Stacking loose hay???

[MF283]

I've seen it done out West a lot, stacking hay in big piles after cut & i'm guessing raked. Does anyone here do this or have any idea how they do it?
In my area, you can't get anyone to cut on good years & bad years they call out of the blue wanting it on shares.

I've been thinking about this for several years, can't justify the cost of equipment for 100 bales or so a year for the horses & hate mowing down good mixed grass hay.

Any thought's or ideas appreciated.

Ronnie

 

[motownbrowne]

We put up loose hay. We cut it with Austrian scythes or a sickle bar mower. Rake it with an ancient 4 bar rake and then use a hay loader. It works alright. We do the equivalent of maybe 60 bales. It wouldn't scare me to do 100 bales worth. Not counting the tractor, we've probably got $800 into the mower, rake, loader and a wagon.

 

[vsteel]

We still put up loose hay. We mow it with a windrower and then let it dry. we don't rake it and just pick it up in the windrows. You just have to make sure it is really dry, we don't have a moisture meter but when you pick up the hay and it doesn't bend but breaks, then it is dry enough. We use a farmhand loader with a hay head. 14 foot square teeth and about 12 feet wide and it will raise up to a height of I think 17 feet.

Start around the base and push several loads together. We don't stack it up at first but just smash several hay head loads together. Each time I also would drop the head on top to also smash the hay down some. After the base is the size you want, start going around the stack and putting loads around the edge first. The only time you dump in the middle is to fill a hole in the center. Worry about the edge first and the rest will take care of itself. Each time you set the hay on the stack I always again took the hay head and dropped it on the hay I just placed. As you go up you go in a little so you make a nice stack. After about a month or two there will be a little that falls off of the sides that you can then pull away from the base of the stack and take the hay head and put it on top. The stack will have settled some and it will be easier to put it on top.

After a year they will have a dark grey look and will have settled a lot but it will form a "seal" from the outside elements. Hay can be kept for years in a loose stack and not go bad underneath.

Let me know if you have any more questions. We have put up loose for generations and still are doing it.

 

[MF283]

Thanks guys, that's the useful info i was looking for & i didn't want to spend a fortune on equipment, would be better off just buying it in that case.
I'll have to check into the loader part, i assume they make the attachment for the FEL on my tractor.
One other thing i'm concerned about here, we have a lot of humidity, i'm guessing i would have to allow for more drying time before stacking.

Ronnie

 

[Egon]

Vsteel covered it well. Don't know if he is using one of the original farmhand's. They have a much higher reach than a normal loader bucket. With a normal it should not take much to make a hay head. Google for pictures.

In some cases farmers used a metal fence to contain a small stack and then moved the stack to a central location. Some may add salt when stacking if they feel hay is damp.

If handling loose hay from a stack by hay fork a hay knife made from about thee mower blades makes lif easier.

There are other methods for gathering wind rowed hay but the farmhand generally took over.

 

[DJ54]

We did 4 acres of loose hay for several years, before being able to afford a baler.

We set a, probably 16' 4 x4 in the ground, then placed a double wide row of pallets on the ground to allow air underneath, and keep the bottom from wicking moisture. Mowed the hay with a sickle bar, then raked in windrows when dry. Dad and I would doodle about half the field up in small piles with pitch forks. Then I'd continue doodling, while he and Sis' gathered the hay with the tractor, and a trailer.

He'd stack it in layers around the 4 X 4, as mentioned from the outside in, tramping as he stacked. When I was done in the field, I'd go help move the hay around on the stack, as he threw it up to me and tramp. Every 3-4 loads we'd comb the sides with the forks, so it would shed rain. When it was finished, we'd cover it with a canvas tarp, and tie it down to concrete blocks. Still have to laugh to this day, as the tarp was Army Surplus MASH canvas. OD green edges, with a big white block, and a huge red cross on it. Just like they show the aerial view from the show MASH, of the field hospital. I live on a good sized hill, and that big red cross could be seen for miles.

 

[vsteel]

Yes we use an old farmhand stacker for that. A F10 to be exact. I thought I had a better picture of it handy but this is the only one I could find without digging for it. This is the winter mode where it is on the Oliver 77 and the grapple head on it instead of the hay head, in the summer we have a "farmhand truck" a 1952 Chevy Viking ton and a half truck with the rear removed so you can buck hay with suspension and a synchronized tranny.

 

[MF283]

I'm enjoying the techniques & advice guys, looked on CL last night, noticed the prices have jumped being it's hay season.
I need to start looking for an attachment for my FEL to gather the hay up or a way of mounting some type of forks or teeth to the bucket.

Ronnie

 

[Egon]

The farmhand's mounted on a 1 1/2 ton chassis were very nice. Those combined with a stack mover still seem like one of the easier ways to put up hay.

Many folks used a vertical bared gate to regulate access to the stack when feeding.

But then everyone seemed to have to switch to the small square bales which did not fare well if left in the field and did assure the man handling of the bales many times. With the advent of bales heavier than a man can lift the physical work involved in haying became reasonable again.

 

[Creamer]

One of the problems with stacked hay is that if your ground is wet it will pull moisture from the ground and rot the hay. Growing up in SD we did not have that problem as i am sure Vsteel doesn't. It would depend where you are at in Tennessee as to if it works or not. Where I am at in Indiana you lose a lot when you let hay sit on the ground . The large round bales have so much less in contact with air passages it makes them so much better and then if they are wrapped it is even better.