Barn drying hay

essexpete

Member
Location
Essex
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:

View attachment 900426

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!
Similar on the Swiss Alps and, as I understand, part of a greater plan to preserve the chocolate box landscape. I think I have read somewhere that the average Swiss household contributes in excess of 2k CHF.
Found this:
At 51% of farm receipts, Switzerland has the third highest level of farm subsidies in Europe after Norway and Iceland. ... A narrower measure, which excludes damage to the environment, puts the average monetary cost per household at around CHF 2,570 p.a., more than 3% of a gross median Swiss salary.

I guess alpine Austrian farming might be similar?
We had a go at "barn blowing" hay years ago with a 3phase fan from a grainstore . We built the stack with a tunnel to take the wind sock and hand stacked the lot to ensure the gaps between bales were minimised. Had some nice early hay. We were not very scientific but I would guess another day of sun would have made the whole thing unnecessary. We did have a temp probe to monitor stack. Flow meter was a piece of light cloth. A complete waste of time, effort and electricity was our conclusion.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Similar on the Swiss Alps and, as I understand, part of a greater plan to preserve the chocolate box landscape. I think I have read somewhere that the average Swiss household contributes in excess of 2k CHF.
Found this:
At 51% of farm receipts, Switzerland has the third highest level of farm subsidies in Europe after Norway and Iceland. ... A narrower measure, which excludes damage to the environment, puts the average monetary cost per household at around CHF 2,570 p.a., more than 3% of a gross median Swiss salary.

I guess alpine Austrian farming might be similar?
We had a go at "barn blowing" hay years ago with a 3phase fan from a grainstore . We built the stack with a tunnel to take the wind sock and hand stacked the lot to ensure the gaps between bales were minimised. Had some nice early hay. We were not very scientific but I would guess another day of sun would have made the whole thing unnecessary. We did have a temp probe to monitor stack. Flow meter was a piece of light cloth. A complete waste of time, effort and electricity was our conclusion.
The Swiss run things properly .
They dont allow foreigners or city types to buy up and destroy thr landscape and communities.
A model long forgotten in uk
 

pine_guy

Member
Location
North Cumbria
You cant wait till the sun comes out.
You need to cut iin the rain, looking six days ahead when3 dry days are forecast
I did that, last nights thunder splatter was not in the forecast when I cut it. Should have been ted half a day sooner, but was sheeting the silage pit 🤦‍♂️ Wished I’d put the dam hay in there as well, but it’s on the grassing block 8 mile away
 

Clever Dic

Member
Location
Melton
Just condemned about 100 ton of hay from reasonable horse forage to cattle hay.
Ryegrass is a bitch..usually sell about 500 ton a year into racing and never once made it without going on my dryer.
The 100 ton was not quite quality enough to put on my dryer so tried natural..and buggered it up. Do not ask me how to make hay I have to cheat to do it.
 

essexpete

Member
Location
Essex
The Swiss run things properly .
They dont allow foreigners or city types to buy up and destroy thr landscape and communities.
A model long forgotten in uk
I assume the landscape is preserved for aesthetic/tourism reasons as much as supporting small farmers. The Swiss are ultimately business orientated plus they have plenty of CHF from all the financial help they have given to non Swiss.
 

essexpete

Member
Location
Essex
Just condemned about 100 ton of hay from reasonable horse forage to cattle hay.
Ryegrass is a bitch..usually sell about 500 ton a year into racing and never once made it without going on my dryer.
The 100 ton was not quite quality enough to put on my dryer so tried natural..and buggered it up. Do not ask me how to make hay I have to cheat to do it.
No help to you but I have found that the round bale stood out for a least a week can make a difference. I cut a new ley for a neighbour in 1998 then was hospitalised. Dad turned it and Bro came on the weekend to bale. We used to use the acid treatment and the rate was stepped up. The whole lot went wrong. It probably needed at least another 2 days of sun but they tried to beat the forecast. Late May hay, even if mostly, even if not entirely RG can be tricky to make as well with sap in the stems/nodes.
 
Or just wait until the sun comes out.

If barn drying was to get hay in 4 days instead of 5 I would agree with you.

But the volatile weather we get often means plans have to change. In the past I've taken the wrapped alternative but poor qualty of modern wrap & over supply of product means that is no longer an option.

Possibilty of higher qualty & a more viable second cut are also considerations.
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
I stopped with a lad far up in Norway when I was hitching as a pup. (1991?)
He had a brand new barn drying system -subs coming outta their ears.

It- as I recall- involved pick up wagon dumping fresh crop onto a wide elevator , which took it over drying facility, and on up into loft.
There were 2 recent MF tractors in the yard, a useful round baler............and a grand total of 17 cows to milk.

My alpine jollies last summer saw all manner of small gear but the grass wasn't being barn dried. the weather was plenty reliable enough, and since wrapping roundies has arrived- like here- the game is changed.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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