DAPNET Forums Archive › Forums › Sustainable Living and Land use › Sustainable Farming › Haying Techniques with Draft Animals
- This topic has 83 replies, 19 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 10 months ago by karl t pfister.
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- June 19, 2009 at 3:20 pm #52644near horseParticipant
First off – here in the inland NW we have been getting rain or threats there of since the end of May – no good hay cutting weather (good grass growing). Here, there is no 2nd cutting because there is essentially little or no rain in July and August.
I would like to know if any of you that bale are using sisal twine rather than the poly plastic stuff? I’n just tired of the huge mass of twine left after a season of feeding poly tied bales. Finding sisal twine in my area (w/in 250 miles) is almost impossible – but I’m still working at it. Any pointers or other comments regarding using sisal twine. I know it doesn’t last for years but that’s fine. I’m interested in things like adjustments on billhook tension, tightening or loosening the “clamps” on the bale chamber ….. just things that need to be addressed when you switch from poly to sisal.
Thanks – I might have brought up the sisal issue previously but here it is again.
BTW – I’m running a JD 347 PTO baler.
June 19, 2009 at 6:43 pm #52664karl t pfisterParticipanti use sisal on a 327 J D pto kicker baler , using 9000 ft twine. a few years ago there were terrible quality control issues , somtimes the twine was almost half the diameter making it much weaker and giving the knotters fits ie slipping thru .The company replaced the bad ones ,but not the time we spent fussing around and rebaling broken bales . You’d get 1/3into a bale of twine and it would just start breaking bales when it had not missed one in 3 wagons . ?. The knotters need to be adjusted for diameter size twine you are using . Bale chamber tension “clamps relate to twine only in that you can’t make monster bales with skinny sisal twine , I have heard you can get away with skinnier poly than sisal not sure why but never have used poly except on round balers . hope that helps a little it’s only my opinion karl
June 19, 2009 at 9:04 pm #52653Joshua KingsleyParticipantWe used poly and sisal depending on what we could buy at the time. We had little trouble switching over from one to the other with the exception that the knotter knives have to be sharp to keep the twine cut off. We used an International #46, a Massy Furgerson #12, and a friend had a John Deere. I don’t remember the model on the deere but some years ou could get the sisal and others it was only poly that we could buy. Best of luck, Josh
June 20, 2009 at 3:21 pm #52645near horseParticipantThanks for your replies.
I ended up talking to the Bridon Cordage Rep for this region and she located some sisal twine for me. But even she admits that no one keeps it on hand much because it doesn’t “keep” well on the shelf and starts to lose some of its strength and consistency over time. So one has to be aware that although the sisal twine is “new in the box”, it may have been shuffled from one store to another or just sat in a back room for a few years. I think that may be the case for what I’ve located. I’ll let you know how it performs.
June 23, 2009 at 2:54 pm #52646near horseParticipantHi Joel,
We do have a Big R nearby (about 100 miles one way) and they have a little sisal but only the 16,000 ft for round bales. Our Cenex coops have become Primeland and is actually where I’m getting a bit of sisal twine from but am very ambivalent as the warehouse guys have mentioned that this stuff has been bounced from one warehouse to the next over the last few years.
This is becoming hardly worth the effort.
June 26, 2009 at 7:16 pm #52616Lane LinnenkohlParticipantDid someone mention hay? We’ve been busy this week…
June 26, 2009 at 10:36 pm #52634Donn HewesKeymasterNice work Dry Branch, those are nice looking loads of hay. I too was trying to bring in some hay yesterday. I got a couple loads in the barn by 5 pm. when I got a flat tire on a hay wagon just as the black skies rolled in and really opened up. Challenging work for good horses and mules. By the time I transferred about thirty bales to another wagon and raced (almost a trot) back to the barn, it was thunder and lightning and trees braking. Quick unhook horses and stand in the barn and unharness while the storm passed. A few wet windrows today. I would have left the field a few minutes earlier than I did, but for the flat tire.
June 27, 2009 at 12:32 am #52658OldKatParticipant@Donn Hewes 9736 wrote:
Nice work Dry Branch, those are nice looking loads of hay. I too was trying to bring in some hay yesterday. I got a couple loads in the barn by 5 pm. when I got a flat tire on a hay wagon just as the black skies rolled in and really opened up. Challenging work for good horses and mules. By the time I transferred about thirty bales to another wagon and raced (almost a trot) back to the barn, it was thunder and lightning and trees braking. Quick unhook horses and stand in the barn and unharness while the storm passed. A few wet windrows today. I would have left the field a few minutes earlier than I did, but for the flat tire.
