than a John Deere 1530 and a sickle bar mower
cut some today also
I've done it with a pitch fork and a wagon……..Then it still had to go into the barn. We smelled good, but boy did we itch!
I rolled up our first 2024 bales today. Spent most of last week refurbing the disc mower. Dragged the baler home from the north farm where it's stored 11 months of the year, greased it, gave the chains a liberal spray of chain lube, and made a start on baling. Since I'm mostly working alone, I don't get too wild about having lots of bales per day—just keep chugging along. If I only get 25-30 big bales, that's OK. No need to beat myself up to get finished in shortest possible time. If there's rain in the forecast, I'll just wait for it to pass and go again when the forecast is clear.
Been in hay for the last two weeks. If the weather holds out should be done by Friday.
I helped a few times many years ago no fun and hot
Best of luck to you
Please be care full
In the news Tonight not far from us
A farmer lost his life bailing hay olny stated it involved farm equipment
Not a lot of details but he was only 38
A couple years ago a guy got caught in his round baler and ended up rolled in the bale of hay. Not far from JimDeere.
That is one job I do not miss.
Loading square bales onto the wagon and throwing them into the hay loft on the hottest day of the year.
That job would kill me today.
Even picking them up would do me in now days it sucks getting old but still better on this side of the grass
I loaded square bales in western Idaho on a dairy farm. Alfalfa bales, believe it or not 95 pounds a piece. My partner and I put a thousand in the barn per day. Good God.
After 12 hours of that I didn't need to go to the gym.
That guy was my wife's cousin.
Joe
Every summer from about 5 on I helped put up around 7000 square bales of hay, around 5 acres of tobacco, a lot of fencing and worked part time helping my dad build houses/barns for people.
I hear they're going to outlaw round bales.
Cows can't get a square meal.
🤣
I just lost my cud all over my keyboard with that one @jimdeere ! 🤣
Should have been killed many times mowing and baling hay on steep ground many years ago. Started out riding the back if the hay rake, boy was ever dusty. When he started baling, using a real tractor, I would walk behind the baler and keep the balers from rolling down hill into next windrow.
This was back in the early 60's and no such thing as a round baler.
Dad bought a baler with it's own engine and thought he could pull it with a jeep. That did not pan out too well. He did use a buck rake on the jeep to push hay off the hills down to baler and we fed it into to the machine. He even went around the community baling haystacks for folks.
For some reason unbeknown to me is that hay has to be put up in the hottest time of they year.
Last but not least, I mowed, raked and baled hay on ground so steep I won't hardly walk on it now. Hills must be getting steeper.
I have some fairly steep hay ground. In fact, I didn't start baling one field until I gave up livestock and just needed some income from the acres. I don't run across the slope but bale up and down the hill. When the baler is full, I have to drive to either the top or bottom to drop the bale. Last year, a slight miscalculation of slope and angle allowed a bale to run away barely missing a stock water tank and jumping a fence. A row of bales beyond the fence stopped the runaway before it launched itself into a deep gully.
Back in the early 50's I use to ride the hay rake for my Great Uncle Jake. His old JD with the fly wheel on the side that you stick your fingers in and give it a spin to start it broke down. He quick ran to Grandpa's house and hooked up his 50 Ford flathead to the rake. We got in bottom land and ragweed got wrapped around drive shaft and smoke everywhere. Uncle Jake gave me his Case and I crawled under Ford and cut the ragweed out. Darn near killed me as I was allergic to ragweed. Sure was hot sitting in that metal seat and pulling that lever every so often. ————————————-Ray
^^^😎
I've been baling the hay on the farm where I live since 1967. 30' from where I sit right now was the first windrow I baled 100% on my own. In fact, I'm still using two of the tractors I used back then.
Son and Grandson help me when they can but it's still mostly just me and the equipment. The equipment does the heavy work and I just steer and pull the levers.
I do use a newer tractor with A/C and the baler has a digital console telling me/it what to do which makes things much easier for my poor, stiff neck.