haying

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Tim, Yes, would agree, sometimes a hay tedder can be used too much, but other times, mid-June, and a short hay window with moisture in the ground; it is the perfect thing for making hay. Even then I would perfer to ted before hay has had much chance to dry much (next morning after mowing for example).

I used to not use a tedder hardly at all, then I started useing it all the time, now I think I am learning when best for my ground, and power sources. I want to get a rotary tedder so when I do use one, I can have more effect.

[mitchmaine]

on reraking, i always found if it laid overnight, it would dew under the windrow and couldn’t dry unless you reraked it over to a spot that was dry.
my mower was down this time so i cut with the tractor. i always made a rule not to ask the horses to sweep up what i put down with a machine. like expecting your guest to clean his plate after you served him up. around here you serve yourself take as much as you wish but clean your plate.
same with the haying. donn was using a conditioner i think, but still mowing with horses. if they are hard enough to mow it down, even with a conditioner, then they should be hard enough to sweep it up later.
my weak link here is me.
good haying. looks like a week of fog with showers. oh, joy.

mitch
which would you rather be, a weak old man or a week old baby?

[Donn Hewes]

Kristan, I never really told you my schedule for last week. Here goes:

Wed. mowed about 5 1/2 acres with a haybine and a team of four. I mowed from about 1pm. to 4pm. Nice cool weather – easy work.

Thurs. about 9:30 I started tedding about 2/3 of what was mowed the day before. I tedded the heavy area and what I suspected would be harder to dry. About 12 am farm intern starts mowing with a sickle bar, and I join her after a break and together we mow about 4 more acres leaving a little strip! ( reason I quit mowing is becuase I knew we had more down than we were going bale in a day. That was still nice weather but VERY heavy mowing.

Friday. We start raking around 10 am. with two teams and two rakes, and it takes about 2 hours to rake the first 5 1/2 acres. We had a guy shooting some video holding us up slightly. we give the horses a good break on long days. In the barn with the bridles and lines off. Hay and automatic waterers.
We started baling around 2 pm. We filled three wagons and stopped to unload( we only have three wagons) Started baling again about 5 pm and filled 2 more wagons. First day total of 401 bales.

Saturday: Intern is gone to farmers Market. I rake the 4 acres from 9:30 to 11:30. Around 1 pm we start baling and make 201 on three wagons. We only baled half of the windrows I raked. Neighbor helps us unload! I went out with the mules and finish mowing the last acre and a half, at 5pm.

Sunday: it is getting hot. Started baling at mid-day. No raking needed hay too dry. Baled 230 with tired horses.

Mon. Raked the last little bit in the am. Tried some mowing in a new field but quite as soon as the video guy left. Everyone needed a break ( except the mules!) Baled the last 160 about 6 pm. with a tractor. UGH. Hoping tooth fairies will unload.

Even though it was a long, hot week, I had fun and think it went well. I will continue to make the animals more productive as my methods and abilities improve. Five day total: 12 acres, 1030 bales.

So far we have made 1600 bales this year. All mowed, raked and baled with horses and mules (except the last 160!) Getting all the wagons unloaded is the hardest part for us. I will make a few more bales of first cutting and then start to think about second cutting. Some of it is ready to mow now. Since the begining of April We have clipped over 50 acres, some fields twice, and I am at least six acres behind right now. All the clipping is with horses and mules.

[near horse]

Hey Donn,

Do you really feed that much hay each year? Maybe I’m miscalculating but you have 4 horses/mules and your milking herd of sheep correct? So how much do you figure you feed each day? This year I ended up with at least 4T extra and I don’t put up much.

Also, for you all sweltering back east, we’re gonna break 80F today for the first time this year! Nobody has been able to get any haying done – cool and rainy every day or two for weeks. Last night low 48 – now in 2 days we could be at 90 for a high. Too much too fast but at least we can “saw down” some of this hay now.

