Haying questions

A B-C mounted mower should handle it but since you have a brush-hog, mow with that and rake and bale it. just about any working rake will do but a Dearborn. They have a tendency to make rope out of the crop.The  baler you want, might depend a lot on what any local buyers want. Maybe for starts you could find somebody to bale it on shares.


Edited by CTuckerNWIL - 02 Jul 2011 at 8:16am

Buy slow and build up, I see too many people think they can run and buy equipment and find out that it is a pain, from equipment breaking to not working.  I would brush hog it with and open side, like a Wood's 5 footer. Next a rake.  Maybe and older 4 bar, cheap and have a Tedder New Idea #4 or newer Not sure of the numbers. Baler small square bales, would be the hard one, if you can find a good old one,  New Holland 69, 269, 273, are all good, John Deere 24 T  is a Very Good Baler , I run AC 444's .  All of the balers are getting hard to find parts.  Maybe it would pay to have it custom baled??  If you find someone maybe they will work with you, Like they cut you Tedd and rake they bale.  

Edited by Teddy (punchie) - 02 Jul 2011 at 8:35am

If that hay needs crimping to speed up drying you are stuck with two options, mow with sickle on any of your tractors, then rake, then crimp, (or crimp first), or pull a mower conditioner with the WD45, takes 30 hp or more for my Hesston PT-10. Crimping can dry the hay a day sooner. Hay put up with too much moisture will burn the barn down. A mower conditioner can make a narrow windrow, but leaving it wide can save a day of drying and those extra days with hay on the ground are tough to miss rain around here.

The WD45 is not enough tractor for a modern round baler. The B and C aren't enough tractor for a square baler.

There are several styles of rakes. Mostly they all accomplish the same task at different ground and hay kicking speeds.

The oldest is a horse drawn dump rake. It works but its hard to make a straight windrow. It moves the hay at ground speed.

The old four bar circular motion rake (like an IH 5 or 15) kicks the hay faster than ground speed, one book I have says 7 mph hay kick for 5 mph ground speed. So you have to pull it slowly or it busts the hay apart, worse on alfalfa separating stem from leave, saving the less valuable stem, leaving leaf on the ground. Some are good at makeing a rope.

The 4 or 5 bar parallel motion rake is more expensive and easier on the hay. Characterized by the end disks almost parallel to the bars. It moves the hay at about ground speed, so you can pull it faster without hay damage.

The 4 and 5 bar circular or parallel motion rakes are generally driven by their wheels, but sometimes by the tractor PTO.

The wheel rakes are very gentle on the hay, with 5 mph ground speed, moving the hay at 3 mph. They are driven by the tines dragging on the ground and can often add some dirt to the hay which can be hard to tell from mold and horse types like it much less.

Then there are the vertical rotary rakes, most expensive and capable of fine and fast work and tedding (though some of the others will also ted the hay by spreading it for better drying after its been rained on in a windrow).

The four bar beater will rake hay but you have to be patient.

I used to raise, bale, and sell mostly alfalfa hay and mostly to horse owners. A few back checks and too many rejected bales for heat and I quit. There's no profit compared to growing corn or beans other than plenty of exercise.

Gerald J.

Yes look up blister beetles, we don't have them hear in PA .  Not to sure about them I recall reading up on them some years ago.  That being the case No Brush Hogging or haybine , you can reset the rolls not to crimp but not sure if you set it that much.