Worth doing hay?

[CH4Ohio]

Everyone around here is going to accumulators and grapples for small square bales. I still think the absolute best is having a couple teenagers on a wagon behind the baler -- and then to unload in the barn. But if you can't find kids to work when you need them, or you want to eliminate that worry . . . accumulators are a pretty good option. Also allows you to load onto any flatbed trailer instead of just being tied to using traditional hay wagons.

Pretty handy if a customer drops their trailer off so you can just load onto their trailer instead of putting it in the barn and handling it a couple extra times.

 

[LHF2019]

Everyone around here is going to accumulators and grapples for small square bales. I still think the absolute best is having a couple teenagers on a wagon behind the baler -- and then to unload in the barn. But if you can't find kids to work when you need them, or you want to eliminate that worry . . . accumulators are a pretty good option. Also allows you to load onto any flatbed trailer instead of just being tied to using traditional hay wagons.

Pretty handy if a customer drops their trailer off so you can just load onto their trailer instead of putting it in the barn and handling it a couple extra times.

We use accumulator and grapple and will not load customers. We stack in groups for them to load themselves. We have actually gotten where we do not assist customers even at the barn. Load it on a wagon and they come and load their trailer or truck at their convenience. No more waiting around for them to show up or get there early

 

[LouNY]

When we were putting up 10-12,000 bales a year we very seldom would ride and stack in the wagons.
The only exception would be on a day with short manpower and only 3-400 bales to go with weather coming in. The kicker racks would hold about 120 bales, when hand stacked depending on the wagon it would easily be 150-200 bales back then we could usually only get 3-4 wagons under cover when loaded. So stacking made more sense then not. Now days we don't do but around a 1000 bales a year and many years when stacked in the wagon we just leave the last few hundred in wagons untill needed.
The bale baskets are nice on flat or gently sloped fields. We have always had to both on bale and forage wagons to the uphill side then finish of the load in other parts of the fields. It was always nice to chop or bale on our flatter fields. Also you would need several of those bale carts to stay ahead of a baler when hauling 2-4 miles from a field to the barn

 

[LHF2019]

I never had to do loose hay, fortunately. We were feeding 40-60 milking cows when I started, it was small squares with 90% picked off the ground and stacked on a wagon then unloaded and stacked in a mow to be feed out during the winter. That was useing a WD Allis Chalmers on a semi-mounted cyclebar mower, then our first conditioner was a steel rollered Meyers, after the first year that mower was converted with a pto extension and a rear hitch so we could pull the conditioner right behind the mower. Thinking back on those days I would say that many days 4-5 acres was a full days work between milkings. The baling was done by a Farmall 400 starting in 1956, When we finished mowing and were going to bale the WD would get unhooked from the mower to haul hay wagons. As time went on and the Farmall 560 got added to the farms fleet it became the baling tractor and baler got a bale thrower added to it. Then the first haybine arrived (cycle bar and intergrated with one steel and one rubber roller) which could be worked with the 400 but the 560 was much nicer on. The little AC was still being often used to haul wagons, along with the new IH 656 Hydro (mid 60's). Still using a kicker baler and hand stacking in the mowes. A 1000 bale day was a lot of work especially when it was done from after 10AM and before 5PM (finished milking and barn chores and before starting milking). More tractors and equipment got added on as the years went by along with more cows we were milking a 100 head by 1968. Late 1968 saw the addition of the Ford 8000 tractor. After that will considerable equipment and ground aqusistion the milking herd grow to 120 cows and lots of tractors and equipment. By this time much of the hay was done as haylage, a lot less labor/higher quality feed. The digestiblity and protein was much higher because of the earlier season harvesting (not having to get it dry, just well wilted)... The last square baling for milk cows was around 2012, they still do some square bales but most everything is round bales now days for beef cows (100+ brood cows).

doing some haylage, neighbors barn and silos in the background (3rd or 4th cutting)
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Square baling a few years ago.
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Love your history. We were still doing 100% in to the '90's so our equipment was much different for squares than yours. 2950/55 on a NH316 baler. New JD discbine in '89. Probably averaged 800 bales a day. When my uncle was done with hay he would bring his wagons and help. So now we were running 8 wagons with my cousin and I hauling the wagons from field to barn. 3 people in mow unloading and stacking and 3 in the field baling. And of course like you milking morning and nights. If enough help the baler would keep moving in the evenings. Was not unusual to have up to 8 (1000 bales) wagons lined up ready to unload the following morning. Haylage started to take over in '95/96 and dad built a bunk in '98 and upgraded a lot of equipment in '99 and passed away April 2000. No idea where the farm would have headed had he lived. I got one year to work with him ('99) November of '99 diagnosed and never set foot in the barn again except Xmas of that year. The following year I was running equipment I had never ran before. 3 Years later I could barely walk and quit milking and 2 years after that had an auction. And every day think what if.

I tell him I can do 3 wagons and then I am done for the day. 600 bales solo in 90degrees with the Sun wears me out! So he cuts the field into 1/3's or so and we usually do two wagons at a time. On a good year can get around 1700-1800k bales with 2nd cut included. All square bales with a new holland baler. Luckily he has a kicker and is pretty good at aiming it for me.

@LouNY 3-4 cuts! If we have a wonderful summer we get 3. Two is the normal where I am.

We never ran a kicker. Fully hand labor. 125/load. Usually 2 people on the wagon.

 

[Hay Dude]

Everyone around here is going to accumulators and grapples for small square bales. I still think the absolute best is having a couple teenagers on a wagon behind the baler -- and then to unload in the barn. But if you can't find kids to work when you need them, or you want to eliminate that worry . . . accumulators are a pretty good option. Also allows you to load onto any flatbed trailer instead of just being tied to using traditional hay wagons.