Haying season always makes people frantic and irritable around here. Hurry, hurry – oops, that thing broke or didn’t work ….. It’s hay for crying out loud. Let’s enjoy the ride a bit (I need to take my own advice!).

Have at it!!

[near horse]

BTW – How do you load your wagons? Walking along and toss ’em up one at a time or do you bunch/group your bales before loading? Our crew (when there is one) hates loading more than unloading.

[jac]

Geoff I can assure you that hay making turns every person involved go completly gaga!! over here I spend any spare moment scanning the skyline for the faintest of clouds…are those cows laying down ? any sign that the weather is to break sets me off.. I think if we went to any corner of the planet we would find normaly sane farmers going off the rails.. why do we say “corners of the planet” BTW ? I gave up my subscription to the Flat Earth Society ages ago !!
John

[Tim Harrigan]

Donn,
yes, first cutting is usually where the tedder really shines. I was thinking George and Kristan were on second cutting now, that is why I focused on tedding as a place to cut back. I know the rotary tedders are taking over now and I think they need to be managed much differently from the older style kicker tedders that were designed mostly to fluff the hay and open it up for better air movement. Those were pretty easy on the hay and pulled fairly easy as well. I raked and tedded several acres with my yearling working steers with one of those and they did fine.

The rotary tedders do not have a lot in common with those other than the name. They are very aggressive with the hay and can really damage the hay if it is at all dry. In first cutting I would ted with one of those within a couple of hours of mowing, then perhaps again the next morning if there was a heavy dew and I the weather required pushing the hay as fast as possible. Even on the second day I would think hard, dew is free water and will dry up fast in good weather, and what you are really after is the water bound in and between the plant cells that is a little harder to get at. We really find that leaving a full width swath of mown hay and then using as little mechanical manipulation as possible is the best plan A. Plans B and C ramp up the hay handling as needed. Plan A requires full cooperation of the weather.

Not all haybines will throw a full width swath, that is where tedding soon after mowing can really help. That is one advantage of cutterbars.

The other issue with rotary rakes is power use. Sounds like you have a powered forecart so maybe not a big deal, but the rotary rake can take a lot of power in heavy, first cutting, wet hay. I do not know exactly how much, that is just my observation after using one on a 30 hp tractor. So if someone had one on a ground driven forcart the application of power in these hot, humid days where one operation follows another would be something to think about. Not so much on second cut because the yields less and easier to handle, but then less reason to ted as well.

[Donn Hewes]

Rough Calculations: 4 horses and mules, 1 per day summer and fall, 160. 4 per day winter and spring, 720 total 880. Never know when I might decide to buy a horse!

Sheep get the best hay! Apx: 52 to 58 sheep (maybe 3-4 rams, 8-12 yearlings, 40 – 45 adult ewes) 8 to 10 bales a day including bedding.

10 x 170 days = 1700, I like about 600 second cutting (or more) for ewes in late gestation. That means about 2000 first cutting.

As far as loading a wagon, I prefer pulling a wagon behind the baler. Someone walks on the wagon and stacks the bales as they come off the baler. Actually a very pleasant job. My wife usually kicks everyone off the wagon. She is my “hay babe”. Better than a bale kicker!

Tim, I couldn’t agree more about your comments on a tedder. I was guessing Kristan was on first cutting hay but you might be right. That might explain the green stuff not drying easily. Also more time raking and tedding a bigger area to get the number of bales. Kristan? I want to get the bigger / meaner tedder for those times when I need it, but you can’t just use it any where. Mitch has a 14′ tedder that he is pulling with a home made PTO cart. That is what I want. I also had a lot of hay get rained on the last few years that could have been good hay (not great) if I had dried it and baled it the next day. My tedder won’t quite do that. In hay making I am all ways persueing several ideas at once. I believe this tedder might help me make better hay (and cover more ground) earlier in the summer. Perhaps allowing me to use the haybine less. My haybine with the skirt all the way open leaves a full width swathe.

