Henry Rifle Forums

Some of y'all may remember that our neighbor to the east and immediately behind the farmhouse is a 60 acre hayfield. Since we have been here he only cuts that hay once a year, around the last week of July or first of August. Ah... it's the first week of August. One Hundred and Ten Degrees the last couple days. So they come out and cut for most of the day, and get it knocked down. That hay is THICK.




They came out late that afternoon, and tried to rake it. Broke the rake. Went away. The hay was thick, and wet. Too much for that small rake and needed to dry, and that crew needed a bigger rake. They came back the next day with two tractors and two big power rakes. Knocked out the raking. Turning the hay into rows. Left it to dry a bit more. (pan shot)


They DIDN'T come back and turn the rows like the old crew did, would have added an extra day to the process. But showed up to bale. Kept baling til the job was done. Big Job, BIG bales. You could hear them THUMP when they rolled out of the baler.



Pretty sight the next morning though. Lot of hay ready to load, and you can't see it all in this view. Probably 100 round bales in the field.

The owner of the hay field, and many others, had stopped in to welcome us when we moved in, and complemented Miss T on the way she kept the farmhouse so neat. He told her she could come into the field to mow around the edges EVEN when it was in hay. But, she waits until they cut. Otherwise she just weedeats under the edge of the fence. NOW she gets busy. Notice the difference in the pics above and the pics below.

Miss T cutting down the roadside but inside the fence. She mows along the road along the fence outside the fence when she mows our grass for 100 yards or so, so deer don't jump in front of the cars. Note the bucket up above the fence line so she can't get close. SLOW and careful with the bucket raised like that.


Trimmed up the inside of the fenceline beside my shop, will get out one morning soon and hit it with the weedeater. She had already done most of the fence lines earlier this week but the heat had made her dizzy and she quit before finishing. She and the docs won't let me risk weedeating, mowing, much of anything involving standing and walking on uneven ground:


And behind both our work shops:


The hay bales are still drying in the sun:


I always say that view ^^^^ makes a great puzzle.

We like it when they have fresh cut that sixty acres. The coyotes that live in the small dell on the property and the woods around his pond will have zero cover for stalking the chickens for a while. Sneaky Bast&%ds.

That is a very nice field view! Large farm just up the road from my range property plants cotton at times and around end of summer they cut it and roll it up like that.

We were just about three hours northwest of you in Cumberland County, and had a great location. 20 acres outside a state park, with a State Forest property across the way. Cumberland had minimum of three acres for new lots. The father in law built on the property before the restriction on a two acre parcel and we sold three acres with the rental house we owned when the tenant did 10k worth of damage in a year and filed bankruptcy when we won in court. She had the money stashed, but didn't want to pay. (Doctorate degree college professor) We ended up selling a surveyed 14.56 acres when we moved, heavily wooded, all hardwoods, no pine.

We have things we don't like about where we live now, no location is perfect, but there are a lot more things we like, than things we don't.

It's always nice to see a hay field baled.

Badger says "Yum!"

Beautiful to look at and hear the story.

Nice looking hay field.

But I'm puzzled to why they tried to rake it wet?

Double post again, lol.

You turn the wet hay to expose the other side to the sin and allow air to flow through.
I earned my first wages bailing hay. My dad lent me to another farmer for a Saturday to help
bailing and when the day was over he gave me five bucks. Man, I was twelve years old and RICH!

cooperhawk wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 03, 2023 9:12 am

You turn the wet hay to expose the other side to the sin and allow air to flow through.
I earned my first wages bailing hay. My dad lent me to another farmer for a Saturday to help
bailing and when the day was over he gave me five bucks. Man, I was twelve years old and RICH!

That $5 would take you to the Saturday matinee and buy candy for a month.

cooperhawk wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 03, 2023 9:12 am

You turn the wet hay to expose the other side to the sin and allow air to flow through.
I earned my first wages bailing hay. My dad lent me to another farmer for a Saturday to help
bailing and when the day was over he gave me five bucks. Man, I was twelve years old and RICH!

Around here they use a Hay Tedder to fluff it up if it needs drying:

https://bushhog.com/hay_tools/hay-tedders/

Although there is a fairly new method of baling it green (but not wet) and wrapping it right away in a continuous special plastic wrap. I believe it ferments to a richer quality hay.

My neighbor just cut, dried, raked and baled his hay the other day, but the cut this time didn't amount to much.

Cowboy Gun Fan wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 03, 2023 8:53 am

Nice looking hay field.

But I'm puzzled to why they tried to rake it wet?

The crew taking care of the hay field was not the owner of the hay. These guys go around and cut, rake, and bale hay as fast as they can while the sun shines, knock out the job while the equipment is on site, and then move on to the next job. They have clients all over the metro area and move the equipment from job to job and the faster they knock out each job the more money they make during hay season.

A friend and his wife do the same thing and they work daylight to dark (sometime past dark) during hay cutting season, and cut and bale thousands of acres over the season. They have four or five tractors set up with various equipment, but they Cut one field, cut another, cut another, then go back and rake, rake, rake... turn, turn, turn, then bale them all. They have their clients scheduled so they are close enough in a loop to do it in a rotation to give the hay time to dry properly before it's baled.

BrokenolMarine wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 03, 2023 12:57 pm

A friend and his wife do the same thing and they work daylight to dark (sometime past dark) during hay cutting season, and cut and bale thousands of acres over the season. They have four or five tractors set up with various equipment, but they Cut one field, cut another, cut another, then go back and rake, rake, rake... turn, turn, turn, then bale them all. They have their clients scheduled so they are close enough in a loop to do it in a rotation to give the hay time to dry properly before it's baled.

I have a friend that did pretty much the same thing, but on a smaller scale. He would rent hay fields around the neighborhood and rotate his work enough to have the hay dried out by the time he got back to it. The hard part is watching out for rain. Getting it wet not only creates more work, but also washes out some nutrients in the hay.

Cowboy Gun Fan wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 03, 2023 10:12 am

Around here they use a Hay Tedder to fluff it up if it needs drying:

https://bushhog.com/hay_tools/hay-tedders/

Although there is a fairly new method of baling it green (but not wet) and wrapping it right away in a continuous special plastic wrap. I believe it ferments to a richer quality hay.

My neighbor just cut, dried, raked and baled his hay the other day, but the cut this time didn't amount to much.

Raking is a bit gentler than using a tedder so should retain a bit more leaf and produce a better quality hay plus it still needs raking so it can be bailed.

They have been wrapping here in Aus for 30+ years, usually given a day on the ground before baling. Sort of in between hay and silage. Moisture content is around 50% so it ferments just like silage but in individual bales so can be handled and feed like hay. Down side is you do need a bit of specialized handling equipment as if you put any holes in the wrap letting in oxygen it will spoil.

Sir Henry wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 03, 2023 9:25 am

That $5 would take you to the Saturday matinee and buy candy for a month.

The movies were free in the town park under the stars on a blanket, with a girl we hoped.
That 5 bucks impressed the girls I'll tell you.

I was taught that when you cut hay, you go counterclockwise to open the field then went clockwise to cut the field to get a nice clean job. Now a days they just go clockwise and leave the first row just run down. Shoddy workmanship if you ask me.

Been getting our hay from the same guy for almost 20 years; never had any with mold. Squares or rounds. He is super fussy about his hay.