Barn drying hay

[Devil's advocate]

Sorry for starting another hay thread but it would be buried in the other busy hay threads.

Do any of you barn dry hay?

If so do you do it in batches quickly & then stack or have a fan blowing into the original stack?

Some really high tech kit coming out of Austria, I suspect sking money is reivested in farming there.

 

[dudders]

I used to, but gave it up as a bad job. Bales had to be packed sooo tightly, fan on for days, then it all had to be taken out and re-stacked in the barn. It never turned out to be nice stuff anyway. Double the work and half the reward.

I re-jigged the drier and now rent it out as a workshop for £1200 p.a. and no sweat. That's a lot more fun.

 

[Devil's advocate]

I used to, but gave it up as a bad job. Bales had to be packed sooo tightly, fan on for days, then it all had to be taken out and re-stacked in the barn. It never turned out to be nice stuff anyway. Double the work and half the reward.

I re-jigged the drier and now rent it out as a workshop for £1200 p.a. and no sweat. That's a lot more fun.

Did you bale it too hard?

My best hay is baled slightly before ready in slack bales. Stacked alternate layers with very dry straw, it is usually second cut.

Not easy to stack though when sold. Although most of our customers are back of estate cars, horse boxes etc. That spec for pet rabbits, sheep, goats etc. The straw is also improved at the same time.

 

[Briar]

Yes I do. And with some of the fancy kit from Austria.
Try and make it in batches. Every batch a learning experience!

 

[andybk]

yea did it years ago , huge london underground fan 4-5' across , powered by lister dumper engine ,bales up on 2x2in mesh , curved sheet roof with open ends , it dried ok (like tobacco ) like a sauna on top working fully , biggest issue was shrinkage in bales made strings very loose , was fun getting them out after , and it was hard work stacking heavy wet bales to start , diesel price killed it along with setting fire to the hedge from exhaust lol .

 

[Flat 10]

@Clever Dic is the man

 

[Formatted]

By fleecing the taxpayer of course! Get a subsidy on the land you used to grow the hay, get a subsidy on the diesel you used to move the hay and get the RHI on the heat you've generated to dry the hay.

Alternatively, just make better hay or wrap it.

 

[honeyend]

I used to buy hay from a chap who flashed dried hay as he bailed it. Not very green but its was OK. He said he meant very little cut was wasted, I can not remember what % moisture it could cope with.

 

[betweenthelines]

No one doing it with a wagon? Isn't that the way it's done in mainland Europe where the milk goes for cheese, so silage can't be fed?

 

[bitwrx]

No one doing it with a wagon? Isn't that the way it's done in mainland Europe where the milk goes for cheese, so silage can't be fed?

That's the way I've seen it done in a couple of places. Swath, forage wagon, intake pit, stacked loose over slats with a big claw machine hanging from the rafters, fans on.

If anyone is ever visiting Modena/Parma/Bologna or the region, this place is worth a visit. https://www.hombre.it/en
Cheese, cows, Maseratis and some proper oddball tractors. Great day out (for people like me.)

 

[early riser]

Some really high tech kit coming out of Austria, I suspect sking money is reivested in farming there.

yep exactly this. Visited Austria a few years back when they were in the middle of hay making season. Most folk seemed to be gathering it up with small self propelled forage wagons and then heaping it into barns and turning big fans on:

I will never forget the smell of that Alpine meadow hay, absolutely beautiful. It was obvious though that tourism/skiing money was behind the job - most farms had under 10 milk cows but a new Fendt on the drive!

 

[Yale]

yep exactly this. Visited Austria a few years back when they were in the middle of hay making season. Most folk seemed to be gathering it up with small self propelled forage wagons and then heaping it into barns and turning big fans on:

I will never forget the smell of that Alpine meadow hay, absolutely beautiful. It was obvious though that tourism/skiing money was behind the job - most farms had under 10 milk cows but a new Fendt on the drive!

Those gantry grab things are special.

 

[steveR]

yep exactly this. Visited Austria a few years back when they were in the middle of hay making season. Most folk seemed to be gathering it up with small self propelled forage wagons and then heaping it into barns and turning big fans on:

I will never forget the smell of that Alpine meadow hay, absolutely beautiful. It was obvious though that tourism/skiing money was behind the job - most farms had under 10 milk cows but a new Fendt on the drive!

And mahoooosive sub payments to keep them farming up there, and why not!

 

[Devil's advocate]

Yes I do. And with some of the fancy kit from Austria.
Try and make it in batches. Every batch a learning experience!

Thank you for replying Bramble.

What kind of bale do you make & what is the market/use of the hay?

Those woodern hay barns & loose hay really look the business.

Many are commenting on cost, but it makes sense to me, especially with renewable power. Plastic use is going to be targeted in the years to come. Field drying is cheapest of course, but we all get caught out with unreliable forecasts & shaded parts of fields. It makes second cut a more realistic propsition too.

Making round bale haylage is an expensive hobby in my area, many more people want to buy small bale hay of outstanding qualty.

I dabble in the rabbit/gunia pig market but can't compete with the best, how do they get 40 kg in a bale solid as a brick of young fine green hay, that smells like a June hayfield in Febuary.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Those gantry grab things are special.

They look fun, but goodness knows what they cost.

 

[Dry Rot]

If there was some way to cut the work out of it, tripodding would be the way to make hay. I've been with an Irish show jumper trainer buying meadow hay that was made that way in the west of Ireland. Beautiful organic hay, but too much human sweat goes into it to be practical.

 

[Briar]

It is a more expensive way of making "hay" over relying on the weather gods, but it gives one options and a premium in a variable climate were many are chasing similar markets and a forage with a much better feed value.
Our friends on the continent, from what I could see, are mostly part of an organic or "heumilch" scheme - or both - where the milk from only grass and hay (no fermented forage) enjoys a premium for cheese production.

 

[glasshouse]

yep exactly this. Visited Austria a few years back when they were in the middle of hay making season. Most folk seemed to be gathering it up with small self propelled forage wagons and then heaping it into barns and turning big fans on:

I will never forget the smell of that Alpine meadow hay, absolutely beautiful. It was obvious though that tourism/skiing money was behind the job - most farms had under 10 milk cows but a new Fendt on the drive!

Easy to see the austrians have a proper union

 

[glasshouse]

I sm putting in a grain drying floor which will also dry hay

 

[Simon Chiles]

I sm putting in a grain drying floor which will also dry hay

Someone I know does that. Picks up the grass with a wagon, tips it on a dump box and blower to blow it into the barn. The dump box and blower came from an old Howard Harvestore. The art is to get the grass at an even resistance on the drying floor. Blows grass until it’s dry then shovels it back up and tips it back onto the dump box which this time feeds the baler. It makes an excellent product and does away with the problem of loose strings on the bale.