Mowing Hay with Brushhog...with pics

   / Mowing Hay with Brushhog...with pics #11  
I commend your hay attempt and hope it goes well for you. I might try the hog on some second cutting, if we get one, that is sure to be stemy.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but please read the story below. I read it years ago and it changed my tractor operating forever.

http://www.progressiveag.org/uploads/documents/just say no.pdf
 
   / Mowing Hay with Brushhog...with pics #12  
I have a 5' Bush Hog brand cutter, circa early 50's. It came with my Super C Farmall I bought at an auction 20 years ago. It is designed to be able to mow hay with it. The left side panel unbolts. When you mow, it cuts, and lays the hay out in a neat little windrow. Not all chopped up. It is my backup in case the Moco goes down. I have used it several times, in the last 10 years. Does a great job..!!

We stacked hay outside back in the mid 60's. Set a long 4 X 4 in the ground, then pallets around it. I guess the most important thing was to stack it in even layers, then comb the outside down with the pitch fork, so as to shed the rain. We then put a canvas tarp over the top. We used a potato fork to pull off what we needed to feed for the day. Hence the even stacking, so it will pull off in layers.

I laugh now, as the first tarp we had was field hospital tent tarp. Dad bought at an Army Surplus Store. OD green, with a big white block, and a big red cross in the center of it. Could be seen for miles..!!

I have a picture of it somewhere at the home place. I'll have to find and post someday.
 
   / Mowing Hay with Brushhog...with pics #13  
   / Mowing Hay with Brushhog...with pics
  • Thread Starter
#14  
Thanks for posting. X2

Some good points. However, if I didn't let me son do anything dangerous that i've heard of kids getting hurt or killed he wouldn't be able to do anything. He wouldn't be able to ride his dirtbike, or the tractor, or go swimming, or cross the road to get the mail or climb a tree with loose clothing. I believe when it is your time to go it is your time. I put my faith in higher powers. Getting back to topic, here is some of the finished product. Worked pretty good. Took about 3 hours to rake together and pull back to my haystack with the dump rake.

I would've loved to see my grandfather's face while we were using his old dump rake. I'm sure he was smiling down from above.
 

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   / Mowing Hay with Brushhog...with pics #15  
We were in the middle of cutting hay one year and the mower broke down, we took the side off of the bush hog and it did pretty well. I could not see if you had the side off of yours but it would help cut down on shatter and loss, and makes it easier on the tractor too.
 
   / Mowing Hay with Brushhog...with pics #16  
Some good points. However, if I didn't let me son do anything dangerous that i've heard of kids getting hurt or killed he wouldn't be able to do anything. He wouldn't be able to ride his dirtbike, or the tractor, or go swimming, or cross the road to get the mail or climb a tree with loose clothing. I believe when it is your time to go it is your time. I put my faith in higher powers. Getting back to topic, here is some of the finished product. Worked pretty good. Took about 3 hours to rake together and pull back to my haystack with the dump rake.

I would've loved to see my grandfather's face while we were using his old dump rake. I'm sure he was smiling down from above.

You know someone had a rake like that in there yard(deco.) and we were talking about it and they asked me how it worked I said heck I dont know:D but thanks for posting pictures,I now know....
 
   / Mowing Hay with Brushhog...with pics #17  
Doyle670 said:
For $320 I would've been able to buy 80 square bales. No where near enough for the winter.

You surely know your business, but take it from a guy who used to buy square bales, you get a lot more hay with round bales. Just do the math. $3–4 for a 40 lb or so bale, or $20-25 for 600-1000 lbs or so. No contest.
 
   / Mowing Hay with Brushhog...with pics #18  
Not to tell you what to do, but if you don't stack that in a more vertical pile, and comb it down, I'm afraid you may lose a lot of that hay. I Googled "Making a Haystack", and here is a link to a pictoral of making one. Making a Haystack

Yep, pretty work intensive, but just hate to see you do all that work, and lose any more hay than you have to. Piled like that won't shed much rain/snow. Plus, all seed heads may start to sprout, and make it even worse. Then you have a large pile of grassy mulch to deal with. It will wick ground moisture up from the bottom too.

As mentioned before, we used a large tarp to cover ours. A cheap alternative now, is to find a sign company that uses plastic tarp like material for their roadside signs. Around here, they give the old ones away, to anyone that will take them.
 
   / Mowing Hay with Brushhog...with pics
  • Thread Starter
#19  
We were in the middle of cutting hay one year and the mower broke down, we took the side off of the bush hog and it did pretty well. I could not see if you had the side off of yours but it would help cut down on shatter and loss, and makes it easier on the tractor too.

I was going to cut the side off and make it so that I could reattach it easily. But I ran out of time, didn't have the torches tank filled, and the cutoff makita wouldn't touch it. So I said let's see how good it does with the sides on. Definitely not as good but works fine.

You know someone had a rake like that in there yard(deco.) and we were talking about it and they asked me how it worked I said heck I dont know:D but thanks for posting pictures,I now know....

Let me tell you my grandfather would've gotten such a kick out of us using the dump rake. It worked much better than I had even hoped. It was picking up some huge haystacks and dragging them back to the main haystack. Some of the turns were packed so heavy in the dump rake that it took some muscle to dump it. We had to use a temporary strap to hold down the foot lever to keep it from dumping in the field(because I was slinging hay instead of riding the rake) but it worked great. My dad had a blast helping, he hadn't seen the rake in action since he was about 10 years old when he used to ride on it.


You surely know your business, but take it from a guy who used to buy square bales, you get a lot more hay with round bales. Just do the math. $3–4 for a 40 lb or so bale, or $20-25 for 600-1000 lbs or so. No contest.

Decent rounds around here are $40+... Plus not many people in my area do rounds to sell, they all do square. And then i'd have to get a trailer to haul them, and would want to have them covered... And having only two cows I think I would have alot of waste feeding a large round and it taking them weeks to finish it. I went over this and over this in my head and seems to be the most efficient/economical for what I needed.


Not to tell you what to do, but if you don't stack that in a more vertical pile, and comb it down, I'm afraid you may lose a lot of that hay. I Googled "Making a Haystack", and here is a link to a pictoral of making one. Making a Haystack

Yes I will definitely take the time to comb it down. No sense in doing it until I have the other 7-10 acres done and stacked on top of the stack right?:D For right now I do have a tarp on it with the bottom 5 feet of the sides exposed so that it can breathe until the other 7-10 acres of hay is on top of it....
 
   / Mowing Hay with Brushhog...with pics #20  
 
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