Hay season 2021

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Finished my second and final cuts for the year last week. Not as much as I thought. Hay was thick but short, quality is high. Clover has been outstanding.
 
It's what they call a merger.
I guess u can put up to 3 swaths together if you chose so. That header is like 18 ft wide. Some of the hay we cut would kill a baler with 3 rows together. Lol!
I've personally never used the merger, but it sounds kool, especially for lighter hay!
Thanks. I wonder how far to the side the merger will offset the windrow? Doesn't look like it'd be capable of laying it on top of the row beside it, that'd be 18' on center. Merging three 18' windrows would be handy as crap in second cut, thin hay.
 
Finally got what I had cut and baled put in the barns. 215 5x5's off 55 acres. I have 75 acres that needs cutting but room in the barns for about 40 rolls. Drying up fast around here so I'm going to turn in on it. Let the pasture they are on now rest.
 
Run out of hay to cut.... and the grass is playing out. The heat and lack of moisture is slowing things down tremendously.

Crazy how we work all summer so we can work all winter!!!

It's nice to finally see a few rolls in the hay yard again tho.
 
My grass is played out. I still have about 50 acres to cut in between Cedars, Bois D'arc and Hackberry trees. My good knee decided to flare up and not let me put any weight on it, so sorting cattle is almost out of the question. Still have 40 head to get rid of. Last week I rebuilt the entire cutterbar on the swather, I would go cut, and break down, go back and bale 4 bales. A lot of old grass in with the new, so just bale as soon as possible. Rain chances every evening anyhow. for 4 days cut, break down and bale 4 bales. finally took 3 days to get cutterbar rebuilt, I work slow. Went back out to cut. New cutterbar worked great, pitman shaft broke, 4 bales again...!!!! Found another pitman, but it was for a 14 ft so had to cut and weld for the 16ft. A little long, so had to spend a coulpe hours to get it to register. By that time it started raining... Trying to cut today when dew is off... Maybe will get more than 4 bales cut today.
 
Was a rough hay season here too. Between the rain and equipment breakdowns, it wasn't fun nor fulfilling. I kinda always enjoyed baling but this year my age is beginning to show. Just ran out of energy to stay in the fight. Decided last week to turn the cows in on the rest.
 
Do you leave them stored like that, or flip them up on end/stack?
We leave them like this along a creek bank. We only make baleage out of some of the heavy alfalfa/clover 2nd cutting. Our neighbor's wrapper just wraps and dumps like this in a roll. Plus we don't have a bale grabber, so we leave them put and spear into them when we're ready to feed them. Plus they make a good ground blind for deer season.
 
We leave them like this along a creek bank. We only make baleage out of some of the heavy alfalfa/clover 2nd cutting. Our neighbor's wrapper just wraps and dumps like this in a roll. Plus we don't have a bale grabber, so we leave them put and spear into them when we're ready to feed them. Plus they make a good ground blind for deer season.
Gotcha. I've found I can flip them up on end and handle them with bale forks or pallet forks from beneath to stack them if needed - I had trouble with water intrusion when I didn't flip them on end.
 

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