Yee - haw, a great hay harvest!

[Left Coast Chris]

When you guys are talking square bales do you mean two wire (twine) or three wire?

We have 7.5 Acres in Alfalfa grass mix and our hayer comes in and bails for 50/50.  Better than me buying the equipment for now for the small acrage.   Is that a fair deal?  He said that if he did not go with 50/50 he would need $400 per cutting to cut and bail.  The bails sell for between $10 and $15 around here.   Since last year was the first year after discing and seeding we would average between 75 and 100 big three wire bales per cutting for the total acrage.

This year looks alot better but we have not been able to cut due to off and on rain and the grass is waist high........not good.  Hope it clears next week and we can get into the field.

[Fla._Deadheader]

In my experience, grass and clover mix hay is about 60-70#, 2 string bales. Back in the embargo days, wire got sky high, and only one guy in the area had a wire tie baler. Then Sisal twine got sky high and we all switched to plastic. Some machines would not tie it at all.

  Alfalfa that I bought, came from the plains areas, and was wire tie, 2 or 3, and all weighed 100# +. Wires were very difficult to get your gloved fingers under, and, I never got the hang of using hooks ???

  That's why I went to Vermeer round baler, and my son could gather them with the Tractor.
  Took a while to convert some of the clients to use Round Bales.

[Roxie]

Left Coast Chris, if your guy is cutting, raking and bailing the 50/50 sounds reasonable.

[jesse]

if this is a v rake should be a center kicker wheel availible to rake center of row

[scsmith42]

fishpharmer - I have a two head version of the 4 head tedder shown in the video.

LCC - I'm talking about two wire (twine) bales, that weigh around 50 - 60 lbs.  The local horse folks like this size because it's small enough for the horsewomen and kids to handle.

I think that the 50/50 proposition is fair, and have been offered similar opportunities locally.

Marcel - that's a good idea - I'll have to see if I can add a drawbar to my V-rake.

Jesse, I have a Sitrex v-rake, model H-90-V8.  I have to pull the outer two wheels when I use it in the pasture that I recently harvested, otherwise the windrows are too large.

[Restoman]

Oh, I could kick my own butt for not living in the country.  I would like to know more about hay growing but this is the wrong forum for that.  I'm guessing most of you learned this all growing up on a farm.  Is there a book on growing hay (for idiots)? or just simple rules I need to know?  The terms are confusing. 

[jesse]

i rake with a 8 wheel kuhn v rake havent had to take the two front wheels off i just dont rake with the full width only problem is the first round

[DanG]

Restoman, don't kick yourself, just sell out and buy yourself a little piece of Heaven in the country. ;D

Growing and harvesting hay is not rocket science, but it can be confusing if you haven't been around it.  At the most basic point, the individual plant, it is no different than growing a geranium in a flower pot.  You put it in the soil, give it food and water, and it will grow.  The difference is in the techniques involved in planting and growing massive numbers of plants, then harvesting and storing them.  Learning about that is no different than learning about anything else.  You just have to expose it to yourself. ;)

[Restoman]

The idea is to have that little slice of heaven in the "country" and still live in town.  The problem is the land just can't sit there and look pretty.  Making the land work is what brought me here.  I have been looking under every rock to learn and reading  :P :P :P :P :P reading as much as possible to make it work.  "Town" like I said earlier is the perfect size not huge and not tiny either.  We have a very good infrastructure and I know every inch of this town.  I know a vast amount of the right people so it does not bother me one bit to live in town.  I love the outdoors and want some for myself.  My relative owns a blueberry farm that seems to me is done more for fun than anything.  My wife and I just want some sort of income off the property that pays half the mortgage, and allows us to still have fun. That means not every trip to the land would require work.  Any clues to what might work in my neck of the woods? P.S. I know that fruit plants take a decade or more to produce. 

[scsmith42]

Restoman, what part of the country do you live in?

[srt]

Scott,

I'm very interested in learning about the compost you spread.  What was the initial raw material it was made from?   I just can't get over that you were GIVEN that amount  - including shipping.  It's my guess that you must treat local folks real well to have been given such a valuable product. 

I'm busy making compost for my pasture, and would like to hear more about what was given to you.  Did you do any soil sampling before/after?  If all things go well, I will have about 500 yards complete this year ready to spread next year.  A far cry from what you have there!  Congratulations!

[scsmith42]

SRT, there is a commercial compost manufacturing plant located about 3 miles from my farm.  They take in municiple sludge, old drywall, stumps, pallets, and dirt, and grind/mix them all together to make compost. 

They produce several grades, from high end garden mixes to bulk agricultural grade.  What they brought me was the bulk agricultural grade, and it was primarily because they were getting into a serious overstock condition in their yard due to the drought, and probably were facing some regulatory concerns.

I did not bother with a soil sample, I could tell that it was pretty bad!  Other than the compost, I added two tons of lime per acre and tilled that in as well.  The first year I applied liquid nitrogen with 2-4-D in the spring, and because the field was a little wet we could not access all of it.  There was absolutely no difference in yield between where the nitrogen was applied and where it wasn't!

I think that the key was to till the compost into the soil, a little at a time so that it was well blended.