Hay and how you make it

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SmokinM

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I was pondering this today on my long hours on the tractor then Fence put up the tedder thread. So many different areas and operations on here and I find it interesting how we all do the same stuff different. So how do you make hay in your area or for your operation?

I am fairly average for my area. 40-50 momma cows and 100-150 acres of hay depending on the year. Most will get cut at least twice. Cut with a discbine, wait a day, tedder it, wait a day then tedd or rake depending on weather and crop and finally bale. Haul it all as soon as I am done if it doesn't rain on it and put it in the barn. I make 700-1,000 4x5 bales most years.

Hay equipment
2 tractors both JD
NH discbine
Krone tedder
Kuhn 10 wheel rake
NH 7060 baler

So lets hear or see it. What are you running and how are you running it. Learning experience only, just love to see how it is done all over the country or the world for that matter.
 
Usually we swath and windrow it. Old machine was a NH2550.
Let it set a day or 3 depending on conditions.
Rake 2 rows together.
Bale the next day. Usually....
NH RB560 baler.
 
Used to be about 300 cows. Downsized to 100 or so this year. Still feeding the calves which will be gone within a month.

We have about 150 acres of hay ground. 30 acres orchard grass, 50 acres alfalfa, and about 80 acres that we run a sorghum/sudan and wheat rotation on.

We bale the orchard grass and some alfalfa dry. The wheat and sudan is almost all turned into baleage. We'll do 800-1000 bales a year total.

Baleage is baled the same or next day, dry hay just depends on the time of year and weather. We do a lot more tedding in the spring and fall. Our summers are usually hot and dry (SW MO) so getting things dry isn't usually that hard. We try to get the wheat off in late May and get the sudan in immediately after. I'll plant wheat again usually first week of October (a couple weeks before first frost).

We unroll some of our baleage, and some of it is pre-chopped in the baler and gets ran through a vertical mixer.

The equipment:
Valtra 8350 (baler/mower), Case Maxxum 110 (loader), JD 4430 (mower).
New Holland DB313R and a Vermeer MC840. Both discs, NH has rubber rolls, Vermeer has steel.
Vermeer 604 Pro baler
Krone 4 basket tedder, I forget the model
Vermeer VR1022 rake
Vermeer BW5500 wrapper
 
We don't do nearly what we used to. The herd I manage is down to around 60 momma cows and feed out all our own calves. 40 acres alfalfa/orchard grass, 20 acres grass (around 250 6x6 bales), chopped 8 acres rye, will chop 10-12 acres corn silage (Harvest Store silos and belt feeder), and bale 100 bales of corn stalks.
All Green power; JD 7800 2wd jd 946 moco, JD 6330 mfwd w/ 673ldr open station Kuhn SR110 rake, JD 7700 2wd w/ 720 ldr jd 568 rnd baler. JD 5720 self-propelled chopper.

I normally have around fifty acres of hay. Mostly alfalfa/ orchard grass, but this year 20acres are played out and going to beans. So, for my 60 momma cows I will have 25 acres of hay, chopping/ bagging 30 acres of rye, and chopping/ bagging 15 acres of corn silage. Still have plenty of stalk bales from last yr.
I run all green too. JD6320 2wd cab w/ 620 ldr jd 1600A moco, JD 5425 mfwd open station w/ 542 ldr, JD 4020 power shift w/ jd 158 ldr, Gehl hyd drive 5 bar rake, JD 336 wire tie sq baler. I do have a New Holland pull chopper and a kuhn-knight TMR wagon.
I use the bosses rnd baler and sometimes his moco when I'm in a hurry.
Most of the time our hay has to lay 2-4 days depending on the time of year and how heavy the hay is.
 
Last edited:
SmokinM said:
I was pondering this today on my long hours on the tractor then Fence put up the tedder thread. So many different areas and operations on here and I find it interesting how we all do the same stuff different. So how do you make hay in your area or for your operation?

I am fairly average for my area. 40-50 momma cows and 100-150 acres of hay depending on the year. Most will get cut at least twice. Cut with a discbine, wait a day, tedder it, wait a day then tedd or rake depending on weather and crop and finally bale. Haul it all as soon as I am done if it doesn't rain on it and put it in the barn. I make 700-1,000 4x5 bales most years.

Hay equipment
2 tractors both JD
NH discbine
Krone tedder
Kuhn 10 wheel rake
NH 7060 baler

So lets hear or see it. What are you running and how are you running it. Learning experience only, just love to see how it is done all over the country or the world for that matter.
Click to expand...
About the same program on fescue hay.

I wet bale wheat/triticale/rye depending on what I can come up with cheap. This year did wheat with free old treated wheat the seed dealer needed to get rid of. Triticale is probably the best though. In-line wrapped.

I hire all mine done, I can't afford to have the nice equipment to get it done as fast and with the quality of bale I can get from my hay man. He's an old friend with really nice equipment. Has a big krone mowing machine and a couple newer case ih mocos. Deere balers.
 
Not the same but I stockpile and let the cows harvest most of it.
Otherwise I have a Ford 4630 with a New Idea Disc mower, Ford 3610 with a wheel rake or a New Holland 256 rake. 10ft Tedder that hasn't been hooked up in 3 years. Kubota M100x and a Vermeer 504N Silage roller.
I want my hay stacked in the barn without the dew ever falling on it. Usually I get most of it done.
Sure is lots cheaper to let the cows harvest it.
 
