# Record hay yield?



## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

At least a record for me anyways. Hay is an alfalfa timothy brome mix. I baled up about 15 acres the other day and got 163 4x5 bales around 1000 pounds. Been a real good year for growing hay here. Now I only have about 115 more acres of this real thick hay to cut and bale.


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

Hey that's great, post up some pic's for us to see.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

That is a great yield Hog. You are doing something right!

When I get half that amount per acre I am doing a happy dance. Was this first cutting and super thick?


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

Yes this is all first cut. Only thing is all this hay got rained on. I lost some of my hay ground this spring when my uncle sold his land I was haying so with the land I still have I upped my fertilizer. Looks like the fertilizer payed off this year, When I get some more hay put up I will take some pictures.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

hog987 said:


> Yes this is all first cut. Only thing is all this hay got rained on. I lost some of my hay ground this spring when my uncle sold his land I was haying so with the land I still have I upped my fertilizer. Looks like the fertilizer payed off this year, When I get some more hay put up I will take some pictures.


More hay on less ground is a good investment.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

hog987 said:


> At least a record for me anyways. Hay is an alfalfa timothy brome mix. I baled up about 15 acres the other day and got 163 4x5 bales around 1000 pounds. Been a real good year for growing hay here. Now I only have about 115 more acres of this real thick hay to cut and bale.


WOW that's about 5.4 ton per acre.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Those must be some pretty dense bales. What kind of baler and what pressure are you using to get 1000 lb 4x5 bales? And how much of the mix was alfalfa?

My 5x5.5 grass bales weighed in at 1060 lbs when baled at 1800-1900 lbs pressure. My alfalfa bales weighed 1400 lbs.

Ralph


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## discbinedr (Mar 4, 2013)

70 4x4 silage bales off 5.5 acres alfalfa/ryegrass mix in 2003. 70% moisture and close to a ton apiece.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

My baler is a new holland roll belt 450. I have the pressure as tight as it can go. It does not have a pressure gauge so Iam not really sure. It does make a bale tight enough I cant put a finger in the ends. Here are some pics from cutting today. They were taking with my cell phone and I dont know how to make them bigger.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

Been busy haying. Been nice put up more hay this last week than I did all month of july. A couple of pics of the bales I make


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

*WOW that's about 5.4 ton per acre*.

Yes that is 5.4 T or 10,800 lbs of hay.

Looking at the fugues DR A Rotz at PA published he must have done really good.

Dry matter lost in harvesting.

Mower Conditioning 1 - 4% 2% Avg

Raking 1 - 20% 8% Avg

RB 3 - 9% 6% Avg

Then

Inline Square Baler 1 - 4% 3% Avg

On average his yield started close to 6.3T/A though maybe 6.1T/A

Note around here we have ideal baling humidity for maybe 30 minutes. HERE we have 2 hours of balling before leaf shatter becomes a problem.

It is not difficult to loose a third of the standing hay to miss management. He could have managed his harvest for a 4T/A yield. Not bad but not what he started with.

Obviously some sterling hay baling. A big Ata Boy to hog987

Dr Rotz is an Engineer and does not take into consideration a good 5 to 10% Dry Matter lost to overnight respiration.. If the hay is cut early enough for the leaves to dry to 47% moisture this is not a factor.

To do all that is fairly simple for our Humid East conditions.

Start mowing in the late after noon, and or drop the hay in a nice looking windrow.

The day of baling pull into the field after the noon meal with a V rake and pull two windrows together, followed immediately by the baler.

Should be some quality feed with a good quantity. Good Work


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

We made 8 bales an acre probably 8 years or more ago. 412 bales off of 50 acres. Or 4.8 tons an acre


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Colby said:


> We made 8 bales an acre probably 8 years or more ago. 412 bales off of 50 acres. Or 4.8 tons an acre


Bermuda grass....I'm bettin ....Tift 85

Prolly caught hell tryin to rake it up....


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

somedevildawg said:


> Bermuda grass....I'm bettin ....Tift 85
> 
> Prolly caught hell tryin to rake it up....


Yes Bermuda grass half the field was tifton. Half was jigs. I don't even remember honestly. This was when we had a guy coming to do our hay work. He had the same rig I use now just a Vermeer rake and a 566 behind it. We got a pretty good bill that time tho!
Another time I recall when we first started out doing it our self in 2007 we had a 30 acre field that we made 12 bales a round on it. Then my grandpa raked it all up and we couldn't get it baled! Even with the brand new 567. What a night mare that was


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Colby said:


> Yes Bermuda grass half the field was tifton. Half was jigs. I don't even remember honestly. This was when we had a guy coming to do our hay work. He had the same rig I use now just a Vermeer rake and a 566 behind it. We got a pretty good bill that time tho!
> Another time I recall when we first started out doing it our self in 2007 we had a 30 acre field that we made 12 bales a round on it. Then my grandpa raked it all up and we couldn't get it baled! Even with the brand new 567. What a night mare that was


Yea that's the only real problem with Tift 85...if it gets out to about 45 days and has had plenty of N and rain....you now have a mess on your hands


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

Iam having this problem with my hay. What should have been cut a month ago at 4.5 feet tall is now only 2.5 feet tall. Iam sure glad I have my discbine. My old hay bine would not beable to cut this hay. But the hay keeps growing. Now Iam getting a bunch of second growth timothy comming up. Will at least this new tender stuff it will help make up in feed value with the older coarse stuff. Hope the weather holds up so I can finally get my first cut done. My second cut is looking great. Some of the alfalfa has leaves on it as big as half of my thumb.


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

somedevildawg said:


> Yea that's the only real problem with Tift 85...if it gets out to about 45 days and has had plenty of N and rain....you now have a mess on your hands


Yep, but we haven't had to worry about that the past 6 years. Bumper crop went to bummer crop lol


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