The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Hay Dude]

I know nothing about balers or haying, but my curiosity is triggered. What happens when they get wet?

2 bad things happen.
The worst one is the on-board electronics/sensors can get wet and things can go haywire, like improper sensor readings, false alarms on the monitor, or even complete malfunction.

The other thing is the baler is typically covers in hay chaff, and once it gets wet, it sticks to everything and makes an awful mess.

 

[LouNY]

And what gets polished by the hay is nice bright polished steel which will rust almost instantly when rained on.

 

[Locoweed]

Thanks

 

[rontaki]

A (stupid) question - why stack the bales?

 

[Hay Dude]

A (stupid) question - why stack the bales?

My question back to you so I can get context is:
You mean as opposed to leaving them laying singly in the field?

If that’s what you mean, there’s 3 main reasons.

1. Stacking them 4 layers high means 1/4th of the kill spots on the field. The bales kill the grass under them if left for weeks or months.
2. Stacking them 4 high insures the 2 middle bales will not spoil. The bottom and top bales will see moisture and become mushroom hay.
3. If left singly on the ground, every bale will spoil.

I take the very best ones back to barns and stack them inside. I make those bales 5’ long and sell them as feed to be fed under a hay hut, but sometimes I make them 8’ long for guys with herds of cattle.
Below: Here’s a 5’ bale made as a feed bale. These are 1,000 lbs.

I would need a small airplane hanger to store all my hay inside, but stacking 4 layers high does a great job of preserving the 2 bales in the middle.

I’d like to someday have a extended “boom” reach loader and stack them 5 layers high to preserve 3 bales in the middle, but there’s only so much equipment you can afford in this wacky business.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

My question back to you so I can get context is:
You mean as opposed to leaving them laying singly in the field?

If that’s what you mean, there’s 3 main reasons.

1. Stacking them 4 layers high means 1/4th of the kill spots on the field. The bales kill the grass under them if left for weeks or months.
2. Stacking them 4 high insures the 2 middle bales will not spoil. The bottom and top bales will see moisture and become mushroom hay.
3. If left singly on the ground, every bale will spoil.

I take the very best ones back to barns and stack them inside. I make those bales 5’ long and sell them as feed to be fed under a hay hut, but sometimes I make them 8’ long for guys with herds of cattle.

I would need a small airplane hanger to store all my hay inside, but stacking 4 layers high does a great job of preserving the 2 bales in the middle.

I’d like to someday have a extended “boom” reach loader and stack them 5 layers high to preserve 3 bales in the middle, but there’s only so much equipment you can afford in this wacky business.

That last sentence.

 

[Hay Dude]

Some scenes from yesterday. Yesterday, it was back to hay cutting in the Massey 7495. This field is pure mushroom hay and infected with weeds. I can sell mushroom hay all day long, so it’s a good “pay the bills +” type of hay. This field is mostly barnyard grass and a little Johnson grass got in it, too. You can see the outside end of the rear Pottinger mower in the sideview mirror.

Some fields are Conservancy Land that doesn’t allow broad leaf herbicides, so there’s no decision. You take them as they are and do the best you can with them.

After mowing, I did some bale stacking with the Challenger MT535B. The Quicke loader is so stable and strong. Love the loader on this tractor.

 

[Hay Dude]

View from the road of some of my stacked bales

 

[sixdogs]

Not much compares to working on a damned knotter in 90 degree weather in the sun sweating and chaff covered and trying to hurry as a storm is coming.

No doubt.
I’ll park the baler in the shade if it’s hot.
Worst I ever had was when I jammed the baler with a fungo bat sized branch. had to climb down into the chamber with a sawzall and cut all the jammed up hay before I got to the limb.
Took nearly 6 hours, and of course, it was 90* and humid.

You have to be there and do that to appreciate what goes into making hay. The weather is always hot, humid, threatening or some combination of those and then something breaks. It made me chuckle when someone wanted to beat me on a six bale transaction of nice horse hay.

 

[Hay Dude]

Yeah like why is hay always ”negotiable”, but a six pack of Yuengling isn’t?