Haying Equipment

   / Haying Equipment
  • Thread Starter
#21  
Does anybody have the same problems getting someone to bale their hay? I have 10 acres of coastal, but because it's a smaller acreage, I get bumped down the list when it comes time to bale. I understand that it's more cost effective to bale 40 acres, but it's frustrating for me to go buy hay in the winter when I grow more than my needs during the summer. That's why I'd like to do it myself.
 
   / Haying Equipment #22  
Yes, 30 hp is enough to run a smaller, older square baler, a rake, and a sickle mower and most likely one of the smaller mower conditioners though I haven't done that.

You will need to be careful of weight if it's hilly, a smaller tractor with a 2500 or more baler and a loaded wagon can make for a nasty accident on hills.

You can't run a round baler ( unless its one of those hard to find 4x3 balers ) on 30 hp, and you can't run a disk mower either.

We have baled for two summers pulling a JD 14T ( 1950's vintage square baler ) behind a NH TC30. It worked fine, even pulling a wagon loaded with hay, this was on dead flat ground though.

I have also pulled that baler without the wagon behind our Kubota L2350 ( 25 gross hp ), and will be doing that again this year. This baler ( and others of its vintage ) could be powered by 17 hp single cylinder Wisconsin engines, so 20 PTO hp will run it just fine. Normally if you feed an oversized slug of hay into this baler the shear bolt on the flywheel breaks anyhow so having more horsepower in front of it would make no difference.

I have less than 1000 total in the hay equipment, and even though we don't bale many acres, the equipment paid for itself the first year, and last year was just a bonus.

Granted it is older equipment and I did have to do some repair and tinkering to get it working and keep it working.

No, I wouldn't try and use this older, smaller capacity equipment in a 'real' haying operation, and no, I wouldn't want to mow hundred of acres with a sickle mower.

But then again, I only have about 6 acres of hay to cut, rake, and bale. So this works for us, and I enjoy doing it.
 
   / Haying Equipment #23  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Does anybody have the same problems getting someone to bale their hay? I have 10 acres of coastal, but because it's a smaller acreage, I get bumped down the list when it comes time to bale. I understand that it's more cost effective to bale 40 acres, but it's frustrating for me to go buy hay in the winter when I grow more than my needs during the summer. That's why I'd like to do it myself. )</font>

That is exactly the reason I am haying my own 10 acres starting this year.
 
   / Haying Equipment #24  
What a great site. Makes me wonder why I couldn't just cut, rake, and store it loose in the barn.

Anyone know if a "landscape rake" would work raking up hay? I see where you can get one up to 7'.
 
   / Haying Equipment #25  
What a great site. Makes me wonder why I couldn't just cut, rake, and store it loose in the barn.

Anyone know if a "landscape rake" would work raking up hay? I see where you can get one up to 7'.
 
   / Haying Equipment #26  
Hay rakes are cheap. I'll sell ya one for $150, but ya gotta come get it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
   / Haying Equipment #27  
Hay rakes are cheap. I'll sell ya one for $150, but ya gotta come get it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
   / Haying Equipment #28  
You surely can store hay this way. Make a sweep for the loader to make the picking up of the hay windrows easier.

Picture of what we called a Farm Hand used for making hay attached. Think this was posted on this site by someone else.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Last edited:
   / Haying Equipment #29  
You surely can store hay this way. Make a sweep for the loader to make the picking up of the hay windrows easier.

Picture of what we called a Farm Hand used for making hay attached. Think this was posted on this site by someone else.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
   / Haying Equipment #30  
That's some machine... Any reason why it couldn't be made entirely from metal?
When the hay is stored loose does it need to be off the ground? We live in a very sandy area and the hay area of our barn is very, very dry sand.
Also, if it's not going to be baled, does it have to dry in the field before storing?
 
   / Haying Equipment #31  
That's some machine... Any reason why it couldn't be made entirely from metal?
When the hay is stored loose does it need to be off the ground? We live in a very sandy area and the hay area of our barn is very, very dry sand.
Also, if it's not going to be baled, does it have to dry in the field before storing?
 
   / Haying Equipment #32  
Yes it must, note must be dried before storing in the barn. Damp stored hay is susceptible to spontaneous combustion. Many barns have been lost this way.

In a time far past haystacks sat on the ground.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
   / Haying Equipment #33  
Yes it must, note must be dried before storing in the barn. Damp stored hay is susceptible to spontaneous combustion. Many barns have been lost this way.

In a time far past haystacks sat on the ground.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
   / Haying Equipment #34  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( That's some machine... Any reason why it couldn't be made entirely from metal?
When the hay is stored loose does it need to be off the ground? We live in a very sandy area and the hay area of our barn is very, very dry sand.
Also, if it's not going to be baled, does it have to dry in the field before storing?

)</font>

The hay will also grow moldy very quickly if put in the barn wet. And will be more succeptable to heating.

Any type of hay can cause a barn fire if baled and stored incorrectly.

One trick when checking the core temperature of a bale is to put a tomatoe stick right through the middle and leave it. When you can pull the stick out and it's not hot to the touch, your bale is ready for storage.

You may want to look into loose hay or even haylage, but I wouldn't reccomend this for horses as you don't get consistant quality, etc... which is very important to horses. Cows are a different story.

That said, hay was stored this way for years and worked fine, it's just a higher risk.
 
   / Haying Equipment #35  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( That's some machine... Any reason why it couldn't be made entirely from metal?
When the hay is stored loose does it need to be off the ground? We live in a very sandy area and the hay area of our barn is very, very dry sand.
Also, if it's not going to be baled, does it have to dry in the field before storing?

)</font>

The hay will also grow moldy very quickly if put in the barn wet. And will be more succeptable to heating.

Any type of hay can cause a barn fire if baled and stored incorrectly.

One trick when checking the core temperature of a bale is to put a tomatoe stick right through the middle and leave it. When you can pull the stick out and it's not hot to the touch, your bale is ready for storage.

You may want to look into loose hay or even haylage, but I wouldn't reccomend this for horses as you don't get consistant quality, etc... which is very important to horses. Cows are a different story.

That said, hay was stored this way for years and worked fine, it's just a higher risk.
 
   / Haying Equipment #36  
Shows what I know; I always thought it was the tightly rolled bales that were a fire threat while drying.
 
   / Haying Equipment #37  
Shows what I know; I always thought it was the tightly rolled bales that were a fire threat while drying.
 
   / Haying Equipment #38  
   / Haying Equipment #39  
   / Haying Equipment #40  
That is an excellent link. Thanks for posting it.
 

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