Pretty handy if a customer drops their trailer off so you can just load onto their trailer instead of putting it in the barn and handling it a couple extra times.

It’s all about labor. Accumulators replace people.
We have no shortage of labor in MY area, but I hear others do.

Accumulators can break and need a little maintenance, but they don’t get sick or complain about heat or need vacations, or care about what day or time you want to work.

Kinda like robotics in the field.

 

[LouNY]

Love your history. We were still doing 100% in to the '90's so our equipment was much different for squares than yours. 2950/55 on a NH316 baler. New JD discbine in '89. Probably averaged 800 bales a day. When my uncle was done with hay he would bring his wagons and help. So now we were running 8 wagons with my cousin and I hauling the wagons from field to barn. 3 people in mow unloading and stacking and 3 in the field baling. And of course like you milking morning and nights. If enough help the baler would keep moving in the evenings. Was not unusual to have up to 8 (1000 bales) wagons lined up ready to unload the following morning. Haylage started to take over in '95/96 and dad built a bunk in '98 and upgraded a lot of equipment in '99 and passed away April 2000. No idea where the farm would have headed had he lived. I got one year to work with him ('99) November of '99 diagnosed and never set foot in the barn again except Xmas of that year. The following year I was running equipment I had never ran before. 3 Years later I could barely walk and quit milking and 2 years after that had an auction. And every day think what if.

We never ran a kicker. Fully hand labor. 125/load. Usually 2 people on the wagon.

We had a trench silo in the late 50's then ended up with 2 concrete stave silos by 1985 If I can remember correctly the those two were 20x70's, plus were used two old wood stave silos for young stock, and the third for high moisture corn for several years. Then a bunker after I'd been gone a few years a third concrete stave that I think was a 24x70 went up. Then when I got back in the area around the mid 1990's they had started using ag bags for quite a bit of feed, then as the silos were getting in poor shape and unloaders were worn out they went to more ag bags and loading a self unloading wagon to use as a mixer feed wagon.

A picture from 2012 while filling one of the silo's, the last year for the milk cows, my brother sold the whole herd the next summer and switched to beef.

Filling the concrete stave silos in 2012


Filling ag bags that same year 12'X200'

 

[Hay Dude]

Beautiful Country, Lou.
A little hillier than my stompin grounds.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I own cows and they make it feasible to bale hay, if I didn't own cows I would absolutely not bale hay, there are to many far easier ways to scratch out a living.

 

[Hay Dude]

I own cows and they make it feasible to bale hay, if I didn't own cows I would absolutely not bale hay, there are to many far easier ways to scratch out a living.

Unless you have built-in year around demand for hay.

I’m a lucky guy,,,,, I think?

 

[RayIN]

Yes. I only been aware of that recently. How do you crack the hay open to dry faster? Not sure if I remember father mentioning what they did.

It's called a haybine. When operated correctly it cuts the grass/legumes, the rollers crimp stems and puts it into windrows. Then you pray it doesn't rain before you get it baled. We'd only cut maybe 20a at a time for that reason, cause if it rains you get to move it with a tedder and allow it to dry-again, then put into windrows again.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Unless you have built-in year around demand for hay.

I’m a lucky guy,,,,, I think?

That's what my cows are and I'm lucky enough to have enough customers to sell the excess to.

 

[LHF2019]

We had a trench silo in the late 50's then ended up with 2 concrete stave silos by 1985 If I can remember correctly the those two were 20x70's, plus were used two old wood stave silos for young stock, and the third for high moisture corn for several years. Then a bunker after I'd been gone a few years a third concrete stave that I think was a 24x70 went up. Then when I got back in the area around the mid 1990's they had started using ag bags for quite a bit of feed, then as the silos were getting in poor shape and unloaders were worn out they went to more ag bags and loading a self unloading wagon to use as a mixer feed wagon.

A picture from 2012 while filling one of the silo's, the last year for the milk cows, my brother sold the whole herd the next summer and switched to beef.


View attachment 5301975

Filling the concrete stave silos in 2012
View attachment 5301976View attachment 5301977View attachment 5301978

Filling ag bags that same year 12'X200'
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That's interesting that you were putting up silos after already having a trench silo. I absolutely love filling silo. That is what makes fall, fall. I have dealt with bags at a farm I did relief milking and put one up myself. If you have the right base under them I think they are a good compromise from dealing with silos and the waste from a bunk. I did not have a good base and wasn't much fun. Same with the farm I milked at. Filling a chopper box as the mixer wagon was how dad started feeding. Pulling it upstairs and running it down the hay chute into the feed carts. The upgrades that happened quick in the last years were the bunk, Ubeler feed cart for feeding cows, Kelley elevators installed in silo room. One going out for corn silage from silo and grain and one elevator back in to feed and the Knight mixer wagon. He also bought a gravity box with auger for fertilizer. All of this in a 2 year span when for a kids point of view just small gradual changes in the previous decade. I don't know if the '97-'99 were good milk price years or not.

We had a 20x60 and a 16x40 silos for corn and the occasional haylage in the beginning.
20x60 was put up in the 70's. Pictures courtesy of dad's slides

Somewhere I have the chopping line up. Will have to find.

 

[Rockbadchild]

It's called a haybine. When operated correctly it cuts the grass/legumes, the rollers crimp stems and puts it into windrows. Then you pray it doesn't rain before you get it baled. We'd only cut maybe 20a at a time for that reason, cause if it rains you get to move it with a tedder and allow it to dry-again, then put into windrows again.
View attachment 5301983

You can bale without raking or tedder the windrow? I have to rake at least once, most time twice before I can bale, our overnight dew damp the hay like crazy.