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willie in mn 11-19-2012 02:17:30 67.142.168.25 Report to Moderator

It has been a long time since I cut hay, left farming when Dad died in 59. Methods & equipment have changed a lot since then. Practice in the old days was to cut round & round, rake & bale the same. Cutting round & round eliminated driving on the cut end rows so much, & no wasted time driving dead across the end. Also claimed that driving dead across the end packed the ground more. Old timers would scream at you if you drove over any more standing crop than absolutely necessary by layingout lands. With practice could cut perfectly square corners. Cut the backswath next to fence last, usually poorer stand there, so didn't hurt much driving over it. Raking went round & round opposite direction of cutting. Old timers said picking it up from the cut end did cleaner job & didn't knock off as many leaves. Baling the same, pick it up from the end of stem at bottom, top end just rode along into baler. Us youngsters just did what we were told. Finish up by raking the corners, 2 windrows wide, making a big X. Baled the X first, that left a gap between side & end windrows for easy turns, even pulling a rack behind baler. Rarely dropped a bale while turning, rack would follow chute going down the next row before bale came out. Times have changed, but that is what we used to do. Willie [Reply]   [No Email]