Got Hay Fever Alredy, Testing DK50

[whitmerlegacyfarm]

I really got hay fever already and i still have 6 months till Hay Making time. I just recently got a lot of older used hay equipment. I will be using my DK 50 HST for the whole process more then likely on my 10 ac. Also helping a neighbor on roughly 25 ac. Which he will be using his tractors also. I ran my DK 50 this year for making a little hay w/ a 2nd and 3rd cutting. This is all new to me and i just can't stop thinking about next year.

This is the list of equipment i got so far in the last few months. New Holland 1469 SP Haybine , NH 479 Haybine, NH 68 Hayline, NH 269 Hayliner, NH 56 rake, and a H&S 8 Tedder. All totaling $3400. I think i did pretty good reason i i ended up with an extra baler the SP haybine was 269 was only 400 bucks w/ a kicker and SP haybine was only 500.

Just wondering if any other Kioti owners love making hay w/ there Kioti's. I would like to consider a bigger tractor if we make a few extra bucks on the hay from my neighbors property. Hoping to get 2500 bales or so off his 25 ac in first cutting duno if that will happen or not. They took 200 big squares first cut last year i'm not sure but was told that's like 3k in small bales.

This is all new to me so im in for a big learning experience but i think i can handle it. I know i'm just rambling on but just nice to hear from ya all.

Happy New Years to All

 

[creekbend]

I don't own a Kioti. I am just taking the time to wish you the best in your endeavor.:tractor:

 

[Billys Goat]

Congratulations ! I am interested in hearing about your progress and results as I have a DK55 sitting on my dealers lot that I will pick up sometime after the 5th of January. I am having a WR Long Grapple & Third Function Valve added for the added step of land clearing before I can make hay so I may have a field planted before the snow flies in 2012. Best of luck, keep us posted on your progress.

 

[zzvyb6]

Well I'm jealous of the 1469. That's a lot of fun to operate. If you just want to relax some of that hay energy, now is the time to check tires, pins, dirt, wear, chains, sprockets, teeth, cutter bars, tines, wheel bearings, gearbox oil levels and driveline wear.

Yes you can wait until the day before to repair it, but now is a good time to start making a list of things to do.

If you are still itchy, start looking for a NH Stackliner (1010 or 1012, etc.). And hay customers, too ! Believe me, I know the feeling you have. It started in me ~25 years ago and only gets better. The one thing I wish I had done was to document the 'lessones learned' every year so I could read it over at the beginning of the next season. Machinery clues, mowing direction, raking single double or triple windrows, which fields dry faster, which tire has a slow leak, tractor hitch position, 'need to add hydraulic baler tongue swing cylinder' kind of notes, etc..

 

[whitmerlegacyfarm]

Congratulations ! I am interested in hearing about your progress and results as I have a DK55 sitting on my dealers lot that I will pick up sometime after the 5th of January. I am having a WR Long Grapple & Third Function Valve added for the added step of land clearing before I can make hay so I may have a field planted before the snow flies in 2012. Best of luck, keep us posted on your progress.

Billys Goat, you DK55 is a whole different class of tractor if i remember correctly, now that i'm getting into the hay making i kinda wish i would of got the DK55. I am very happy with my DK50 so far but lookin forward to puttin it to the test this next summer. I think i will just wait to see how next year goes and look into getting something bigger but older. Hopfully have a successful year and sell a few thousand bales of hay lol. Keep me posted on your DK 55 then.

 

[whitmerlegacyfarm]

Well I'm jealous of the 1469. That's a lot of fun to operate. If you just want to relax some of that hay energy, now is the time to check tires, pins, dirt, wear, chains, sprockets, teeth, cutter bars, tines, wheel bearings, gearbox oil levels and driveline wear.

Yes you can wait until the day before to repair it, but now is a good time to start making a list of things to do.

If you are still itchy, start looking for a NH Stackliner (1010 or 1012, etc.). And hay customers, too ! Believe me, I know the feeling you have. It started in me ~25 years ago and only gets better. The one thing I wish I had done was to document the 'lessones learned' every year so I could read it over at the beginning of the next season. Machinery clues, mowing direction, raking single double or triple windrows, which fields dry faster, which tire has a slow leak, tractor hitch position, 'need to add hydraulic baler tongue swing cylinder' kind of notes, etc..

Have you used a 1469 before? I only drove it about 100yds to where the Hauler dropped it in the field so i could get it put away in the Equipment Shed at my buddies. It was defently different to drive didn't like how when i threw it into gear it just started to roll lol. Was a little tricky pullin it into the barn and feather in and out of gear. This is all a learning curve for me so hopefully once i start running it next summer i will get the hang of it quick. My main question is then if you have used of these do you run it on many hills? We have a few decent hills/side hills? Just curious if i can handle it on them.

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

I have used my DK45SC making hay the last 2 seasons. I also am using a John Deere 4430 that is about 125hp. I only use the 4430 for mowing and round baling. I use the DK45 on a New Holland 315 square baler and so far no problems. It is great on the Kuhn rotary rake as well as it turns shorter than the Deere. I have a spear for moving round bales which is great. My wife helps quite often since we have cabbed tractors.:laughing:

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

Have you used a 1469 before? I only drove it about 100yds to where the Hauler dropped it in the field so i could get it put away in the Equipment Shed at my buddies. It was defently different to drive didn't like how when i threw it into gear it just started to roll lol. Was a little tricky pullin it into the barn and feather in and out of gear. This is all a learning curve for me so hopefully once i start running it next summer i will get the hang of it quick. My main question is then if you have used of these do you run it on many hills? We have a few decent hills/side hills? Just curious if i can handle it on them.

