The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Techniques and skills => Topic started by: NethertonSH on August 01, 2016, 02:21:24 pm
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So I've gone and bought an old New Holland 370 baler, along with a Vicon disc mower and haybob. The person who I bought the baler off also gave me an old bale grab and sledge which need a bit of work but should do the job.
So does anyone have any tips? Firstly on the equipment side of things but also on the actual process of making hay.
My thinking is find at least 3 days of sunny weather, cut one morning, leave a couple days with a couple run overs with the haybob then bale the 3rd day. Would this work?
Any advice would be much appreciated as I'm a complete novice. A baler manual is on its way to me in the post.
Thanks.
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Yes. that will work beautifully. Should produce some perfect hay. :sunshine:
When you discover how to guarantee the 3 days of sunny weather - perhaps you could let the rest of us know. :excited: :raining:
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Depends where you are, what the weather is like, how thick the crop is. We can very rarely make small bale hay until the 4th day, or later, here, and need to work it every day, sometimes twice. But if you did that in Yorkshire you'd have nothing but dust! ;D
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We're in very central Scotland and aren't blessed with the best of weather. I think the crop is going to be fairly thick.
I have about 15 acres that I'd like to do but if I can even do half that then I'll be happy. The last couple years a local farmer has cut it for silage and we haven't had so much as a wee bale of hay back in return so I've nothing to loose really. If its doesn't get turned into hay it'll be getting topped.
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The other thing to bear in mind is how much you can stook in a day, and cart and unload if you need to. So what BH would do, if we ever had a long dry spell, is cut, each day, as much as we could stook, cart and store in one day. We have a 17-bale bale carrier, so it's the stooking that is the limiting factor for us. If we've got hands, we can probably bale and stook 600-800 bales or even more in a day - but if it will be just the two of us, 300-350 is plenty. (Around 20 heaps.). So that's approx 3ac per day. If the weather is good and the crop is drying really well, we could do more - but if you're cutting X acres a day, then every day you're baling you also have some to woofle, so again you need more hands to manage more than your X acres a day.
If you've got a large family, and/or good friends who can come and lend a hand after work, you can do more in a day, of course. Even so, we'd normally do 7 or 8 acres in one day. Our biggest hay area is 15 acres, and we have baled it in one day a couple of times - but we had two balers then, so we had a spare if one broke down ;). And we had lots of help.
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Make sure your equipment is in perfect working order before you need it. There's nothing worse (well there is, but it's annoying) than having that precious weather window while your machinery stands idle.
Get in a stock of shear bolts for the baler.
Use jute twine not polyprop, if the string cutter on your baler is at all dodgy.
Get someone to show you how to tell when your hay is absolutely crispy dry.
Don't bale damp or underdried hay.
As others have said, how long it will take depends largely on where you are and the grass you are dealing with, but things such as overnight mist or dew which takes a while to burn off and a lack of breeze will slow you down.
As Sallyintnorth has said, up here we need 5 days to make and bale good hay, longer if it gets rained on :farmer:
modified: I've just seen that you are near us, so I very much doubt you will make hay in three days, especially now we are into August. We are hoping to go for it on Friday. We know it will be rained on Sat, but then there are a few good days forecast, although not much of a breeze :fc:
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15 acres - in smal bales - that's really testing your family and friends! :thinking:
Small bales are easy to handle for feeding once you've got them. But as Sally has spelt out - they take a lot of getting in. The making and baling the hay is the (relatively) easy bit. But it's carting and stacking it that takes the time. Assuming you've got a limited supply of trailers and tractors, remember you've got to empty a trailer before you can go back for another load, and if the tractor is pulling trailers then it can't be baling or stacking simultaneously.
If it were me, then for your first year, while you're working everything out, I'd just do a few acres in small bales and get someone else with a big baler to do the rest for you and take it inside for you. If you get it done in large square bales then it's still fairly easy to feed as it comes off in slices.
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Lots of good points there thank you!
I had planned to use our bigger Landini tractor to do everything, first the baling then the carting in but based on your comments I think I'd be better roping someone else in to have one person baling with the MF35 then use the Landini to get the bales into the shed at the same time. Also on the advice I think I'll just start with the small few acre field next to the house. Saying that the weather is looking good for next week so I may be silly and go for it with the bigger field at the same time.
We only have 30 Shetlands to feed with they hay over the winter and we do have plenty grass and a source for hay if need be so we've nothing to loose really. Fingers crossed the weather stays good for next week :fc:.
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Lol. My first tip was going to be ... don't :)
If your weather is anything like ours you'll be lucky to get 3 dry days. I think you really need 5. It might be a good idea to aim for hay, but if the weather turns have a wrapper on standby.
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We can cut all night .We use a good tracter and a David brown old .I'm thinking about a another tracter old one international or David brown a gain Work at it till its done .Next week looks good with the whether its getting late and spring 3 weeks behind might give us September but autum is not far behind the sighnes are there .
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I like your optimism and work ethic VF! Work till its done! That's what coffee and cake is for right?!
