Choosing where to cut hay

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kickinbull

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When deciding where and when to cut individual fields how do you choose? We have several small irregular varying in quality and quantity. Do you get the best ones done first, or start and sweep from closest to farthest?
 
it depends on the window . If its only a couple days , I will cut the fields that can handle getting wet is it happens . If if a 4 or 5 day stretch , I will cut the best first then move to the others .
 
kickinbull":3usq8l1f said:
When deciding where and when to cut individual fields how do you choose? We have several small irregular varying in quality and quantity. Do you get the best ones done first, or start and sweep from closest to farthest?

typically the farthest work my way home
 
I have 3 fields of different content and it depends on maturity date. I just bought another tractor so I could mount my cutter and have a cab tractor for baling. The cutter is a 190 model, Turkish made 3 pt drum and very heavy needing a pretty good sized machine to lift it (cutting hp no problem) and takes awhile to mount and setup.

The baler has a CV joint right at the coupling to the tractor's PTO shaft which is real heavy plus the tractor's PTO has a shaft lock when not being used....doesn't turn to line up the teeth....gotta line up the shaft for a stab and go back to the baler end of the shaft and with a bar, gate has to be cracked so it'll turn by hand, rotate the shaft till you see it move forward a tad then push it on....

Finally the locking mechanism is the pull back on the collar to open, while you push onto the shaft...another of Mother Deere's "fine" inventions and that in itself is a bummer......real PIA for a guy working alone. Having to change out half a dozen times a year as a result of varying maturity dates, just didn't get it.

I have a picture of my 2014 crop of Gotcha Plus from the Denton, Tx. plant I'd like to post but like the heart, push the add image button and nothing happens. It's over the cab of my tractor (Branson 6530c), fat brown rib leaves, no boots, no heads, and fine stems. Super crop....too much rain and couldn't get to it, but was a real PIA to get put up....but I did. Had it been anything but GP, late maturing SS, it would have been a field full of "trees".
 
i try and cut the thickest first, unless i dont have a good window and feel like its gonna get rained on i cut the crappyest field first
 
im gonna start Sunday because of a 4 / 5 day window , I have 90 acres to lay down . I will do my Tiff 85 first then move on to the bahia /bermuda fields . Main reason is I don't want the bahia seeds in my 85.
 
kickinbull":29cdgggp said:
When deciding where and when to cut individual fields how do you choose?
We have several small irregular varying in quality and quantity. Do you get the best ones done first, or start and sweep
from closest to farthest?

As to where.... we've always stuck to harvesting on our fields as neighbors get touchy when stealing off theirs. :)

We always started with closest fields. Hay is always weather dependent and by starting with closest saved a little
bit in start time. Plus close fields are always credited to you, when things go wrong farther fields can always be blamed
on some other guy not knowing what they are doing.
 
I usually do a field close to home first to make sure everything is good to go, then I move to the farther fields and work my way home. Try to hit the paying custom hay work first and then the fields where I'm paying for the standing hay. Save the "free" and personal hay ground for last usually.
 

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