Haying Techniques with Draft Animals

[Carl Russell]

I agree with Jason, when I cut a lot of hay, I always favored Timothy, with red clover, and I rarely cut hay before July 1, just getting two cuts, or at least pasturing the second growth. There is definitely more ways to manage grass than the conventional grow fast and cut often, especially if you think of growing soil as the primary product.

I just mulched-mowed a pretty good crop of browning tall lodging feed with a brush-hog. Can’t feed it to the animals, but fed the soil, and made way for second growth.

Carl

[Rod]

@Carl Russell 9778 wrote:

I just mulched-mowed a pretty good crop of browning tall lodging feed with a brush-hog. Can’t feed it to the animals, but fed the soil, and made way for second growth.

Carl

I did the same, very lush thick stand of potential hay. But I raised my bushog up so that I ended with a 6-8 ” stand of the understory grasses. Good for grazing which is happening right now. The cows also eat the cut stuff so little feed wasted. Second cut on other fields coming in strong thanks to the constant rain.

[Donn Hewes]

Thanks for mowing; the forecast is just starting to change for the weekend! Just kidding, I will mow some this weekend and pretend I am making hay. Some times I bale bedding hay.

[Plowboy]

We have good soil here and raise alot of Alfalfa to feed to the dairy cows. We have some clover but heavy clover doesn’t dry fast. June alfalfa is nice to feed dairy cows when they are milking good but that won’t happen this year. We also cut some old native grass hay on a neighbors farm for the horses to eat during winter. That hay is always dust free and pretty green even if it gets cut late in the season. I work full time and run a business on the side but come good hay weather we all pull together and get as much in in a day as possible.

[near horse]

Well, we had a nice window of opportunity (say about 8 days w/o rain predicted) to get some hay in. I had the horses out on the #9 mower until I broke the pitman and noticed the bearing was shot. So, in the interest of getting some hay in I resorted to using the swather and dropped about 8 acres of pretty decent hay. Soon thereafter, the forecast changed from moderate temps to highs in the 90’s – a sure sign we’re getting thunderstorms pretty quick. So the anxiety sets in …. It also seemed as though every piece of equipment I used needed something fixed within the first hour or two of operation – EX the wobble box on the swather blew oil alll over the the knife belt drive so it no cutty. Next my windrow inverter had some personal issues but the killer was when the knotter on my baler continued to miss knots – and I fiddled and fidgeted until my neighbor stopped in w/ his visiting “brother AND BALER MECHANIC extraordinaire” – yes! After 20 minutes of adjusting, I was good to go and rain was imminent that afternoon (Sunday 7/5). I jumped on and cranked the tractor over and clangity clang – my water pump pulley had become a little loose and the fan hit the radiator. I hadn’t moved one inch and was done for awhile:mad: Then the rain started as pulled the radiator out of the tractor…

So now I’m following Donn’s comment about “baling bedding” – that’s about what I’ve got out there now.

But ya know, I have yet to see a horse whose fan goes through his radiator. One of these days I’ll learn. Dang.

[Donn Hewes]

Pouring rain and baking cherry pie! Mowed on Sat, and baled 288 on Sunday. When I started mowing the forecast for Monday was a slight chance of a shower and when I finished it was 50%! Just gotta laugh. I had a great drying day Sunday but with all the soil moisture I did not think it would dry in 26 hours. I tedded twice, from 9 to 11 and 12 to 2, raked from 3:30 to 5:30 and baled from 6 to 8. All that tedding is a lot of extra work and if the weather would permit it I would rather not work that hard; but the nice hay was dry at 6. The ground was soft and I overworked one of my horses who came up a little lame the next morning. Vet out to today and said she has a little sprain. A week or two of rest and bute and she should be fine. Unfortunately I still have a lot of hay to make. Yesterday I used three head on the baler and baled to the ground instead of the wagon. That takes longer but it will work for a week or two. Good thing we have a young intern to pick them all up off the ground. Now I am thinking about buying another horse. How do you know when to mow? – wait until it starts to rain and then you know you can bale when it stops!

[ngcmcn]

Don, we still have standing water in some of our fields and deep clover by now so we’ll need some good sunny weather to get it dry. Some of our marginal fields i mowed early(dropped) look good for a late cut so we’re still hopeful. Its just ggoing to be late.

Neal maine

[Donn Hewes]

Neal, While I have had my share of wet days, but I think a lot of people have had way more inches of rain than I have. I was hoping to mow tomorrow but my fields are good and wet now. How do you know you are making hay in the Northeast? When you wear rubber boots instead of a sun hat to go out and mow!

[ngcmcn]

There you go Don………a good sense of humor. Hmmmm? Rubber boots and rain gear. Some of our June cut hay is showing outward signs of mold in the loft maybe we’ll take some of our cheese out there and try for a “grass mold brushed rind” sort’ve effect? Sally Fallon would love it. Weston price would sit up in his grave. The hippies would buy it…………Lemons to lemonade…..mud to mud pies……..hay mold to green back Rind!

Thanks for the humor

Neal

[Gabe Ayers]

Here is what we did instead of going to HPD.

Hope everyone in the northeast is able to may some hay now that it has cleared up there.

[Rod]

Hi Donn

I thing I read that you have a Grimm GD tedder. I wonder if yours has tractor type lug tiress and if you have had any problems with the belt twisting (turning upside down)?

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Rod, My tedder has snow tires or something like that, not lugged tires. Never had a problem with the belts. Stuck a work for two sunny days. Just about kills me.

[ngcmcn]

My Grimm has all season baloney skins on it and works great, my belts dld turn over, then one broke, then replaced both, then got new ones from Grimm in Rutland. Big difference.

The tide in the hayfields going out, only 2″ of standing water today.

Neal

[Rod]

@ngcmcn 9914 wrote:

My Grimm has all season baloney skins on it and works great, my belts dld turn over, then one broke, then replaced both, then got new ones from Grimm in Rutland. Big difference.

The tide in the hayfields going out, only 2″ of standing water today.

Neal

What are baloney skins? I bought new belts for mine at the auto parts store, a standard v belt (B74) but both of them have turned on me. Is the Grimm one diffrent than a standard “v” belt?

[ngcmcn]

Baloney Skins: Worn out tires.

Don’t know if the Grimm belts are special? They don’t turn over.

Neal maine

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