I started getting the equipment ready for the hay season about a week ago. On Thursday I mowed a small pasture that the grass got ahead of the cows. Usually we just trim it with the sickle mower but this was enough to actually make a few bales out of. Our ground is still really wet but by tedding a couple of times and being light hay, I was able to get 8 small square bales off the small field. This also gives the equipment a good test run.
Hay Season 2024
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cjet69
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Raked, baled, and hauled a small field with light hay on it. Only got 50 bales but its better than nothing. I can remember getting around 120 bales off this field in the past. I did have a problem with the bale hauler. A set screw is slipping on a shaft and I am unable to get it tight enough to hold It in place. Should be an easy fix with a new set screw that isn't stripped out. The pic is the empty field, just how I like to see them.
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Like this?Those bailers are so cool. I still love me an old school kick bailer though.
...he has a grapple that picks up the 15 bales at a time that come off the Massey baler
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Never had the stacker luxury. Its was either pick them up off the ground or stand behind a dirty bailer chute.
Dirty bailer chute was worse than stacking in the barn.
Dirty bailer chute was worse than stacking in the barn.
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@MARK (LI) I think what you described as a "grapple" was actually a bale accumulator? My buddy in Ohio that was here last week has one, and they're pretty cool.
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Had 2 break downs yesterday. A pin broke off on the shift quadrant on the Case IH 485. I don't think it will be hard to fix but I will know more when I pull the covers off for access. Then while baling with the IH 440 baler the hay pickup quit turning. Appears to be the roller bearing that runs on the cam to tilt the tines broke off one bar. This is not the first time this has happened. This is also not hard to fix just takes time. Need to see if we have another bar or if I need to fix the broke one. Pulled the pickup off last night and brought to the shop. Just going out to start repairs.
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There has been so much darn rain this year. My neighbor still hasn't gotten 1st crop down. He had a small window of good weather when he could’ve made some hay, but he missed it. It procrastinates everything. At work we had 1st crop done a couple weeks ago. I was weed whacking the fence lines of one of the hay fields and the water was 1 inch from the top of my rubber boots in one of the areas.
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Crazy how much rain some of you are getting.
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Pulled the broken bar out and I found a usable spare bar. Had to straighten the end a little and then swapped the old bearing from the broken end onto this bar. Somewhere around here we have a bucket of used tines that I need to find to replace a broken one. Hopefully I will be baling this afternoon.
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2" of much needed rain received in as many hours. Very little run off and saw very little washing in the garden in places where it's bare dirt. Did my morning walk by inspection of the garden this morning after chores, while the pumpkins have been doing great, the new blooms have been limited. This morning many new huge blooms appeared overnight. Never fails to amaze me how fast plants respond.
This rain definitely set in the fertilizer I spread on the hay field last week. Weather service had a similar forecast last week but only got 3/10's over 3 days. It's definitely hit & miss here. Just seems to rain in various sized cells, not a broad steady soaker like we get from storms in the gulf that turn up this way. The one in progress down there now is projected to go across Mexico and Yucatan and weaken. A couple more, further to the East projected to follow the same path. High pressure system ios keeping it all to the South. I expect the hay to take off here PDQ, and hopefully make as decent second cutting.
We got another brief downpour this afternoon, will check the rain gauge when I do chores.
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This rain definitely set in the fertilizer I spread on the hay field last week. Weather service had a similar forecast last week but only got 3/10's over 3 days. It's definitely hit & miss here. Just seems to rain in various sized cells, not a broad steady soaker like we get from storms in the gulf that turn up this way. The one in progress down there now is projected to go across Mexico and Yucatan and weaken. A couple more, further to the East projected to follow the same path. High pressure system ios keeping it all to the South. I expect the hay to take off here PDQ, and hopefully make as decent second cutting.
We got another brief downpour this afternoon, will check the rain gauge when I do chores.
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The garden looks great, DJ54.
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That's exactly what it is called....but I didn't think anyone would have any idea what I was talking about if I called it that
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Pulled the Case IH 485 apart. Decided to remove the shifters to get this quadrant out so I can weld the pin back in. This is a rivet head pin that is pressed in and spot welded from the factory. It must have started to get loose in the hole and finally broke the pin out of the flat head. I'll weld it back tomorrow and see if I can get it all put together.
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Didn't take hydraulics class for nothing.
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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.
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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.
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That breaking it up to make sure it gets baled and in the barn dry?
Dad did custom baling when the small AC round bales were popular.
In the summer time us boys put up lots of hay. We used two lowboys that held what you have in the barn so far.
Using other people's equipment cost them an extra.
Those New Holland Stackliner's seem to be becoming a thing around here again. A few around making good horse hay, to sell to buyers in KY. Straw too, some going there and local, landscaper/reclaim, etc. A buddy of mine and Father of another buddy would make 10K bales of straw every Summer, with just the 2 of them. His even had the optional unloader.
My buddy's father passed away I was considering buying it at the estate auction. Looking up the specs. saw it took 14' of headroom to tip up to unload. My new 3 year old horse barn at the time was 12' to the square. Even though it had the unloader, the reason I wanted it was so as not to have to stack the hay.
That unit was field ready, and the day of the sale only brought $900. Made me sad it only brought that much plus the fact I couldn't use it. Local eq. jockey bought it and put a $3500 price tag on it. Wasn't on the lot long.
My buddy's father passed away I was considering buying it at the estate auction. Looking up the specs. saw it took 14' of headroom to tip up to unload. My new 3 year old horse barn at the time was 12' to the square. Even though it had the unloader, the reason I wanted it was so as not to have to stack the hay.
That unit was field ready, and the day of the sale only brought $900. Made me sad it only brought that much plus the fact I couldn't use it. Local eq. jockey bought it and put a $3500 price tag on it. Wasn't on the lot long.
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