… and it still hasn’t rained here. A grand total of 17″ for the year, 11 of that in one weekend in April. None at all since early May. Oh, and the fifth day in a row of 100 plus temps, 104 yesterday. Frustrating 🙁
June 29, 2009 at 5:30 am #52647near horseParticipantI also started haying on Friday and made my first pass around our smaller field (~5 ac) w/ no mishaps but I had to keep my horses reined up a bit as they wanted to trot. Started in on the second round and – BANG – broke the old pitman stick BUT no problem I have spares. Unfortunately when I went to replace it I noticed that the “bearing” on the flywheel was pretty loose and sloppy. And that put me out of commision until Monday (or later) when I order the replacement plate setup from Norm Macnair.
Has anyone used the replacements he has?
June 30, 2009 at 4:13 pm #52654mstacyParticipantGeoff,
Do you have contact information for Norm MacNair? Or any other sources of parts for McCormick mowers?
-Matt
July 1, 2009 at 1:36 am #52606ngcmcnParticipantMaine has had 8-1/2″ of rain in June, the highest amount since records have been kepted.
It’ll take a week of dry weather for the fields to dry out enough to even think about dry hay. No baleage……..little chop from what i’ve seen.
We are really tired of the mud which it seems has been here since march. Oh well lets hope for a nice july and August.
Neal
MaineJuly 1, 2009 at 2:00 am #52614PlowboyParticipantRain here in central N.Y. too. We have a small amount of square bales in but our best hay is getting past it’s prime. My parents cut 5 acres of green feed with a #7 and a hayloader to supplement pasture for their dairy cows. Getting ready to go over it the second time if this keeps up. I’m hoping for hay weather this weekend. We have a young team that needs some hay to rake and we need 12,000 square bales and 200 round bales to feed everybody until this time next year. When the weather breaks bigger batches and longer days will be the norm.
July 1, 2009 at 3:36 am #52585Gabe AyersKeymasterWell it seems everyone’s weather is simply extreme. We had more rain also in May and June, the local TV weather guesser said second most since keeping records. At one point we had 10 inches in 2 days. Puts the contour cultivation to a test for washing. It was way wet for a while, most commercially fertilized hay lodged and fell over. Then a high pressure moved in, it didn’t rain for 9 days and was really hot.
We managed to run the three foot through the potato patch before each rain, putting double shovels on for the last pass this weekend to lay it by.
We have just finished cutting our first share crop field. It is a farm we manage the woodland on too. It is about 10 miles from our farm and has improved grasses. Not much hayland up in the mountains.
About a 1000 bales of well cured unconditioned mixed grass hay in the barn. All done with machinery and fossil fuel. That’s about the only way we could get it done under the scenario of having over a dozen drafters to keep all winter on a small place. It’s a good start, but not what I would prefer doing. We simply have to many horses. We’re not feeding as many animals as Plowboy and family.
We’ll move our equipment back to he farm and cut our’s as soon as the weather promises three more rain free good drying condition days. The horses will get to rake some maybe.
Wishing everyone finds a way to make and save feed for he winter.
On the past it’s prime situation I submit that many old time standard varieties will gain favor as weather extremes continue and late harvesting is needed to have stable dry weather. The best stuff in all of the grasses we are cutting now is the Timothy, still tall green, sweet and just now pollinating. The Trefoil is now ripe too. It seems late is about the only time we can make good hay over the last decade or so, in the central Appalachians.
We will be glad when all the hay making is done so we can go back to actually making so income again. Having to harvest some logs around the hay making just to keep up with regular life expenses.
Keeping up with special order lumber and beam orders for the Crooked River Farm project and delivering to on site bandmill is a challenge. We do this early while the dew is still on. Hard to get enough done this time of year.
July 1, 2009 at 4:58 am #52648near horseParticipant@mstacy 9760 wrote:
Geoff,
Do you have contact information for Norm MacNair? Or any other sources of parts for McCormick mowers?
-Matt
HI MAtt,
I do have Norm’s contact info – do you need it? Another source for MD mower parts is Balster’s equipment – I think both are listed in the “equipment section” of DAP.
Are you looking for something in particular or just helping me out?
Thanks.
July 1, 2009 at 12:10 pm #52617Lane LinnenkohlParticipantI cut some more hay late yesterday afternoon. 7/10’s of an inch of rain overnight. The forecast called for dry weather for the next 5 to 7 days. 😡
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