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Have you put some hay through that new baler of yours to test it ?
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No not yet but I'm going to do it in the next day or so. I got it in last night and gave it a blow with some compressed air but it was actually pretty clean. I was able to turn the pto by hand which I though was a good sign. I want to grease everything before I turn it with the tractor.
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Not sure the MF35 will be man enough for the NH370? Might swap the two around?
BH uses our MF65 or the 265 for hay bobbing but always the 265 for baling. Any for carting, though tbh not usually the 65 as we don't need to.
He doesn't use the newer, bigger, 4-wheel drive tractor for baling as it's too much for the baler! But it can cart, too.
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I did wonder if the 35 would be enough for it but also did wonder if the Landini (85hp) would be too much. Will just have to try them both and see. The 35 doesn't have a loader which is why I thought use the Landini for carting. The field is fairly close to the shed so would be tempted to just use the bale grab which holds about 20 odd bales to cart them straight in.
Decisions decisions!
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BH is in now and says the MF35 would be better than the 85hp, provided your land is reasonably flat.
When you say bale grab... Can't quite visualise what would grab 20 small bales on a front loader..? We have a bale carrier that fits on the 3-point linkage and scoops up heaps of 17 (bottom row 5 on their edges, 2nd row 4 flat on top of the 5, same orientation, 3rd row 4 at 90 degrees to 2nd row, 4th row as 2nd row, 5th row as 3rd row). Any ways, yes the 85hp would do that job. You have tested the grab on it? Things don't always seem to work exactly as one might expect, don't always connect to a different tractor.... ::)
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Yes our land is pretty flat.
Yes that's basically what it is but it had a hydraulic ram which squeezes the bales. The person I got it from sent me some sketches of how to stack the bales which is pretty much as you described it.
I think this year will be a learning curve.
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So... Our bale carrier fits on the back..? And yes, has squeezey sides.
I would test it on the 85hp; our carrier didn't work on the larger, more modern tractor; couldn't get it low enough, even with the arm positions as low as they'd go and a longer top link. The ground level spikes really need to be ground level, not a few inches above the ground ;). We had a carrier modified so it would work with that tractor. Another 4-wheel drive Massey was the same.
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Yes so it must go on the back ;D I really need to get out and try everything.
Thanks for all the comments! Very glad I came on and asked, you've saved me a lot of head scratching.
Going to go out tonight and put some straw through the baler :fc:
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Have you mown yet ? And if not do you know what you are doing with your mower ?
Those bale carriers are well suited to use on a mf35.
If it's a Taylor one...which are the most common, they had special sized pins....has yours hot them ?
You should be able to bale with either tractor if you want to. With the mf 35. You might just have to go a bit slower.
Have you sorted the bale sledge....having groups of bales in one place saves masses of time and labour...and is really essential for a bale carrier. Is it a flat eight sledge or just one that gathers a few.
If you can try and trip the sledge at the same place across the field so even the groups of bales are all in one place.
Do you know how your hay Bob works and how to set it up ?
Questions questions !....has your baling trial been successful.
Have you got some shear bolts....? If not you need to get some pronto.
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regarding weather... its hit or miss.. I cut hay last Friday night and baled it Monday, but it was a light crop , and Monday was a exceptional day.. If its good weather I scatter it out asap, and turn it daily.. you can tell by the way it goes through the haybob how it is developing, on the day I decide to bale..if it is a dry bright morning I turn it at 10.. then look at it at 1.30 and if in doubt scatter it again.. then row up at 4.30 and bale.. I would also say that if hay is visibly wet on top don't turn/scatter it till its dry..good luck....last year wasn't great for hay making in Scotland... but we got a indian summer in September and made the best hay I have ever had..so sometimes it pays to wait
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Finally managed out today to give things a try. Managed to turn one large bale of straw in to a bunch of nice little bales. All seemed to work well.
Bale carrier fitted on after some adjustments. Mower also went on and worked well after some adjustments. Haven't tried haybob but I'm sure it'll be fine.
Just need the weather now. Going to hold off until Monday to cut I think. Has anyone else went for it yet?
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Looking good! I cut a field too early a couple of weeks ago, which is still unturned on the ground, but we're apparently due at least a week of dry weather from next Friday onwards, so I shall try and cut the other one and get the whole lot turned and baled then.
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How long can you get away with leaving it before you bale it? Would it ruin the field of you cut it then never managed removed the grass?
I think I'll try and get a local contractor on standby to come and silage bale it in case it doesn't dry enough. It would be handy to have a square bale wrapper for turning it into haylage.
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Dunno, I'm finding out! It's been a couple of weeks now and the underneath is smelling rich, but it's still green, it hasn't rotted. It's going to have had virtually all the nutrients washed out, but with two currently overweight horses it's probably going to be just what I need. I've been told that as long as you don't start turning it, it can lie for quite some time.
If you never managed to remove the grass it could stop the new growth coming through. We'll get these fields baled even if we have to just get a big baler in and then dump them in a corner to rot down.