Compact Hay Equipment

[airbiscuit]

 

[Gale Hawkins]

A 4 HP bailer is impressive.

 

[Hay Dude]

That video of the girl with the hay has been posted 100 times. We don’t have any of them around here. Just old men trying to make it through one more year of hay.

I see the Amish baling equipment all the time around here. They are not without their struggles, but it can work. Generally, they are running smaller round balers with a large pony engine. Still pulling with Percheron.

 

[Egon]

A good old dump hay rake can do the same work the girl is doing. Then pick up the piles with a hay sweep or front loader with tines.

Without shoes that hay pusher will not last long.

 

[Kiwibru]

If you have a small round baler with the wrapper integrated in the frame the timing issue is somewhat mitigated. While the wrapper is doing it's thing you are rolling up the next bale. Cuts the time from bale formation to wrapping in huge ways. We used to bale 1/4 of a ten acre field then turn around the equipment and rush back over to wrap within 12 hours. Pain in the arse but it did work if you kept the timing right. Kind of like making beer or wine, timing is everything with fermented product. A Combi unit is a blessing compared. A good bale that is tight and wrapped with six layers can weigh about 100-110 lb. and after a six to eight week fermentation period is ready to feed out. Our sheep gobble it up, very little waste as the feed values are so much higher because you can start earlier in the season before full boot. We watched our forage CP (crude protein) go up every year and it now hovers around 12-13% which is darn good for our area on non-irrigated fields. Nutrient management also plays a critical role in this too.

 

[woolyAcres]

I'd offer her wages of a pair of boots for a day of work.

In all seriousness, it does show that it is still actually possible to do things the way people did in the old days. It also shows how much work they did and how much they got done as well.

And how quiet it could be. Can you imagine hearing birds chirp while putting up hay!