All of our hay is now in from our first cutting using all the new USED equipment I just got. Everything went pretty well. I found a New holland 116 mower conditioner in decent condition and my son and I fixed it up pretty well. It did blow a hose on me but only after I got out of the field thankfully. It did it in the driveway and just killed some grass on the gravel is all.
It ran right through the tall Bermuda and alfalfa like it was nothing though. I did hit one wet spot in the bermuda with the swather all the way out to my left side and it skidded behind me in the mud real fast and got the cutter bar all full of mud so we had to get out the firehose for that. What a mess. It didn't hurt anything though.
Last night, after just 24 hours on the ground, we baled the hay. I know that doesn't sound like much but believe me it was more than dry enough. 8 % moisture on average. I only raked a couple of the rows that were thin to combine them with another one. The rest I left on the ground just as the mower left it in a nice wind row. It was 105 in the shade yesterday with a mild wind and almost no humidity so that stuff dried super fast.
Also we didn't get anywhere near our usual yield because I couldn't afford the fertilizer for our first cutting. It makes a huge difference. I'll be buying the right amount today and getting it put down though probably tonight. It sucks when you have to make decisions on fuel and fertilizer based on price these days. I'm sure no farmer is happy with it.
The baler ran perfect. What I got was a Hesston 4570 model that is just a couple years old. The last owner was pretty hard on it I found out and had really messed it up. It looks like he crashed the needles into the stuffer. Both of them were brand new when I got it but that was all they did. Noone timed the machine or anything. Every adjustment on it that could be out was. One of the members here thankfully sent me copies of his manual last week so I could get everything adjusted right and that helped a lot. Yesterday morning I finally got my manual in but I had it ready to go by then.
I did have to make a 70 mile trip to our nearest hesston dealer yesterday morning for parts. It needed some new pickup tines, a couple of chain adjuster sprockets and I also wanted to put a moisture meter in it because we had such trouble last year with hay not drying properly. Last year it was taking about 5-7 days per cutting to get it even close to ready to bale and even then some of the bales were too wet.
It's really nice to be able to watch the moisture readings in the cab as the bales go out the back of the baler.
Anyway, a couple of our buyers biggest concern last year when someone else was baling my hay was the inconsistent bales and the sharp ends on the wires sticking out. Both of those problems are gone now. This one uses string and every bale that hit the ground weighed right at 60 pounds and looked perfectly consistent. They should all be a lot happier now.
It ran right through the tall Bermuda and alfalfa like it was nothing though. I did hit one wet spot in the bermuda with the swather all the way out to my left side and it skidded behind me in the mud real fast and got the cutter bar all full of mud so we had to get out the firehose for that. What a mess. It didn't hurt anything though.
Last night, after just 24 hours on the ground, we baled the hay. I know that doesn't sound like much but believe me it was more than dry enough. 8 % moisture on average. I only raked a couple of the rows that were thin to combine them with another one. The rest I left on the ground just as the mower left it in a nice wind row. It was 105 in the shade yesterday with a mild wind and almost no humidity so that stuff dried super fast.
Also we didn't get anywhere near our usual yield because I couldn't afford the fertilizer for our first cutting. It makes a huge difference. I'll be buying the right amount today and getting it put down though probably tonight. It sucks when you have to make decisions on fuel and fertilizer based on price these days. I'm sure no farmer is happy with it.
The baler ran perfect. What I got was a Hesston 4570 model that is just a couple years old. The last owner was pretty hard on it I found out and had really messed it up. It looks like he crashed the needles into the stuffer. Both of them were brand new when I got it but that was all they did. Noone timed the machine or anything. Every adjustment on it that could be out was. One of the members here thankfully sent me copies of his manual last week so I could get everything adjusted right and that helped a lot. Yesterday morning I finally got my manual in but I had it ready to go by then.
I did have to make a 70 mile trip to our nearest hesston dealer yesterday morning for parts. It needed some new pickup tines, a couple of chain adjuster sprockets and I also wanted to put a moisture meter in it because we had such trouble last year with hay not drying properly. Last year it was taking about 5-7 days per cutting to get it even close to ready to bale and even then some of the bales were too wet.
It's really nice to be able to watch the moisture readings in the cab as the bales go out the back of the baler.
Anyway, a couple of our buyers biggest concern last year when someone else was baling my hay was the inconsistent bales and the sharp ends on the wires sticking out. Both of those problems are gone now. This one uses string and every bale that hit the ground weighed right at 60 pounds and looked perfectly consistent. They should all be a lot happier now.
