Hay equipment and Haying 2024
- Thread starter cjet69
- Start date
Those pictures remind me of my old 574.
Very similar.
You and me both. Its to be expected with older, tired equipment. I'm glad its been easy fixes so far.
Mowed another field this morning and then raked and baled the field right beside it. The bale counter said 216 bales I think. Some of the numbers are faded or gone so I won't know for sure until they are in the barn. Already have 100 bales picked up, 44 in the barn and 56 in the bale hauler. I'll finish hauling this evening when its a little cooler.
Attachments
Finished picking up the bales this evening. The bale counter was off 1 bale, had 215 total. The total count in the barn is now 605. Expect another 200 bales from what I cut today. After that I have 6.5 to 7 acre piece left to do. I will break it up into 3 to 4 pieces.
And you're doing all the cutting, raking, bale plus stacking yourself ?
We always tried to break our cuts up into smaller fields. That way if the weather turned only one cut would get soaked. The first year we were here we cut a full quarter section of Alfalfa Brome mix on shares for the owner. He was impatient for second cut and insisted that the whole thing go down as soon as possible so we did it his way. Of course it rained before it was dry enough to bale, we had to turn the swath to dry it, and it rained a couple of days later and soaked it again. What a total mess! We finally got it baled but we never worked for/with that guy again.
Pretty much all of it. My brother drove the bale hauler for 2 loads this weekend but I still do the unloading. He gets hay fever if he works in the hay much.
I hate that when the rains just keep moving in just before your ready to rake and bale. Had some really bleached out hay in the past so we try to avoid it when possible.
We'll see if I bit off more than I can chew. Mowed a piece almost twice as large as I have been which is approx. 1/3 of the remaining hay. Got a couple pics of the remaining standing hay. Ran the tedder over what I mowed yesterday. Looks like its drying fast in this mid-80's weather. Hope it holds for another 10 days. Tuesday thru Friday I have to get the cows set up for breeding. It should only be about an hour a day so I should be able to keep moving the hay along.
Attachments
Tedded the field this morning and raked and baled this afternoon. Made 222 bales on a 580' x 104' field. Lots of first gear baling with several spots I had to push the clutch in and wait so I didn't plug the pick up. The temp was still rising when I came home to eat dinner. Our thermometer just hit 89°F. Not sure how accurate it is but it is plenty warm out. A lot nicer sitting on a tractor than bucking bales. May wait for it to cool some before I haul some bales. I'll get a few pics when I go up later.
Got all but 34 bales up out of the field. 2 loads stacked in the barn and 1 still in the hauler. Started to get dark so I stopped. The bale count is 202 and not 222 that I posted in the previous post. Need a bale counter that has all of the numbers on it.
Attachments
I've been tedding with our 1945 John Deere B hand start tractor. When I finished the last field and parked it I noticed the front tire looked a little funny. I do have a used set of tri-ribs that are the correct size.
Attachments
I have a Bolen Ride-A-Matic that had a front that looked like that. Aired up the tube about normal, wrapped the tube with duck tape, about 3 layers and put it together. That was about 7 years ago and still holding together. Not sure that would work with that one though.
Another day another break down. This time it was the New Holland Stackliner. The cross feed chain on the first table got a big wad of hay in it which derailed the chain and jambed it. The drive end kept going and sheared the square key on the drive sprocket. I was able to get a new key at the building center just down the road. The key way in the shaft is in rough shape but it tightened up good with the new key. Put some loc-tite on it and hope for the best. Its ready to go for a test run now. Might be tomorrow because I need to give the cows their last shot this evening before breeding tomorrow afternoon. I did manage to put 2 full loads in the barn before it broke with another 16 bales loaded.
