# Equipment/Chemical Recommendations



## Ray450 (May 23, 2019)

Here's my situation, after several years of having my fields cut and going thru several Hay guys, I started baling myself last year. I do it myself mostly because I use the property for other things and need to get cuts more on my schedule than my hay guys. I cut/baled about 100 acres, ended up getting 450 4x5 bales last year, sold all and delivered about 1/2 of them. I sell cow hay, don't have any animals, and have discovered most of the customers in my area just care about how cheap a bale cost. About 1/2 my acreage is bottomlands, grows very thick/fast, but had hundreds of Honey Locust Trees that typically grew in clumps. This year I paid a guy to come in with a CTL/Mulcher and cut down about 400 trees. It's done, so skip the part where I should have killed them first or used a giant dozer/root rake. He mulched about the bottom 3'-4' flush, pushed the rest of the trees over while I gathered them up in my CTL/grapple and made about 12 big burn piles. I've sprayed some of the thicker areas/stumps with Remedy/Diesel with hand sprayer. Mulch was thick, he was much faster, so I'm waiting to spot treat more soon when they are easier to find, see growth, and I start burning the piles. I tried burning one pile green, and it just took too much time constantly pushing the pile into the burn. I'm hoping after about 4 months I can get the entire pile to burn better, and if I have to, I'll mow around them and burn in the fall. Anyway, I can spot treat the bad areas, but would also like to try to knock down some of the Honey locust shoots and seedlings. In the spring I get a lot of Winter Rye, then mixed grasses/weeds, and eventually if it's not cut before late summer, Giant Ragweed will take over. Last year I also had late issues with balloon vine wanting to carpet over areas previously cut. I really don't know what all weeds I have, but my cow hay customers seem happy with the bales. The front/non-bottomland 1/2 does not have the honey locust, but also grows thinner and could probably benefit from some fertilizer/Nitrogen. So I'm trying to decide if I should rent/buy a sprayer, and what I should spray? I have a 6105E JD tractor, that could handle a large 3pt. I was leaning towards about a 200 gallon spraying system (boom? 3pt or wheeled?), spraying Grazon everywhere, continue spot treating Remedy in back on locust shoots, and maybe hitting front with a little fertilizer? Any suggestions? I work full time, at least another few years, and I really don't have the time to do what I already do.


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## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

Here I'd get a Reddick S5.

http://shop.reddickequipment.com/200-300-400-Gallon-S5-Sprayers-S5P.htm


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## Ray450 (May 23, 2019)

Bonfire said:


> Here I'd get a Reddick S5.
> 
> http://shop.reddickequipment.com/200-300-400-Gallon-S5-Sprayers-S5P.htm


 I ran thru some options, I think it's a lot more sprayer than I can justify. They are nice. I asked for a quote from a local company on this, https://www.rozellsprayers.com/catalog/product/3pt-sprayers/rsm300/, but so far I have not heard back. I have several totes, and am tempted to just buy a PTO pump and weld/up my own, but I really don't have the time. I like the idea of booms, but they seem to really add to the cost, and I'm pretty sure I'd need a quality system with springs, or my rough fields and impatience would snap off the cheaper ones. There's some used 200-500 wheeled ones, but they look pretty toasty and are still between $2k-$5k. Can you rent them? Might be an option this year, and I could dedicate more time to searching and/or building later. I feel like I need to get ahead of the weeds and sprouting honey locust asap.


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## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

I guess boomless nozzles have their place but I don't want any part of em. Wind and boomless don't go together. Use the tractor hydraulics for boom up and down. Manual fold and use 2 remotes to control each boom per the terrain. Red 04 size nozzles and drive 4-5 mph and you'll get much better coverage.


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## Edd in KY (Jul 16, 2009)

Since you are just getting into this hay stuff, there is a learning curve. When I started I found it much easier to hire a contract sprayer. They understand the chemicals and mixing, then come in with a 60' boom that can be raised to go over the top of your burn piles. A good job by a contract sprayer will get "big" job done, then let you concentrate later on follow up in bad spots. In my area, contract sprayers charge $6/acre, well worth the cost. Something to consider. They can do in a couple hours what might take days for you, learning, testing, calibrating and cleaning.


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## Jimmy Bartlett (Aug 17, 2015)

if you don't have the time already, hire custom work.

i use a 3pt 200gallon enduraplas with 30 ft booms. i'm only covering 40 acres and also work full time. when i bought this "land champ" from enduraplas, i also wanted 300gal 3pt with 45-60' booms but i couldn't spend $12-15k. I like that the enduraplas tank has a tapered sump for the pump to draw all of the solution. the clean water rinse tank for flushing is also a nice feature. 100acres could be a ~5 hour job for a 200gal rig at ~10gpa with guidance and a decent filling station. older 500-800gal pull type rigs with 40-60' booms are pretty reasonable if purchase price is a major factor and the extra tank capacity certainly helps productivity. sometimes the wind speed may dictate that there are only a few hours during the day to spray. this is a lot of rambling to say that you'll need to decide if you want to do it yourself or hire it out. Like Edd mentions above, there's no preparation or calibration or clean out or winterization needed when you call & hire it done. then again, hiring it done 5 or 6 times might pay for a good chunk of a little spray rig. foam markers can be a pain to keep working and even a low cost lightbar is $1500 or a used auto-steer is $3000.

edit to add - if/when those armyworms are chomping down on your fertilized hayfield - having your own rig might pay for itself in one cutting....


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