hay making

[Goweresque]

You can never have enough trailers.

I have thirteen, 4 wheel ones, and can get 2700 small bales on them if necessary. Everything gets put on a trailer before I stop for the night, and pulled under cover if I can and/or it looks at all iffy weatherwise. I've got pictures of my Grandfather's trailers of hay all lined up in the field at the end of the day, some of the trailers are the ones I still use today - he used to buy old lorry chassis and build a wooden floor on them, when I started hay making i stripped them all down and rebuilt the beds in steel. Only problem is tyres, I scour farm sales for suitable wheels and tyres!

 

[billboy 1]

I have a lovely stack of top quality haylage from last year and it's basically unsellable.
I have about run out of anything that is or resembles hay. Hardly anyone round here wants good haylage nowadays. The job has changed.

Think your right we supply a lot of livery yards as well as our own I would say it's half and half now

 

[bobk]

I have thirteen, 4 wheel ones, and can get 2700 small bales on them if necessary. Everything gets put on a trailer before I stop for the night, and pulled under cover if I can and/or it looks at all iffy weatherwise. I've got pictures of my Grandfather's trailers of hay all lined up in the field at the end of the day, some of the trailers are the ones I still use today - he used to buy old lorry chassis and build a wooden floor on them, when I started hay making i stripped them all down and rebuilt the beds in steel. Only problem is tyres, I scour farm sales for suitable wheels and tyres!

My oldest trailer was built here 50 years ago and it was ancient then, ex army, you don't even need air in the tyres they're so strong ,
Our local scrapyard saves all these unusual tyres , only changed 1 and there was 20 nuts to split the rim.

 

[Bobthebuilder]

Could do with 3 nice dry airy days and we'll get ours pretty good, forecast looks a bit dodgy tho :/

 

[Pan mixer]

Is it a browns 40 bale carrier? I know where one is I think

It is actually a Cherry products purpose made grab that I picked up 2nd hand several years ago. They still made them at the time but wanted a fair whack for a new one.

I was intending to buy an old Browns 40 bale grab and convert, it would still work as well, possibly better since the central spike in a Browns means you don't have to squeeze so hard and narrow the base.

I built the shed to take 14 layers of hay but don't use the Cherry grab to put the top 7 on as things get a bit unstable, I flat 8 the top 6 or 7 layers and corbel them in a bit which you can nearly see above as well as the (not quite finished) grainstore which has barley going in it in about 2 weeks.

 

[onthehoof]

My oldest trailer was built here 50 years ago and it was ancient then, ex army, you don't even need air in the tyres they're so strong ,
Our local scrapyard saves all these unusual tyres , only changed 1 and there was 20 nuts to split the rim.

All our trailers are ex army bomb trailers we cut them in half and extended them, all on 900x13 and 10.50 x13 tyres you don't see Dunlop highways made in Great Britain now. The odd one goes bang, makes the tyre man swear when they have to change a tyre that's 70 years old

 

[Simon Chiles]

Horse people only want the best, I drove up to 600 miles a day last year looking for it visiting sometimes 20 farms a day, you risk your trade on the fact that you may get a weeks warm weather in July, haveing said that there are some that have magical fingers when making hay and always get it right,

No magic in it, just attention to detail, careful studying of weather forecast and good machinery to get the job done quick. We've done about 270 acres so far ( all little bales in packs ) and every one so far has been good. Average moisture 10% and none on the ground for more than 72 hrs. Only got another 120 acres to go which we should do next week. The last time I'd finished hay before combining was 1990.
Putting them in bale packs transforms the job, one of our customers clears the bales in the evening when he has finished his day job. They have one machine loading in the field, one or two trailers carting ( depending on distance, it could be a couple of miles) and one stacking. They clear 1000 bales/hr. We bale and pack 60-70 acres a day comfortably.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Bale packs need an extra half day, like big ones

 

[Grassman]

No magic in it, just attention to detail, careful studying of weather forecast and good machinery to get the job done quick. We've done about 270 acres so far ( all little bales in packs ) and every one so far has been good. Average moisture 10% and none on the ground for more than 72 hrs. Only got another 120 acres to go which we should do next week. The last time I'd finished hay before combining was 1990.
Putting them in bale packs transforms the job, one of our customers clears the bales in the evening when he has finished his day job. They have one machine loading in the field, one or two trailers carting ( depending on distance, it could be a couple of miles) and one stacking. They clear 1000 bales/hr. We bale and pack 60-70 acres a day comfortably.