Last year
We made 1347 4x5 and ~600 small squares . We sold all the squares and around 1000 of the 4x5. Mostly to one customer. My loop takes me north of Florence towards Killeen about 8 miles. The loops back to the community of Andice 15 miles south and back to my home place. Some of the fields really small but if they're in route we hay them.
We windrow with a discbines let it lay until it's pretty much dry. Rake 2 -3 together mid morning bale that evening or next day. Not much problem usually finding hot dry window...
Jd tractors 5100 and 5085
Frontier 10 wheel
Hydraulic drive side delivery
Two new Holland 1411 discbines
Frontier dm1270 disc mower
Jd 450 round and 342 square.
Edit
O yeah the tedder...got one of them
 
Last edited:
Windrow, rake two together when ready and bale. One to four days+ to dry depending on hay and weather.
CaseIH WD2504 with 19 foot disc head
CaseIH Farmall 75A pulling 16 wheel H&S V rake
Kubota M152 pulling JD 560M
Kubota MX135 pulling JD 569
 
My father and his life-long friend were in the part-time custom hay business, so I grew up in hay fields. I started out raking with an old John Deere 60. I don't remember how old I was, but when I wanted to stop I'd stand up, grab the clutch with both hands, and rare back with all I had. Most of the time that worked, and when it didn't I'd shut it down with the key.

Then I graduated to a Ford 9N. It was much better, but you'd have to pull start it about half the time. Finally they made enough money to buy a Deutz 45 hp to pull the baler, and I got the Massey Ferguson 35 that had been pulling the baler to rake with. That was a big improvement.

I still remember when I was a young teen and we went to Oklahoma to visit one of my father's boyhood friends, and was surprised to learn that they baled hay at night. Back home we couldn't start until around 10:00 am, after the dew dried enough, and had to quit at dark. I was told that in Oklahoma they had to wait for night because the hay was too dry during the day, and the leaves would break up during raking and baling so all they'd have left would be stems.
 
We get one cut of hay. It's a busy time.
NH 313 dicbine
NH RB560 specialty crop
NH 12wheel rake
Farm King 14 bale mover
Tube Line inline wrapper
NH 8670 tractor
NH T5.115 tractor
NH T7.230 tractor
JD 7700 tractor (everyone has to have one token piece of JD)

We only have one dealership in town and everything we have other than the JD comes from there. They are super to deal with and it feels good to support the little local guy.
We cover a fair bit of ground with those equipment and at least the baler and discbine I don't like to get too old because we can't afford to not be making hay when the sun shines.
Once the hay is cut and close enough to dry that we are confident it will bale that day if raked we go ahead and rake two swaths together in the morning and bale it in the afternoon.
For baleage we wilt the swaths down a bit, usually 24 hours, start raking baling hauling and wrapping aiming for 35% or less moisture.
 
Really interesting hearing how others do their hay.
We make about 40 acres of hay, mostly orchard grass and clover. Generally 150-200 4x5 rounds and 400-600 small squares. We sell all the squares and the extra rounds that we don't need.
We make about 40 bales of wet hay individual wrapped to feed to the cows after calving. The rest all dry.
I just finished baling the last of 1st cutting tonight. We usually make 3 cuttings then once we run out of grass in the pasture in late fall early winter we run the cows through the hayfields as a fourth cutting. Sometimes we don't get all the 3rd cutting made so then there is more stocked piled for the cows when we graze it.
We try to cut our hay in the afternoon and evenings we have been told that is when the sugars are up in the leaves and stem therefore making better quality hay. We then Tedder the following afternoon and rake and bale the third day.
Equipment
Case 5140 tractor (mowing and baling)
Massey 2705e w/ loader (tedding, raking, moving bales)
New Holland 7230 discbine
Pequea TT 4400 tedder
Frontier 8 wheel rake
Clause Rollant 66 baler
 
daneg said:
One cut half baled Silage half dry
NH discbine 13'
Kuhn 12 wheel rake
Vermeer 604 pro baler
Pronovost bale bagger
Jd 3010
Jd 4020
Jd 4230
Click to expand...

How's the 604 treating you? Ours is pretty trouble free. Most of our issues have been with the wrap system.

Do you pull it with the 4230? Ours is pretty power hungry, especially in first cut wet material.
 
604 pro is an amazing baler, I did have an issue with the wrapping system but a program update fixed it, also the lug nuts needed update after coming loose and wrecking the rim.
Yes I use the 4230 on it, handles it all right but we don't have hills.
 
daneg said:
604 pro is an amazing baler, I did have an issue with the wrapping system but a program update fixed it, also the lug nuts needed update after coming loose and wrecking the rim.
Yes I use the 4230 on it, handles it all right but we don't have hills.
Click to expand...
I think Vermeer makes the best baler on the market. Last year I traded my 605N in on an NH, because I like the dealer and the dealer is local. I hope I don't regret it.
 
MurraysMutts said:
All this talk of third cutting hay is interesting to me.

Around here we do good to get 2!

Explain yourselves!
Click to expand...
Around us if you make 1st cutting when is should be cut (first to mid May) then make at 30 day intervals which is recommended. If there is enough rain you can easily make 4 cuttings. I know of a few dairies that make balege and consistently make 5 cuttings. But we don't generally like to make any hay after Sept 15 unless we plan to reseed the next year.
Our experience with making every 30 days is you don't get the quantity at every cutting but get better quality.
 
Silver said:
I think Vermeer makes the best baler on the market. Last year I traded my 605N in on an NH, because I like the dealer and the dealer is local. I hope I don't regret it.
Click to expand...

Vermeer makes a good baler.

My biggest gripe with Vermeer is their top secret parts. Nothing available online, no parts, no diagrams, nothing. Gotta run to the dealer, and you know how that goes, "Well we don't have that part, but I can order it". So could I...

I can hop online and get anything I need for JD, CNH, Kubota, etc.
 

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