Haying Techniques with Draft Animals

[Gabe Ayers]

We are hopeful to capture that little piece of summer too, but first I need about a grand for baler repairs, around tax time, after a rainy spring that has limited our work time but increased the hay even more so. (whine)

Best hay here in recent memory. I suspect there has been better, I just probably forgot. I feel blessed to have access to all of this kind of life. It is priceless, but it takes money too…

Doesn’t someone need a young big black molly mule? I’d like to swap her for a hay baler repair right about now…

[Gabe Ayers]

BF,

I would like to find a decent 336 JD baler for 500.00 around central Appalachia, it just doesn’t exist to my knowledge. I have had this baler for about 20 years or so, never let it stay out in the weather and the wear blocks, clutch and several seal bearings are simply worn out. It has been a great machine, having baled about 3000 bales a year for us all this time and I suppose I will just suck it up and overhaul what I have and try to make do.

This repair or overhaul is somewhat of a community deal too. The fellow that is doing it and his partner are retired mechanics and farmers that need the work and will do a good job on getting it tuned in like new – so I think it may be best to invest in the old machine and my neighbors. John Deere parts are just expensive, but the service the machine provides is so important in the small window one has to capture solar energy in the form of hay and I would guess this work would bring the machine back to a condition that will last the rest of my working lifetime. My son can deal with it after that.

Right now we are stuck in a monsoon condition that is giving us inches of rain daily in the afternoon and hay is growing well. An interesting comparison when driving through the community is that the folks that put allot (or any) of chemical fertilizer on their ground now have lodged hay, laying flat on the ground and ours is still standing with the timothy in the boot and still growing in height and volume. Another good reason to stay organic…or natural fertilizer only (manure and compost).

I prefer to not manipulate the hay any more than necessary to get it dry, baled and in the barn. A tedder will save a day sometimes, but if the weather is right it isn’t necessary.

Farmers grow grass and legumes, but weather makes hay!

We usually mow it one day and let it lay for the next day and rake it once on the third, usually single windrow and bale it that afternoon. We often rake with a 256 NH side delivery on a forecart and pick it up with the hay wagon and horses. I’d love to have one of the bale pickers shown in an earlier post, but our fields are often small, sloping and irregular shaped so picking it up off the ground works. We seldom get down more than a few hundred bales at a time so it is doable without being overwhelmed. Since some of the fields are a ways from the farm we often transport back with the flat bed log truck and a gooseneck trailer. We have a hay elevator but haven’t used it in years – the years since my son got big enough to throw them up in the loft.

Hope everyone is having a good season where ever you are. So far our gardens and truck crops haven’t washed from all this rain so I am thankful for that as well as many other things…..

[ngcmcn]

Jason, Interesting point about fertilizer and rapid growth/lodged hay. We too only do as much hay with our horses that we can comfortably get done well. 3-5 acres and yes we always say a prayer to the baler god and annoint with grease.

Was checking out your HHFF site, alot a good stuff on there. In one photo Chads neck yoke has a nice arc to it. Seems to raise the point of attachment to the pole. Did he come up with that, because i need to make a new neck yoke, it matches perfectly as far as i can tell the arc of old buggy axle, which i have. 7/8″ solid.

Best

Neal Maine

[Gabe Ayers]

Neal,

I am not sure which photo, but I suspect it is just a bent breast yoke from leaving a pair tied up to a tree and they moving around and getting the breast yoke against a tree while reaching for just one more mouthful of leaves….

Generally the breast yoke is straight but the use of jockey yokes or whiffle trees to accommodate the D-Ring side backer arrangements, the breast yoke does hang a little lower. One thing we didn’t discuss much in the D-Ring debates here is the fact that it does take longer and a little more effort to hitch horses with the D-Ring. The suspension of the tongue weight on the back pad requires a tighter adjustment between the side backer straps and the tugs.

Chad Vogel has relocated to NY State and is working on a farm with some folks that are on the site occasionally I think. We miss him in the central Appalachians, but bet he is doing well where ever he is at.

Thanks for visiting the site and giving your feedback.

