[tobytoby]

On previous posts about baling, i spoke to my friend (scottish)who has a metal fabrication factory in Hong Kong. I waxed lyrically about mini round hay balers and he said he would get me a price to manufacture- exactlly the same as the 850 * model. He is quoting around £3k which is around £1.5k saving and towed with a mini tractor @18hp +.

It just proves that anything can be copied and made abroad?? Any suggestions?

[melholly]

Ok... well I've bitten the bullet and after sending my lab into 'investigate the living' in the back of the mail van first I've come out deciding that despite the difference in bales it's the same stuff as in the barn. Quick thick, coarse, no real smell, pale with bits of flower head in it. Guessing that's all straw then!

Thank you all, feel like a right idiot not knowing the difference. I love learning about my small bit of land but keep kicking myself at basic things!! All sheep are just on grass, they get a nibble of sheep nut every 3 days just to keep them easy to catch etc. I was planning in winter to keep it this way and perhaps put a low haynet in the barn for them for when snow is on the ground (will sheep eat through frost?) As for the lambs which hopefully will be planned for early spring I was just planning to let nature take it's role (unless there is cause for intervention) and allow the lambs to feed off mum until weaning...?

Is this ok do you think? Trying to keep everything as natural as poss but obviously don't want to do harm to my breeding females either!

Mx

[waterhouse]

When lambing is a few weeks away you will need to feed them a great deal more and maybe have a mineral lick.  Producing a lamb takes a lot of nutrition, and they won't get that from the grass.  Read the manufacturers recommendations on the sacks of feed (and you should record the supplier details, batch numbers and dates for traceability stuff)

We were all new at this once.  OH is an obsessive reader of technical books on sheep, horses, bees etc to keep up with her various degrees but there is no substitute for doing it, cocking it up and doing it again properly.  And asking dumb questions because for every answer to a dumb question there's a bunch of people saying "I never knew that". The animals don't read the books either. As the CAA advises learn from the mistakes of others because you won't live long enough to make all of them for yourself.

[Coley]

You  might get more bales - we did an acre this week (quite late so lower yield and in NE Scotland on exposed unfertilised field) and got 100+ small bales.

For horse hay (the main market for small bales) they will prefer it unfertilised, it's too rich for horses with lots of fertiliser added. Great that theres no ragwort.

The difficulty will be finding someone to do it and do it when the weather is as perfect as it has to be to make good hay, and more especially someone to come and do small bales if thats what you want/need. Most farms of any size do the giant round or giant cube (hesston) bales these days, or just make silage or haylage which are a bit more forgiving of the odd rain shower.

If you could handle using large round bales, a next door farmer might agree to do it but it may not be cost efficient. If you do it then you could put a small ad in the paper or at the local agric store or even enter it into the local agric auctioneers fodder sale (often weekly at this time of year, many loads are for uplift from where they are made so you wouldnt have to deliver to the buyer)

Or you could try a scythe and do it by hand!

We acquired small baling equipment second hand gradually (hay mower, wuffler (to spread out the mown hay to dry and then, on a different position, to row it up ready for baling) and small square baler (ancient new holland one). Prob cost in total £1500 but these are ancient things we are talking about, but they do work!

We have just bought a NH376 similiar to yours and I was just wondering what size tractor you use to power it?

[lachlanandmarcus]

Its a dear old John Deere 2030, made in 1976!!

Here she is!


75 hp of pure power! Just have to hope it isnt raining! Its only 2wd but our fields arent too steep.

[Old Shep]

Can I just say how lovely this forum is?  It is so refreshing that we can ask fairly basic questions and not get the "surely you know that" sort of responses. What a nice bunch of people