# How did you learn about hay baling



## kfarm_EC_IL

I was wondering how you learned about the process of putting up hay? I learned form on the the job trial and error. Lot of error. No one in our farm family going back several generations had done much more than handle it. So for me it has been a few steps forward and watch out for the cliff be hind. However because of the way I have learned I have some great experence on what not to do which exctually really has helped.

Now I have asked a couple of local balers and they have always got me pointed in the right direction.

How did you learn? Family member, worked for a neighbor, Studied up, books, Haytalk? How or what caused you to learn the most? I learned a ton about square balers from a NH 276. Taught me well enough I traded it.

Thoughts yesterday while driving around in circles. Thanks 
Mark K


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## downtownjr

Baled some as a kid for a 4-H leader...wanted to farm a little after retiring from the military five years, my family sold out when I was a teenager, and hay is the cheaper way to go machinery wise. I bought at auctions and off people and rebuilt most of what I purchased. I volunteered my time for some people...learned good and bad from them. Help an older gentleman out now...has 50 years baling hay and raising cattle...great mentor. We have a machinery sharing arrangement as well, we both benefit from that. I do some custom work on the side and rent my own ground. I also read a lot and belong to the Grass and Forage Association, which is less helpful than I would have hoped. I attend workshops...both Purdue and University of IL. I also search the internet...University of Wisconsin, Iowa State, Ohio State, and Kentucky have great sites. I have learned to ask a lot of questions and beware of bad myths. I learned one person I helped last year was full of more bad advice than good...he was good at breaking perfectly good machinery and turning good hay into bad by baling too wet. Rigged everything and paid the price in the long run. That is a teaching tool of its own. Probably the most important thing I have learned is _baling is an art and a science_. Weather, types of grass/legumes, hay mixtures in a field, and soil types/testing are all part of the equation. Also, what animal are you feeding. This site has been very helpful because I can ask a questions and folks are happy to help out. Lots of very experienced people and good info. The site is not a bad creation for something created during a discussion with my son over the supper table. I do lovemaking hay...driving around in circles does give you a chance to think


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## Heyhay..eh

Getting to Hay making was a long journey for me. I grew up in mining country in the Canadian Shield ( above the 58 lat.). There were no farms around and when we did go south it was rarely to visit a farm ... more to shop in the city. In my youth I worked in the mines so breaking ground was drilling a pattern of 12' holes, loading them with powder, lighting the fuse ... Kaaboom broken ground.

After leaving the north to pursue some further education I ended up in the south looking for a place to live ... caught on with a farmer who introduced me to the challenges of grain & chicken/eggs farming. Even though I didn't know anything about farming mining had taught me how to work hard and fast so he gave me the chance.

After graduation & marriage we bought a farm to escape the city rat race. It had 75 a. fenced with about 20 in hay. So we gave it (hay) to a dairy farmer down the road and even helped him take it off and maintain the field. Hay for him learning for me. Over time he convinced us to get into cattle ... you know just hobby! We also expanded our group of friends to include other folks who did hay so we had a great variety of inputs. Some made good hay some made hay as it happened & others didn't care what kind of hay they made. Like jr. says ... you learn from them all.

As my herd grew so did my need for hay. Accumulated some equipment starting with square capacity so a 337 JD baler & JD 1830 tractor (custom out the cut). Then a 1150 Hesston mower & JD 4020 and 1002 bale wagon. The learning process accelerates when you do things from start to finish. and one can never stop asking questions or trying new things and keeping an eye out for poor advice from farmers with 20 years experience (1 years experience 20 times). I lucked in to some innovators which drove me to innovate some and then to learn from it. Now I am making hay on about 200 acres and doing some custom baling ... no custom mowing. Now have JD tractors 4020 & 5420, 337 sq & 435 rd JD balers, 1034 NH hay picker, & Hesston 1150 mower, 3 advisor/mentors, 2 Haying partners ( we hay on adjacent fields at the same time to help each other out, one guy is 75 so we make sure that we are nearby doing the same operation as he so we can help out). Oh and a farm boss, she watchers the weather and tells me what I should be doing and when!

This year I am wondering why? It's August & am not through the first cut. Have 100 acres down (and another 40 acres of custom to bale) on a good weather forecast and the day we started to bale it started to rain. Made one bale and the drizzle started. It has been raining for 5 days now, light but wet (1 inch in 5 days). I don't know if the 337 will even turn a wheel this year ... just roll it and give it to the herd. Then like every other true farmer ... there is always next year!


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## BCFENCE

I was pretty much born into it. Raised up on the farm, we had a dairy, hogs , chickens, beef cows , row crops and we put up hay for our cows , when dad sold the dairy out we did alot of custom baling for neighbors, you no i cant remember a day when i was a teenager that we didnt bale hay during the summer, Things have really changed , we used to have two guys on the wagon , one was me, dad on the tractor and at least 3 or 4 guys unloading hay in the barn. My mama would allways have 5 or 6 guys for lunch everyday , times with her i will allways cherish, no person was or ever will be like her. Thats the good things i remember about farming . 
Now i cut more hay in one day than dad could cut all week, rake more in 3 hours than he could rake all day , bale more hay by just sitting in the tractor cab and dropping 15 bale stacks in the field while im sitting in 70 degree cab out of the dust. Then load it all up without touching a bale. You no i can sit here and remember the good ol days when i was a kid, but you know these days are pretty darn good too. (LOL)
THANKS THOMAS


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## OhioHay

For me, I have been doing hay my whole life. Started out on Grandpa's dairy farm, silage and small squares. Grandpa passed in 89 and the cows went with him. Dad started selling horse hay that year and have been doing it ever since. I agree with BCFence. Hay making has changed alot. From stacking it on the wagon by hand, to kick balers, and now accumulators. Sickle bar mowers to self propelled discbines and rollar bar rakes to rotary's. Who knows what will be next, but it sure has been a rewarding and enjoyable ride.


