NewEnglandFarmer said: (quoted from post at 10:57:07 03/05/14) I"m asking this question because I genuinely don"t know..
I"ve been haying for a number of years now, and after last years record low, my wheels got turning. I see the "pull-type forage" implements seem to come through with either a corn head or a hay head. In what application would a hay head be used? I"m guessing similar to corn silage for cows? If that"s the case, how would stacked hay silage not get moldy?
If that is in fact the proper application, is the preparation steps similar to baling? ie cutting, tedding, raking?? Does the hay have to be just as dry? or is the idea behind hay forage so that it can be picked up wet?
I'm not is New England proper, but pretty darn close and with the same weather issues. I'm also looking at alternatives after last year disastrous hay season. We raise sheep and my wife has goats, along with a few cattle. Initial expense may be a factor. Choppers aren't cheap, not reliable ones anyway. small guys like us have to figure it's gonna be $1-2K for a fair used machine. You might luck onto a bargain, you might not. Then there's the wagon to chop into. Self unloaders are pretty high priced and anything under $1500.00 or so is going to be in need of a rebuild. You may be able yo get away with blowing it onto a hay wagon with some sides scabbed onto it and forking it off by hand, but that's going to slow you down a lot and we're talking about saving hay here. Then there's the storage system- baggers are very, very expensive, require a lot of HP you may not have access to and will never, ever be available for rent when you need one. Same for custom hire guys. They're going to take care of the guy paying the most first. You come later and there goes the quality. A silo or pit has it's own costs. Wrapped bales are an option though and you wouldn't need the chopper or wagons. But that means getting a wrapper or renting one (with the same availability issues) and a baler that will handle silage bales. In a round baler that means a fairly new machine for the most part-$$$. Any small square baler will likely make green bales, but then you get into the wrapping. That little McHale rig Samm showed looks slick, but I've never seen one stateside. I have seen pics of guys who used a round bale table, sort of a giant sized lazy susan, to wrap bales manually. That might work but it's a lot of labor and slow and your hay will be heating in the bale while you're on bale #1 of 350!. Then there's the cost of the wrap and of disposing of the wrap, the problem of where and how you store them too. Big rounds require a loader to move them and the loader is pretty much going to have to have a grapple since you can't jab the wrapped bale with a spear and poke a hole in the wrap. A wrapped small square is going to be heavy and awkward to handle. How are you going to stack them, where and can you do it alone or will you need help?
There are no quick and easy and cheap answers. I'm going to be reading and seeing what suggestions you get and hoping I get some answers myself!
This post was edited by Bret4207 at 04:44:34 03/06/14.
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