Combining 2 Windrows With A Hay Bob?

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
If you look at the original post it talks about a generic hay bob, this can in many peoples eyes mean anything with horizontal rotors towed behind a tractor.
The one in the diagram the rotors can only turn in one direction sweeping the grass in through the middle. Other machines can do this , but also by changing a gear, both rotors Can turn one way raking grass to left normally I think. This will give the option of clearing up to 7 metres in one bout across a field into a single swath.
we used to make Over 200 acres a year of hay And worked on the principle that it should never sit still and sometime making hay with in 24 hours in good weather. It only turns to chaff when it has been sitting in the sun too long
That method doesnt work in Scotland
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
I had hay ready to bale on tuesday night, but the dampness stopped me baling at ten
Wednesday thu was very wet, i turned s bit yesterday but it didnt wuite get there, now its raining again 😩🦆🦆🦆🦆😩
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
I had hay ready to bale on tuesday night, but the dampness stopped me baling at ten
Wednesday thu was very wet, i turned s bit yesterday but it didnt wuite get there, now its raining again 😩🦆🦆🦆🦆😩
I remember the pain today of watching the rain come down just as it is fit to bale.
remember once we Were getting ready to bale a field the other end of thw farm, when a thunderstorm hit and washed us out. So it was baler off tackle put away and muckspreader put on for work that end too. 20 minutes laterlad came haring down the track to announcebthat the rain had not touched that end of the farm , so it was back on with the baler and crack on. One of the lucky days.
we used to dread haymaking, having 100 cows relying on a top notch feed, I do not know why we did not get into silage sooner, our neighbour was doing it probably 15 years before.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
I remember the pain today of watching the rain come down just as it is fit to bale.
remember once we Were getting ready to bale a field the other end of thw farm, when a thunderstorm hit and washed us out. So it was baler off tackle put away and muckspreader put on for work that end too. 20 minutes laterlad came haring down the track to announcebthat the rain had not touched that end of the farm , so it was back on with the baler and crack on. One of the lucky days.
we used to dread haymaking, having 100 cows relying on a top notch feed, I do not know why we did not get into silage sooner, our neighbour was doing it probably 15 years before.
What year was that?
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
What year was that?
60 s and 70's cannot give exact year. We seriously started making silage in about 74. We had made odd bits and pieces using buckrakes and the Dorset wedge even though we had a forager from the mid 60's on but using it mainly for zero grazing kale. Our neighbours had been using the Dorset wedge , then they made a clamp they used to push it up 20 odd foot high. Do not know what H&S would have made of it today with the dies only going up about 15. They did have a disaster one year , luckily nobody hurt when the back of the clamp collapsed
I think Father found the work of getting long silage out of the clamp and feeding it , just too much like hard work, those little bales were a lot less to cart and came in handy packages
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
60 s and 70's cannot give exact year. We seriously started making silage in about 74. We had made odd bits and pieces using buckrakes and the Dorset wedge even though we had a forager from the mid 60's on but using it mainly for zero grazing kale. Our neighbours had been using the Dorset wedge , then they made a clamp they used to push it up 20 odd foot high. Do not know what H&S would have made of it today with the dies only going up about 15. They did have a disaster one year , luckily nobody hurt when the back of the clamp collapsed
I think Father found the work of getting long silage out of the clamp and feeding it , just too much like hard work, those little bales were a lot less to cart and came in handy packages
My grandfather was too mean to switch to silage even though all our neighbours did it before 1980
I startd round bale silage in 1985, which saved our bacon, at least having some decent forage when all the hay went black after lying six weeks
Switched to pit silage in 88 after listeriosis problems
We may have started with a dorset wedge too
 

FG.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Wiltshire
My grandfather was too mean to switch to silage even though all our neighbours did it before 1980
I startd round bale silage in 1985, which saved our bacon, at least having some decent forage when all the hay went black after lying six weeks
Switched to pit silage in 88 after listeriosis problems
We may have started with a dorset wedge too
My father wouldn't budge from hay for 140 dairy and followers, until 1986, when he wasn't well and we got a round baler and wrapper. I started not to loath the summer.
Mind you, a Farmhand 804 HDS could be a little testing to ones patients.
 
Last edited:

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
I'd rather not.
Was the weather better back then or is it the 'Rose tinted' glasses?
1.5m mower, centipede/haybob and small baler.
MF35 thru to 80hp JD
Different world of kit now and it seems a total nightmare
Its the smsll baler thats the nightmare!!
Fortunestely we went round bales in 76
Relying on hay in wiltshire is definitely not as lunatic as in central Scotland
.
 

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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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