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## haybaler101

Born into it also. Family had dairy farm since 1946. Never really began to master alfalfa production until after we sold the cows in 2002, what a shame. Loaded a lot of wagons behind a small square baler, eating dust and sweating like a mule. Our small crew of 3 people could handle about 1000 to 1200 small squares a day or maybe 20 acres. We would mow about 4 acres an hour with 9 ft. sickle mower and rake at the same pace. Now we want to average 10 acres an hour with the mower, 25 with the rake, and 20 acres is just another hour of baling with the big square baler. Baling hay is a lot more fun with a/c, air ride seat, and stereo.


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## chief-fan

I was Pretty much born and raised on baling hay and farming in general. Was on the farm till the military for 4 years and went into Law Enforcement after that. Retired for that about 12 years ago and moved to an acreage. Got a few animals and needed some hay to feed them. Bought a baler and an old steel wheeled rake and a IH bar mower and started on shares with the neighbor. Now, 8 years later have a NH Super 69, NH 9' mounted bar mower that belongs to the neighbor, a JD 10 wheel rake, and Farmhand Accumulator and Grapple, 3 hay racks and a 5th wheel hay trailer. Usually run 1500 to 2000 bales a year on shares. 80% of the hay is for horse people. Was a paying situation till this year when a $1200 baler repair bill and 600 bales got rained on bit into the profits good ! Next year will be using a preservative and hoping to bale a few hours earlier in the day and have better quality hay.


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## jpritchett

My dad custom hayed by his self when i was young and when i was 9 he needed me to bale for him. I was so small i couldnt even push the clutch in all the way and when i'd hit a bump it would bounce me out of the seat. I baled with a 4230 ps tractor. That summer my dad took on baling corners around irrigated pivets. We did something like 380 corners. That year we baled around 5,000 bales. By time i was 13 we were averaging 10,000 bales a year. When i was 14 we bought are first netwrap baler. It was a JD 566. Having a netwrap baler speeded us up and we were able to bale more bales. When i was 15 we started selling netwrap and baler twine on the side to help support the costs. By the time i was 18 we had two JD 567 balers and we were baling 20,000 bales. My dad was selling maybe 2,000 rolls of netwrap and 10,000 rolls of twine by his self. After college I got more involved with the netwrap and twine business and are sales skyrocketed. The last 3 years we have more than doubled are netwrap sales every year. Last year was the most bales we have ever baled. We rolled up over 28,000 bales. We baled 13,000 bales of corn stalks. We traded are 567 balers in for 568's and you could bale a extra gear faster and not worry about plugging up. In cornstalks we were baling over 1200 bales a day. The worse thing about the new JD balers is the cam and bearings on the pickup and also the kicker chain. We sold 9,000 rolls of netwrap and 5,000 rolls of twine that year.

All my life we have had a two person crew. Just my dad and me. Are custom haying business has grown over the years and are Pritchett Twine and Netwrap company has doubled every year. We sold over 19,000 rolls of netwrap and 12,000 rolls of twine this year. We just came out with a new netwrap that is the strongest on the market. It is are own recipe. The rolls weigh 15 lbs more than any one else's and if you hook one strand of it with your finger and try to pull it apart your finger will hurt before it breaks. It is very strong. I have some pictures of the edible bean bales and wheat straw in my pictures. each bale only has 2.5 wraps. All the bales in the pics were handeled atleast 3 times or more before they were piled by bale movers and loaders. We abused them and they took the abuse. Are goal with the new netwrap is to put less netwrap on the bale and keep the bale from blowing up. usually you have to put over 3 wraps to hold any kind of straw. If you can put less wraps on a bale and it will hold you will save more money and that is what we want. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask me. You can look at are website Pritchett Twine, Net Wrap and Ag Sales of North Central Nebraska.


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## timok

Also born into it. Family farm in NE Iowa ,dairy till '93 and still has horses on it. Like others my experience was on the labor side with sm sq out of a IH 45. Learned enough colorful language from Dad in reference to the 45 to carry me through my hitch with the present problem child 605C Vermeer. All the thinking was done by Dad. So having a slight learning curve with the when to mow, when to rake, when the hay is ready to bale and of course the Vermeer does it's best to challenge my sanity. Why do I bale my own? Simple. No custom baler in this area will come into fields less than 75 acres. So if ya don't want to buy all your hay or wait to see if a baler will come , you bale your own. Trial and error, What works, what doesn't. The real test is what the hay smells like and of course how the animals like it. Example we bought some round bales of Brumuda, Our cows would knock you down to get to the feed pail and the bales lasted 7 days. Our hay that I baled, they don't rush the feed pail. and a bale lasts twice as long. Conclusion, Our hay has more forage benifits and satisfies the cows better. Means I'm learning and that to me is the name of the game.
Also we have been challenged by New Technology. Our Alfalfa supplier went to 4' x 4' x 8' bales 1800# and 1600# Brumda. My Wd45 has a #9 Freeman manure loader and a rear round bale spike on the 400 Farmall. Not easy to handle. So far only method I have come up with is drag the bale off the pickup and trailer and drag them in the hay shed with a chain and then lift each end with the loader and put a pallet under each end. I under stand the economics of the big bales but much larger and us small guys won't be able to deal with these bales. Take care Tim


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