Hay Making on a Different Scale

[Hay Dude]

Nothing but rain in sight here after a brief 3 day respite of sun.

Back on repairing the baler. What a sh*t show this thing can be.

Had to torch off a bearing today, fireman at the watch.

Yes, my insurance is paid in-full

We found a slightly bent needle and a frozen-up twine roller. My arms got a nice work out rolling the flywheel back & forth to get the needles top dead center, then climbing the ladder up to the top of the baler. Below: Needles up top. Installed new knives, too.

 

[LHF2019]

@Hay Dude That sucks. I'm behind to. Pulling round baler out today to do a test run on baleage with hay on the ground. Hope no issues.

 

[LHF2019]

Test run of round baler and wrapper complete.

 

[EddieWalker]

How big are those round bales?

 

[5030]

Test run of round baler and wrapper complete. View attachment 871926View attachment 871927View attachment 871928View attachment 871929

Curious how you like your Pequea? I almost bought one 3 years ago but got a heck of a deal on a Kuhn Masterdrive so I bought that instead. My Masterdrive isn't a trailer rake but rather a 3 point mounted. Only disadvantage is I have to be cognizant when swinging around as it hangs out the back quite a ways.

I will say one thing and that is, you cannot beat a rotary for drydown and fluffy windrows.

 

[LHF2019]

.

 

[LHF2019]

How big are those round bales?

The first one is a 4x5 as it was the last bale I baled. I make all of them 4x4's. For myself I would prefer 50-52 inches but since I also sell them it is easier to make them all the same as I don't know if I'll feed or sell them.

Curious how you like your Pequea? I almost bought one 3 years ago but got a heck of a deal on a Kuhn Masterdrive so I bought that instead. My Masterdrive isn't a trailer rake but rather a 3 point mounted. Only disadvantage is I have to be cognizant when swinging around as it hangs out the back quite a ways.

I will say one thing and that is, you cannot beat a rotary for drydown and fluffy windrows.

It works great. Bought it as left over for $4000 less than what local dealer was quoting. Took couple years to narrow down exactly what I wanted. It is one of the widest on the market with a 13' single rotor working width. Claas has one at 15' I believe. We also have a double rotor Kuhn we use as well. 18' working width with 9' rotors.

 

[5030]

Kind of how I got the Masterdrive Kuhn. The owner had a heart attack and got out of the forage business entirely and it was only used one season and was for sale. Mage him an offer and brought it home and it was a pretty local buy as well. he had some other hay tools for sale but I was not interested in them because he was doing square bales and I don't. Way too old for that venue, besides, cannot find good help today anyway. With rounds, I can do everything myself, start to finish. Every round I do is 4x5 btw, all in net.

 

[EddieWalker]

Is there an advantage to making them 4x4? I've never seen them that size anywhere. I try to buy the biggest bales I can. 4x6 is my favorite size to buy

 

[5030]

One thing I'd never own or have any interest in is a large square bailer like Hay Dude uses, but then I believe most of the hay he sells is mulch hay for mushroom media anyway and all my hay is consumed by one customer anyway. We have no stock here anymore so no feeding it here. All pre sold by the way and is every year. Kind of nice not having to even store it or dealing with customers and candidly, I dislike dealing with hay customers in general anyway.