[near horse]

HELP! I mowed last year but it was late late overripe dry stuff – so not so difficult and everything went honky dory. Today – not so much. Plugged the guards over and over (like every 50 ft or so). Not the same guard each time either. There is some really fine stemmed stuff down near the base of some of the grass plants and this stuff is tall and dense by western standards (obviously 1st and only cut). I’m running the old style guards w/ ledger plates but a serrated knife. Any thoughts? Too much space between the knife sections and guards? I’ll tell you that can ruin a good day trying to use horses – no fun for them or me!!!

[Donn Hewes]

It is a fine line between working right and barely working at all! Bottom serated knives can still be sharpened (top serated no). Are all the ledger plates sharp as well? Yes, the space between the knife and the guard is important. On green or wirey grass, any extra space may cause it to not cut, quickly leading to plugging. When out of gear is the knife moving easily by hand? Very important, as it will stall if there is some drag there. Are the horses walking fast enough to keep it going? Some times it is a challenge to keep them going at the speed required in heavy hay. Just some random thoughts. donn

Ideally the knife sections would just touch the guards with no space and still run free. In real life try to keep the spaces as small as possible and for my money a knife running free is a must. D

[near horse]

Thanks Donn – I was looking at “Haying w/ Horses” while I de-escalated and they were adamant about 3/8″ minimum between section and guards. Interesting thing is the knife keeps going even after I’m plugged – just not cutting in the plugged areas. Not like the swather that stops the knife if you get plugged. These horses will really try and move out with the mower. If it pulls hard, then they pull harder. I actually have to hold ’em back probably more because we never made enough headway to settle them into a routine. Knife moves pretty easily by hand when not in gear – just turning the flywheel. My cutter bar does seem pretty stiff when lifting it into transport position and won’t lay flat unless you step on it – that’s probably another issue to battle with.

That stinkin’ wiry grass busted up the wobble box on my swather a few years back by plugging things up – not to be messed with.

[Donn Hewes]

I think they mean 3/8 above the knife to the guard? All my books are out on loan. There sure isn’t a 3/8″ minimum, between the two cutting parts. If your knife is still running but it has stopped cutting at certain spots here is another possibility. Your guards are picking up old grass or hay left in the field, dry clumps from an uneven field. Hitting a tough low plant that won’t cut for anything. How low is your bar set? Because I use my mowers for clipping so much all my bars are set high – mowing about three inches off the ground. I find this works well for mowing hay too. Some would worry about leaving to much hay behind, but it is good for the plants and they make up for it in regrowth.

[Joshua Kingsley]

Geoff, I would start by addressing the issue of the stiff cutter bar. If it is hanging up you won’t have an even cut and you could have more plugging issues. I know that if the cutter bar wasn’t free then I couldn’t go to the field with my uncle when I was first learning how to work his horses. I would also check the lead and the tip of your cutter bar. I have also had my tractor drawn sickle mower plug in the wire grass here. One of the things that I have found with my tractor mower is that I have a couple of bent knives and some spacings that need to be addressed in order to mow finer hay.
Joshua

[near horse]

I think my greedy side must be showing – I have a large amount of grass out there but by golly, I’m gonna get every crumb even if it makes things real difficult. What I’m saying is my bar is running low and tilted forward asfar as it will go. Donn, When yousay your leaving 3″ is that by tilting your bar back a notch or two?
Joshua, my knife is free, it’s lifting the bar that is really tough. I did adjust the wear plates so they ran closer to the knifeback reducing a little slop.
Yah, the 3/8″ spacing is top of the knife to top of guard. See how things go tomorrow. Thanks for your help.

[Donn Hewes]

No, I usually tilt my bars level, some times forward a little. My inner and outer shoes are adjusted way up. Inner shoe one hole below the highest one, outer shoe about as far as the little bolt will go with out coming out of the track. Donn

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