Weekend hay debacle (kind of long)

Rough weekend making perennial peanut hay (kinda like thin alfalfa)! Took Friday off work, went to borrow neighbor"s NH Sickle mower (my Fella disk is down with gearbox problems). Somebody's broken down truck was blocking the neighbor"s gate! Guy finally showed back up after an hour delay and towed it away.

Hooked up and mowed at 1:00 pm Friday.

Saturday at 4:00 it was looking right. Humid, but hot all day with wind. Raked into windrows with my newly refurbished JD 640 side delivery rake, that despite every adjustment I could make, would leave half the hay on the ground (got some advice on this on another post). So after it took me 4 times longer than usual to rake, of course it rained for 15 minutes.

Sunday, dew burned off, got real hot. Hay still looked pretty good, flipped the windrows. Tops got dry, flipped em again. And again. No leaf loss and was drying nicely. I was supposed to catch a flight to Lousianna for work at 7:00 p.m., so I was getting panicky. About 2, it felt pretty dry, so I got to baling. This stuff was making dadgum 80+# bales, a little wet. They are usually 40#"s cause that"s what the horse and goat ladies like. Help didnt show up, punk kids!So,my wife drove around the field with 2 kids screaming in the truck because it was nap time, driving her nuts while I single-handidly loaded, stacked, and put in the barn over 180 of the heaviest bales of hay I"ve ever handled in my life. Had to fly out this morning instead of yesterday. Wifes keeping an eye on a thermometer in one of the wetter bales for fire danger. Should have them sold within a few days to a huge dairy goat farm, they know they are damp, I think they"ll feed before any mold problems.Here"s what I"ve learned:

1. I need a haybine to speed drying, it"s only 20 acres, any model recommendations (prefer New Holland). Actually, Fella offers a crimper attachment for my SM 320 disc mower,but it might be too heavy for My MF 583, any experience with this set-up?

2. I need to sell the JD rake to someone with a different species of hay and buy a "V" rake

3. I am not in the high-school wrestling fighting weight condition that I used to be. It was 97 degrees with 95% humidity, but 180 bales isnt anything crazy.Need to toughen up.

4. I have a bad habit in my life of tring to stuff 10 pounds of crap into a 5 pound bag.

Thanks for reading my rant, I"ll always take any suggestions you might have. Any body want to trade a JD 640 rake and a Vermeer 604J round baler for a haybine and V rake?!

LOL I'm doing round bales this year for the first time.....lot less labor intensive!

Rick

I feel for ya, it seems like 3 out of the last 5 hay seasons have been like that for me. At least this year equipment didn't let me down too bad. My poor neighbour though, baler has been in the shop for 2 months now, Her mower conditioner broke down again, etc.

Pardon me for laughing....Sometimes we have to laugh to keep from crying.

I've got 15 acres of grass hay on the ground. Cut yesterday late. Planned on baling tomorrow late in the day. So I went to the doctor today to see about a "bump" on my back. Ended up being a cyst that he felt just had to come off today. So I get to ride around on the tractor with 3 stitches pulling just below my right shoulder blade.

I love this life.

I HAD a JD rake bought a New Holland 256 never used the JD again NH can't be beat.

JB If you get a V rake be sure to get the optional attachment that kicks it over. otherwise you are burying some unturned damp material under two swaths worth.

(quoted from post at 00:42:37 08/23/11) ...This stuff was making dadgum 80+# bales, a little wet. They are usually 40#"s cause that"s what the horse and goat ladies like. Help didnt show up, punk kids!...I single-handidly loaded, stacked, and put in the barn over 180 of the heaviest bales of hay I"ve ever handled in my life.
1. I need a haybine to speed drying, it"s only 20 acres, any model recommendations (prefer New Holland). Actually, Fella offers a crimper attachment for my SM 320 disc mower,but it might be too heavy for My MF 583, any experience with this set-up?

2. I need to sell the JD rake to someone with a different species of hay and buy a "V" rake

3. I am not in the high-school wrestling fighting weight condition that I used to be. It was 97 degrees with 95% humidity, but 180 bales isnt anything crazy.Need to toughen up.

Click to expand...

My favorite part of haying is actually the bale pick-up. I handle all the bales myself while the wife drives a pick-up and trailer That said, I am careful to make the bales a weight that I can handle and I do not want any part of any 80lb'ers. I actually enjoy the workout and I am in my forties.

V-rakes are not always universally loved. Many people love them many people hate them. Many haters claim that they result in dirtier hay so keep that in mind if you typically sell to a picky market. I have never used a v-Rake so do not have an opinion either way.

No reason that 640 rake should not work well although they were not as liked as the 56 or 256 New Holland rakes. James Howell has a few videos on Youtube of his 640 in action - might be worth watching.

A tedder is another option to consider instead of a haybine for grassy type hays for increased drying capability. That said I used a well worn Hesston 1120 mo/co for the first time on my last haying. I have to admit that I like the results of the moco compared to my previous method of cutting with an old square back bushog. Took me much less time to cut although drydown was pretty similar to the bushog only without the yield loss of a bushog.

The man who cuts my hay rolled his round baler last week on the hill, and his tractor almost went with it.

Seems like I always had some kinda debockle like that when i use to do a lot of hay. Rain when there wasnt a chance of any, equipment failures, helpless help or no help at all, flat tire on a wagon after you get it loaded,traactor,baler and wagon go up in flames along with half the field, its always sumthin. Frustrating at the time but always turned into a good laugh latter and I wouldnt have changed it for the world.

Haying always has a debacle, that is what big bales are for.

We have a M&W V rake. I like it very well, but you have to be careful when you rake thick hay that it does not ball up in the center and make a big hay pile. You will spend a lot of time pulling that ball apart so it will not plug the bailer.

A few years ago a neighbor had just a wheel rake, his bar rake had give up, and his short alfalfa crop that wheel rake would not pick up and he lost all the alfalfa that was there. Thought his bar rake would have picked it up. After the fact I found out about it otherwise would have tried my bar rake that I had never had any problems with. Was a McCormick with the narrow space stripper bars or the New Idea same way but the John Deere with wide space stripper bars it would just go between the stripper bars.