# Picking hay on a unique place



## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

I got a taste of picking hay on some side hills. I now understand better what some of you guys talk about. The wagon ran off, or should I say slid off on me a couple of times. I figured out quick that I should only load about two tiers on the bad stuff and get back to more moderate ground.
So a guy called this afternoon and asked if I could stack just about 4000 idiot bricks. I grabbed the wife and we ran up to look at the job. The big Field on top is about as nice as you could ask for. He mentioned that he wanted the other two done first. Then I saw them. Holy sweet Mary there were some ugly spots.
I didn't get pics of the worst of it but you will get the idea.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Well those are some sideways fields.  We have one place that has a pretty steep hill. I was always nervous stacking small squares on it. Big squares hasn't been a problem as there is usually only one bale on it.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

You will have to go under edit on your device, rotate the image once, save then rotate again until it's correctly viewed, save again and then share.

Looks plenty flat for me considering I'm used to haying on rolling hills.


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## 506 (Mar 22, 2016)

So someone baled 4000 squares THEN called to line you up to pick them out of the field? How in the world does that work? What happened if you said no?


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

He would have been S.O.L.
As luck would have it I was just driving the stacker home from another job when the phone rang. He said during the first conversation that he hadn't received a return call from his usual guy. As it turned out, he later told me that his usual guy only stacked about 800 bales a day. The whole job took me 15 hours of stacking over 24 hour period. It would have been several hours less if I hadn't scared myself on the sideways stuff.
I told him that I could squeeze it in Monday evening and Tuesday, after that he was out of luck. It all worked out.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Beautiful country.....I knew I shoulda took you up on that offer  now I'm stuck here in this miserable heat and humidity fighting daily rain events....


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Of course, I could be stuck here in this miserable heat and humidity and not fighting daily rain events.....pick your poison I suppose


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

After careful examination of images.... NOPE


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

In the worst section's, I was picking up going downhill in first gear using engine compression to hold it back, losing traction, and dealing with the sidehill also. There was no hope of picking the rows uphill so I was doing laps. I would pick a row, go to the bottom of the field and turn around and make a run back to the top to pick another row. I was able to snag some, for a while, on the trip back to the top.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

That's some beautiful country you have out there and I wish I had your low humidity climate to make hay in. I can't imagine baling that quantity of hay without having a way to get them off the field asap as it is being baled before it gets rained on. Those hills don't look too bad compared to what I'm used to around here but I have always said pictures don't do hills justice so I will take your word on it. What kind of grass hay is that? Doesn't appear to be irrigated......I figured everything out there would be irrigated?


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

It's just some various meadow grasses. I saw some orchard grass in there.
That ranch is part way up the mountain. Dry land fields because they are above the irrigation canals. 
44.621037N , -109.174491W
If you look at the elevation change just from the highway up to the field it gives a good reference on how steep that draw is, throw in the sidehill it gets fun. It was only one field that was bad, and only the lower section of it. It definitely added several hours to the job.
I may have mentioned that I had no interest in picking that hillside again, once was enough.
I will go anywhere on a horse or mule, in rough country. I suppose that I am a flat lander when it comes to my top heavy stack wagon. I like flat irrigated fields. This was way out of my comfort zone.


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

Seems you are the one to call the shots and leave the bad stuff. Done that way around here as our hay can lay for months because we don't get rain in summer. The bale wagon operators make the rules here.

Common practice to drag bale with a ATV,long rope and hay hooks tied about 10 feet apart. Can drag more down than up. But that is all up to the hay owner to put them where the bale wagon can operate. Of course there is also the problem of getting the moved bales far enough apart that you don't burn the clutch out so the tables can cycle.


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## siscofarms (Nov 23, 2010)

From the hills of Kentucky I'd recommend a accumulator and a skid steer . LOL

Tried a bale wagon here and 90% of the time it worked great but then you'd get on that hill the wrong way, all the fun went out the window .


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