Post some pics! I would love to have a SP.:licking:

 

[whitmerlegacyfarm]

Post some pics! I would love to have a SP.:licking:

Sorry i don't have any pics. I should of got some that day we had it running and put in the barn. We are going to wait till spring to tinker around with all this stuff i guess.

I will have to use my DK 50 to pull the 479 haybine you think i can handle that for my 10 ac and places we can't get the 1469?

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

The manual for my 489, which is a 9ft cut like your 479, 35hp pto or greater.
They are heavy though and you are pulling from the side. First cutting will usally take the most HP as it will be the heaviest.

 

[whitmerlegacyfarm]

Thanks, Im going to give it a shot. I will have my rear tires loaded by spring so i believe that will help me out a lot. Really thinking of having my neighbor who has his own Welding Business try and make me a 10 bale accumulutor and grapple maybe but the more i think about it i'm thinking i should just cool it make sure things go well next summer. Im self employed and have 3 helpers so i can hire them to help load hay also lol so I think cost would be lower to just try this route first. Hoping we can find buyers for 3.50 a bale of timothy/orchard grass mix.

I'm renting a no till drill early spring to overseed my 10 ac. Should hopfully help things out.

 

[rvaitor]

Congratulations ! I am interested in hearing about your progress and results as I have a DK55 sitting on my dealers lot that I will pick up sometime after the 5th of January. I am having a WR Long Grapple & Third Function Valve added for the added step of land clearing before I can make hay so I may have a field planted before the snow flies in 2012. Best of luck, keep us posted on your progress.

I've done a lot of cleaning up with my WR Long 3rd function valve(different grapple, but they are all good).

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

Thanks, Im going to give it a shot. I will have my rear tires loaded by spring so i believe that will help me out a lot. Really thinking of having my neighbor who has his own Welding Business try and make me a 10 bale accumulutor and grapple maybe but the more i think about it i'm thinking i should just cool it make sure things go well next summer. Im self employed and have 3 helpers so i can hire them to help load hay also lol so I think cost would be lower to just try this route first. Hoping we can find buyers for 3.50 a bale of timothy/orchard grass mix.

I'm renting a no till drill early spring to overseed my 10 ac. Should hopfully help things out.

Here is a pic of me no till drilling in some alfalfa in the spring of 2008. A 10ft JD drill. It worked out pretty good. The hay field across the lane I no tilled in alfalfa and orchard grass in 2006. It was soybean stubble and worked a little better. I used oats as a cover crop and made oats hay in July.

 

[whitmerlegacyfarm]

Nice I duno what size the one will be i'm renting. They have 2 different sizes and i don't think i can run the bigger one w/ the DK50. I'm just overseeding in grass fields of mostly timothy/orchard grass can i still cut these come June for a First cutting? Do you guys do any spraying before firsrt cut or in between cuttings? This all new to me and i just don't really know lol i'm just hoping i can get a few hundred bales of my 10 ac or so.

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

Nice I duno what size the one will be i'm renting. They have 2 different sizes and i don't think i can run the bigger one w/ the DK50. I'm just overseeding in grass fields of mostly timothy/orchard grass can i still cut these come June for a First cutting? Do you guys do any spraying before firsrt cut or in between cuttings? This all new to me and i just don't really know lol i'm just hoping i can get a few hundred bales of my 10 ac or so.

We don't spraying unless we burn down to no-till. Generic round up works fine. We have been using leaf hopper resistant alfalfa so we won't need to spray for leaf hopper.
We do fertilize after first cut and try to again after 3rd some years. It seems that first cut always gets away from us with the early summer wet weather and it doesn't need any encouraging.
Fertilizer also has been outrages for the last 3 years and potash for the alfalfa never comes down it seems. We use the potash on our afalfa and the afalfa produces the nitrogen needed for the orchard grass. Lime in our area is real resonable.
I would soil test before you drill any seed just to see where you are. You local ag extension agent should be able to help with how to pull samples and where to send the samples. If you do need any fertilizer or lime you could put it on late winter and you should be ready early spring to drill away.

 

[FLHayman]

I've been using a DK65 with a Krone 9' disc mower. I don't mind not having a caddy for it since the lift arm adjustments can made so easily at the rear of the tractor. I used an old german 4 star tedder, and 3 NH rakes at once to give me a double row plus one more to the outside, or a large windrow near the center of the pull.

I don't hire anybody, and do round bales and square. I pick up the squares using a trailer style accumulator that drags and releases the bales in groups of 8, plus several hay trailers and a grapple to pick up each group to stack on the trailers. I only have to pick up bales by hand that fall out from the many turns and don't make it into the accumulator, or if one of the gates doesn't latch right in the accumulator. I used to run a haybine, but like the disc mower much better, especially for gopher mounds and anthills, which messed up the sickle bar knives much more than the disc mower blades. Plus, the disc mower can go faster, turn tighter, trim better, seems to use less hp, and you don't have any drama going through a gate.