Keep working them hard, resting them when they are doing everything right and make them stronger all along the way.

[Does’ Leap]

We cut about 2 acres last week and learned a lot. Here are some experiences/observations from our maiden voyage peppered with questions. Please comment on any / all (contradictions welcome).

The mower (MD#9) with the new “easy cut” system worked very well, though I have nothing to compare it with. This was our first time mowing with our team and they were calm and willing, but a little nervous to start. We cut a 2 acre field, 1 acre one day, 1 the next. First day went flawlessly. Second day I found I was plugging toward the inner shoe of the mower. The key seemed to be to stop immediately and correct the situation by backing up, clearing the guards, and starting over. Sometimes, I could also lift my bar slightly and have it keep cutting smoothly. Any ideas on how to prevent this? Mowing was great. What a rush! Watching the mower for smooth functioning, keeping the team straight and true, geeing over at the end of a swath, watching out for obstacles and kicking up the cutter bar to avoid them, etc. – all a fun challenge. This was right up there with logging in my mind in terms of demands of driver and horses.

We tedded twice a day using a Grimm tedder– once in the morning after the dew was off and once in around 2 pm when the hay seem to be dry on top. Tedding was a great time to work on perfecting driving skills. Endless circles with out much at stake if you veer off your path. We have one horse with a much longer stride than the other and my goal was to get the shorter strided horse to keep up with out jigging while on a lose line. We made lots of progress here.

Many experience hay makers told me that making early June square bales is tough b/c there is a lot of moisture in the stems. They were right! One area we raked too early and the hay wasn’t drying as well as when it was spread out. To remedy this I would run the edge of the rake (modern-style John Deere side-delivery rake) over the windrow to flip it over. I then ran over it a bunch of times with the tedder which spread it out into a 10’ swath. Raking was great fun seeing all that hay form into neat windrows.

We baled with a John Deere 336 with our small Kubota. It worked great with some adjustments. Some of the field we baled early to beat the rain. Those bales we cut open in the barn and had our kids break them apart – lots of fun on the farm. They are fine with no heating. In total we made around 150 bales of nice early 1st cut hay. Goats love it as a supplement to their pasture. Odor and color of the hay is great.

We found it took about 5 days to get a nice dry bale in these conditions. Luckily it never rained! It was a great culmination of working equipment, willing calm horses, and rookie teamsters. Not flawless, but a good experience coupled with a usable product.

Thanks to all for their advice on the mower and haying techniques in general. Happy haying.

George

[jen judkins]

That is awesome, George! Kristan and the boys look like they are having a blast too.

[Mark Cowdrey]

Congrats George.

Is your baler PTO driven? Is your Kubota in the 30HP range? I wonder if your day1 /day2 difference was loosing just that much of the edge off your knives?

I hope to begin my first effort around the first of July. Still no rake or tedder (BTW).

Mark

[Rod]

Are your rock guards still down where the belong. It one hit something, got bent up and lifted the blade that could account for the increase in clogging.

[near horse]

George,

I agree w/ Mark on this one. Many haymakers switch to a newly sharpened knife after each day’s cutting (sometimes even 1/2 day). It’s nice to have 2 knives so the swap can happen pretty seemlessly then just sharpen them up at night. Also, the guard nearest the mower is the one that likes to plug and others on this site have mentioned using stub guards or one w/ no “top” on it to reduce plugging. But sharpness solves a lot of problems.

Haying is awesome though, isn’t it? Good job.

your day1 /day2 difference was loosing just that much of the edge off your knives?

[CharlyBonifaz]

@does leap:
there is a red line running back from your left horse’s harness
what’s its use?
elke

[Does’ Leap]

In response to the questions/comments:

1. There are open guards toward the inner shoe and the appear to be straight and true.
2. I will definitely check the knives – seems like a logical explanation.
3. My tractor is 38 horse and runs the PTO driven baler – slow and steady.
4. The line attached to the harnesses goes around the back of the two horses and attaches to the same place on the far horse’s harness. It is used to prevent the horses from turning inside out and losing control of the lines while ground driving. We have since gone to a leather strap with two clips that hook them together at the britchen.

