Grain Binder Hay?

[dlskidmore]

So I’ve been contemplating a number of issues with making hay for myself. I was looking at small hillside equipment and came across someone using a small grain binder. One of the problems we have here is very short weather windows for curing hay. The pole stacking techniques described in “Haying With Horses” would work but when I saw the grain binder it also occurred to me that shocked grain sheds rain and continues curing. Is there a reason why bound hay sheaves couldn’t live somewhere between loose and baled hay, with the advantage of being able to cure in bundled form without an apparatus?

[Donn Hewes]

One of the things a grain binder is designed to do is work with a plant of relatively uniform length and stalk. Even weeds can mess up the binder. A horse drawn grain binder is a pretty big and unwieldy contraption. It certainly wouldn’t take to hills that couldn’t be hayed in a more conventional way. In general a clean grain crop will shed rain better than a hay crop; as the green hay will be trying to absorb moisture with each opportunity. Just my two cents.

[dlskidmore]

Yeah, most grain binders wouldn’t be suitable. The first one I saw though was pretty small, just a V in the front, and the knotting apparatus in the back, spat the bundles out behind. Tried to find it again and can’t, which is making it unlikely that I’d find one for sale anywhere.

[dlskidmore]

… it was like a corn binder but smaller…

[Author]

Posts