Am I wasting my time

[RPW]

In the 2015 hay season I posted that I was trying to salvage my fields due to lack of rain. Well the question of the day is am I wasting my time? Here's the situation I'm growing Bermuda (Texas Tough) to be exact. Love it for the drought tolerance as it's still green even though no rain for 35 days and everything else is brown. But no growth. What I mean is that in some areas I've on had about an inch of growth since last cutting and other areas no more than 12in. As everyone knows Bermuda is a fine stemmed grass anyway and after cutting and raking I'm attempting to bale. My baler is an older Vermeer 605C that works pretty good. I've got new belts and this last spring after the torrential rains was able to get a fair amount of hay out of the fields which were mostly winter rye. During baling after getting the bale started it will roll fine in the chamber until I get about a 2 to 3 foot roll then it seems to jam up and I can't do anything except eject the bale and break it apart and try again. Needless to say I'm wasting a bunch of time trying to make a roll. Is the condition of the hay so bad that it's not worth baling and I should just either scoop it up for the horses or just shred it for mulch/fertilizer in the fields?

thanks.

 

[Tx Jim]

In conditions such as yours I lower pto rpm's to about 420. This makes forming bale spin less turns therefore shedding less hay from forming bale. This works on my JD baler but don't know about a Vermeer baler.

 

[RPW]

Thanks, I usually have to start at just about idle to get the first bit of grass started then speed up. I'll try another bale at a bit slower and see if it will work better.

 

[Lawnman TX]

Try turning down the pto and step up a gear. Ram it in there before it crumbles up. Also bale sooner, or first thing in the morning.

I did a field the other day that yielded about 3 bales per acre, cut Monday, rake Tuesday, and roll Wednesday.

If I had the time I could have rolled it Wednesday night. It dries quick this time of year.

 

[RPW]

Will try that this weekend. Been baling in the evening because of my day job. Will try and re-rake tomorrow morning to make some larger windrows and then bale Sunday morning before it gets to hot.

 

[foreman Etexas]

The first year I got my equipment it was really thin and I had to try few things to get it right but I found that if I ran same speed but lowered my rpms it took it better. I never had the jamming problem thou,mine was more with picking the hay up and not just throwing it up in air. I also spent a lot of time just raking to make a good windrow and I found that better than running the baler so much not really getting anywhere.
Sorry if I didn't post in other thread,I must have just over looked it when I use my cell phone to check TBN.Hope some of this helps and you can get it up. It sounds pretty thin,I have cut one day early and baled it late next evening, at 103 don't take long,still has some green color but its cured enough,that it takes better than stuff been laying and crispy...

 

[navistar45]

First off, hello everyone, i'am a newbie.. Looking forward to learning, and sharing what i know, have experienced.. We Texas boys seem to have feast or famine dont we? Anyway, i have pulled my share of balers, and some handle the conditions mentioned better then others.. In the last 10 years my little region seems to always be the driest in the whole e.texas region, so i have seen many others in the field, and have learned some lessons.. First, i just baled 60 acres for the first cutting of the season, and it was turning yellow quick.. The last rain to hit it was 30 days prior, and much of what i bale is hilly, so more wind, more sun, less dampness in the soil compared to the lower ground.. Anyway, i have settled on nh 660 and nh688 balers.. I like em, and have learned they seem to put the grass in less stress then say similar year vermeer or jd balers.. In other words, when the grass is really dry like in a drought or frost gets it, these balers seem to crack and crumble it less.. I watched a man in a field next to me with the same grass, back in the 11' drought, produce one roll of hay in a field that normally produces about 11 rolls.. He cut that morn, and baled the next morn.. I did the same with my field, which normally gets me about 9 rolls, i managed 5 on that cutting.. Looking at his windrows before the baler started rolling, i knew he would get at least 5 also.. He picked up his ground speed a bit, and eased off the rpm's, which is kinda procedure for the conditions, yet the jd530 baler he was using simply crumbled the dry grass to bits.. when the conditions merit, i have been know to cut in the morn and bales that eve! As mentioned, when it's dry for long, laying on the ground in 100* degree heat is quickens the process..

 

[Texasmark]

Try turning down the pto and step up a gear. Ram it in there before it crumbles up. Also bale sooner, or first thing in the morning.

I did a field the other day that yielded about 3 bales per acre, cut Monday, rake Tuesday, and roll Wednesday.

If I had the time I could have rolled it Wednesday night. It dries quick this time of year.

I agree on early in the am. while whatever moisture that's available is still on the grass. Around here the dew point has been low the last couple of weeks and the humidity has been running around 27%. Not good for rolling. Other thing you might do is to get it rolled as soon as you can after cutting, using the stem moisture to help in getting the bale done. I just finished up a field of Coastal a couple of weeks ago. Really nice and smelled soooooooo good.

 

[RPW]

Thanks for the replies.That worked perfectly. Slowed the rpm down to about 300 and depending on the windrow thickness determined which gear I used. Worked until about noon then the temps were above 100 degrees and then I couldn't get a bale made. Luckily I was more or less on cleanup of the field. When I can get into the field without roasting I'll re-rake the reminants to get my last bale or two.