George

[Donn Hewes]

George and Kristan, way to go. I think you have the first dry bales on DAP. Your prize is on the way. I am going to guess your knife will stay sharp for alot more than two acres. The knife I am using now is still sharp after 40 acres of clipping.

Mowers will plug for a variety of reasons but 95 % of the time it is getting grass hung on the tip of the guard were the knife can’t reach it. This wad of grass rides around and soon plugs the guard next to it. The reason the inside shoes are plugging is simple. You are hitting the mowed grass instead of the unmowed. Mowed grass from the round before is laying down and perfect for hanging on the end of the guard. That is nice thick hay; is the grass board making a good clean path to follow? Often a change in the wind direction or heaviness of the cutting will effect how the grass board makes a path. Once you have a good clear path it is just a trick of driving to keep that inside head of the cutter assembly right there in that clear path. Easy to say but it takes some practice.

A few years ago I visited an amish farm were they were mowing alfalfa with out a grass board because they didn’t want that little uneven drying. They could do this with two stub guards on the inside of the cutter bar. These stub guards will usually (but not all ways) plow right through the mowed grass that is laying in front of it and just chop it as it goes. I don’t use a grass board for clipping now, and it is fun to practice the technique that keeps it from plugging. I don’t think the stub guards have anything on your knife setup if the grass board is working right. I just added it as a point of interest.

Again, congratulations on making some nice hay with horses. Donn

[Rod]

@Does’ Leap 9452 wrote:

In response to the questions/comments:

1. There are open guards toward the inner shoe and the appear to be straight and true.

   Hi George

   What I meant by the bent guards is when a guard hits something from below it can bend up and lift the blade up a little so that it does not shear as it should on the adjacent stationary plates. Think a pair of scissors or tin shears with a loose pivot screw. It’s the same principal and issue, when the two surfaces are not in contact the cutting action can then just bend the material being cut instead of shearing it. The way you can seat the knives is to bang any high guards down to seat the adjacent high knives on the stationary shear plate. The guards are malleable and meant to be adjusted this way.

   That may be something you know and not the problem but is worth checking. To do this just look for knives that are riding high and not setting down on the stationary knife and you can usually spot the high guard causing the problem.

[ngcmcn]

Nice work George. Feels good doesn’t it.

We put up about the same amount of hay last week off two acres in three days, but our fields don’t look as good as yours. As far as plugging on the cutter bar goes……well, welcome to sickle bar mowers. Stubs help, sharp and well aligned guards help, bar tilt can effect it……..i find keepping that inner shoe in the cleared track from the grass board is the most effective. Not always an easy task in these little knotty meadows in Vt and Me.In fact riding on top of the swath just a bit works well too.

I mowed first day, tedded once on second day, tedded agin on third then raked and baled. We had a lot of trouble with our old baler(NH66) which i have worked on a bit and ignored my own tenet of putting new twine in each season. Once we did that it ran perfect. the horses stood beautifully while i frigged with it.

So the next move George, is to pull a baler with the horses.

Good job first time out.

Neal
maine

[Does’ Leap]

Thanks all (again) for your various insights. I am eager to head out again armed with my previous experience and your comments. Rod, that guard did become lose my first time out. In fact I lost one of the hold down bolts. I brought it back to the shop and, lacking a lock nut, welded the bolt and nut together. I will have to grind it off later if I want to adjust but wanted to continue mowing unperturbed. Anyway, the alignment is good and I will continue to be aware of that.

Neal, very cool your baling with horses. I think my next move will be getting the hayloader up and running. I have heard loose hay is superior b/c you can put it up with slightly higher moisture and there is generally less insult to the hay. I can foresee doing some loose hay, but mostly bales.

Don, the grass board seems to be clearing me a nice path, but I will watch that as well. Can you all sharpen the knives on you haybine guard system? The easy cut knives are non-sharpening. However, they are cheap (about $1/per) and are easy to change out b/c they are held down by bolts. Are the haybine knives riveted or bolted?

George

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