We don't seem to get the weather to be able to risk it in big lots like that. Or the big fields. Or the machinery. Or the staff. Or the buildings!!

 

[Chuckie]

We don't seem to get the weather to be able to risk it in big lots like that. Or the big fields. Or the machinery. Or the staff. Or the buildings!!

Was just thinking the same, here in Lancs it has not been possible to get any hay this year so far without it being rained on at least once

Also, the crops are really heavy, even fields that have had no fert.

Given dry conditions and light crops, hay making is easy

 

[dazza b]

Well I'm still waiting for the weather here in not so sunny north lancs! Got about 16acre to do not much compared to u lads but each week I miss getting it the heavier it gets the heavier it gets the more drying it takes grrrrrr

 

[Derrick Hughes]

It is actually a Cherry products purpose made grab that I picked up 2nd hand several years ago. They still made them at the time but wanted a fair whack for a new one.

I was intending to buy an old Browns 40 bale grab and convert, it would still work as well, possibly better since the central spike in a Browns means you don't have to squeeze so hard and narrow the base.View attachment 175166
I built the shed to take 14 layers of hay but don't use the Cherry grab to put the top 7 on as things get a bit unstable, I flat 8 the top 6 or 7 layers and corbel them in a bit which you can nearly see above as well as the (not quite finished) grainstore which has barley going in it in about 2 weeks.

hay likes company but dont like being moved after 2 days

 

[onthehoof]

Bale packs need an extra half day, like big ones

What packer are you using

 

[Derrick Hughes]

What packer are you using

Dont have one, but if I did it would be a Bale Bandit, don't like those small bales from the others, can't sell them, it is quite well know that a pack needs a bit more time, bales stacked will cure a little in the stack,treat a pack as a big bale

 

[Hilly]

My Dad talks about making hay when he was a bairn with horses and pitchfork`s, key ingredient apart from weather was NO NITROGEN ! and loads of horse and folk !!!!! he always says the farmer used to say as time went by and they got tractors and nitrogen that nitrogen ruind farming as we all started to produce too much, supply demand, he reckoned banning the blue bag as they called it would have made farming more profitable.

 

[Henarar]

He may well be right

 

[kneedeep]

No magic in it, just attention to detail, careful studying of weather forecast and good machinery to get the job done quick. We've done about 270 acres so far ( all little bales in packs ) and every one so far has been good. Average moisture 10% and none on the ground for more than 72 hrs. Only got another 120 acres to go which we should do next week. The last time I'd finished hay before combining was 1990.
Putting them in bale packs transforms the job, one of our customers clears the bales in the evening when he has finished his day job. They have one machine loading in the field, one or two trailers carting ( depending on distance, it could be a couple of miles) and one stacking. They clear 1000 bales/hr. We bale and pack 60-70 acres a day comfortably.

Herein lies the north /south divide.
Whilst I'm in awe of your operation,
owning every conceivable piece of haymaking kit ever invented , type an 'La,Pr, L' postcode and study away till your eyes melt.....
If it rains every day, or at least every other, not even Harry bloody Potter and Gandalf can make good hay reliably up here.
I'd be surprised if there's been 270 acres of hay made in the whole of Lancashire up to now.

 

[Grassman]

My Dad talks about making hay when he was a bairn with horses and pitchfork`s, key ingredient apart from weather was NO NITROGEN ! and loads of horse and folk !!!!! he always says the farmer used to say as time went by and they got tractors and nitrogen that nitrogen ruind farming as we all started to produce too much, supply demand, he reckoned banning the blue bag as they called it would have made farming more profitable.

Have to agree that haymaking in an unfertilised crop is so much easier and I think makes nice hay.

 

[Henarar]

Have to agree that haymaking in an unfertilised crop is so much easier and I think makes nice hay.

yep its the best thing to do with it

 

[Hilly]

He also talks about all the sh!t hay they used to make and things they used to do like spreading salt on it etc and hay barns getting to the brink of fire etc etc they lived in wet Cumbria in them days couldn't have been easy, men women and children in hay fields and roaring and shoutning if anyone dared to stop working lol, cant be many alive remember making hay with horses for real !!! and most of was probably for the feking horse !lol he reckond mowing it was the hardest work a horse would do in the farming calendar.