Cuttin hay

[schmism]

So its my front yard, hay grass and some alphalph.....

The neighbor (an old guy with a bunch of animals) had a deal with the previous property owner. His buddy down the road, comes and cuts the front, takes half, and bob, my neighbor gets the other half.....

So he wants to continue the deal as its hay he needs as he only has a few acers for his many animals.... I dont care cause im not doing anything with it and i want it maintained.... So he offers me $20 a bail!?!?!? I told him id take $10

he says he only gets about 5 bales out of the deal?!?!? i assumed they are sq bailing it.... i cant imagine they are round bailing it but he does have equip to handle them..... (btw its right at 3 acers)

so the questions

they cut last night (see pics)

1) it needs to dry? (i hear a lot about drying hay, rakeing it bla bla bla most of which is lost on me)
2) it doesnt want to get rained on after its cut laying down? (again i hear a lot about lossing hay to this and that)
3) its raining today.... now what?








again this isnt "my" hay... its my front yard, but im just looking to keep it maintained and if it can be used for something other than me just brush hoging it every couple of weeks... so be it.

What im worred about is 1) it will be useless for the old guy nextdoor 2) it will take him forever to bail it now and that cant be good for whats under it...


someone fill in the blanks please....

ps is there anything that makes the 1465 special? its a haybine correct? its job is to cut and row all in one as opposed to having a diskbine or cyclebar and then going back and rakeing into rows? they go for $8-10K ?? NEW HOLLAND 1465 For Sale at TractorHouse.com

 

[Bird]

Yep, Steve, it does have to dry a certain amount after cutting and before baling. And yes, you'd like for it to not rain after you cut it and before you bale it. However, if it doesn't stay wet too long and it didn't rain too hard, maybe it'll go ahead and dry enough to bale. Depending on how wet it is, a tedder might be a great implement to scatter it so it'll dry quicker, or after the top is dry, it might only need to be rolled over with a rake so that on the bottom can dry. But the more you have to move it around, roll it over, etc., the less good it'll be. As for leaving it . . . I don't know your neighbors, but sometimes worthless hay is baled and dumped somewhere just to remove it from the field to protect what's growing under it.

And yes, that 1465 is what folks in my area called a haybine while in some areas they call it a moco (mower/conditioner) becausce it cuts, crimps (or crushes large stems), and if it's like the Gehl I used, the back end has adjustable "wings" that can be moved in or out to leave a wider or narrower windrow.

 

[Chuck52]

If he ends up just baling it to dump, I'd get some to compost or use for mulch in the garden. If it's full of seeds, composting before use would be better. I'm using my yard clippings as mulch in the garden, and since there are few seeds and I let it dry before use, it's doing a great job of keeping the weeds down around the tomatoes and such.

Chuck

 

[schmism]

sprinkles, light rain... this morning... i dont know if we will see any sun by this afternoon or not..... but based on the forcast it doesnt look promising.... Saint Louis, Missouri (63116) Conditions & Forecast : Weather Underground

 

[Bird]

I'm still getting little sprinkles, too, but I also just dumped about .55" of rain that we got in the last hour and a half out of the gauge.

 

[jimg]

he says he only gets about 5 bales out of the deal?!?!? i assumed they are sq bailing it.... i cant imagine they are round bailing it but he does have equip to handle them..... (btw its right at 3 acers)
Thats considerable grass which will give LOTS of small sqs. Id guess hes round baling...which makes sense that he thinks his take will be 5 bales. Im pretty sure hes not making big sqs as the equipment is very expensive and to make only a few bales wouldnt be cost effective.

1) it needs to dry? (i hear a lot about drying hay, rakeing it bla bla bla most of which is lost on me)
Yes, for hay I think you want to shoot for 15% or less. However Ive read some round balers can make good hay at higher moisture levels. I dont have any experience w/ round balers. You can bale using preservatives at higher moisture content...but that costs more in equipment and chemicals. Then theres silage/baleage which can be put up rather 'wet'. I dont know the exact figures for those and have no experience w/ them.

The guy doing youre place appears to have conditioned it which aids in dry down. Thats a good thing. (Im assuming his conditioner works and was setup properly.)

2) it doesnt want to get rained on after its cut laying down? (again i hear a lot about lossing hay to this and that)
Well, its better if it doesn't. However, the damage isnt considerable if the grass is freshly cut. The dryer it is the worse it is to be rained on.
3) its raining today.... now what?
Its going to stay wet and if things go along too long that way itll start to mold. The top will likely be OK but underneath wont.

ps is there anything that makes the 1465 special? its a haybine correct? its job is to cut and row all in one as opposed to having a diskbine or cyclebar and then going back and rakeing into rows? they go for $8-10K
Haybine is a NH brand name...a sickle mower w/ a built in conditioner. Many other implement makers offer a similar product (or used to). The conditioner curshes/crimps the stems which aid in even dry down (so stems and leaves dry at about the same rate). The conditioner must be correctly setup though for it to work properly. The mower can be set to swath (wide thin row) or windrow (heavy narrow row). Once the grass has had time to dry down a bit (depends on weather) youll run a tedder over the rows to expose the bottom to the air and fluff it all up so the air can move thru and carry moisture away. Ive seen some tedder once and others multiple times. Once its dry enough to bale it gets raked in to windrows no wider than the baler intake.

 

[schmism]

thanks for the info.....

the grass/hay was over waist high.... is there a rule of thumb for how many bales youll get out of a given area? (i think this has been asked a lot in the past..... and it i want to say i remember lots of people responding about size of bales, how "tight" a round bailer packs it bla bla bla) but can anyone balpark it based what you see in the pics and "midwest grass/hay"

I would say that the guy has his equipment setup right as i saw him bailing (i was going to stop and ask him about my yard anyway) last week. He does most of the other feilds up and down the highway within a mile or 2 of my place. IF i had to guess he cuts nearly a 100 acers with that setup spred out between about 6 diffrent areas.

The weekend before labor day was a big hay cutting weekend. nearly every feild that had hay in it that i drove/drive past on my way out there was or had been cut.

 

[jimg]

thanks for the info.....


the grass/hay was over waist high.... is there a rule of thumb for how many bales youll get out of a given area?
If you know the field's history and manage it carefully you can make a good estimate. Typically the estimate is given in tons (of dry matter)/acre though which can later be translated into bales of a certain type.

Quality and quantity aren't the same though. As time goes by the quantity increases and quality decreases. Time of cutting is very imporatant to get the best balance of quality and yield. The more reproductive struture there is the lower the quality will be. Also the species of grass will play into the equation as will weed density. So, saying this field gives x T/ac doesn't really tell the entire story.

(i think this has been asked a lot in the past..... and it i want to say i remember lots of people responding about size of bales, how "tight" a round bailer packs it bla bla bla) but can anyone balpark it based what you see in the pics and "midwest grass/hay"
Im thinking it would also depend on the operator...but Ill leave the round baler info to someone who really knows it well...I dont.

 

[swiftboot]

Steve, you may be able to get an agriculture exemption on that three acres for tax purposes. Have no idea of your tax structure there. Aound here, its taxed at 5000/a if just sittin there, and 300/a if ag. Was it fertilized or just natural growth? I have a deal with my neighbor with 30 acress to cut for hay, he thinks he should pay me for the tax break. chuck

 

[schmism]

Steve, you may be able to get an agriculture exemption on that three acres for tax purposes.

for any given parcel they assume its ag. if there is a residence on it they only tax one acer at residental, the rest is assumed to be ag automattically.

in other words the front 3 that is in pasture is the majority of my 4.8