# Hard year again to make dry hay



## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

Middle of August made 40 acre of 2nd crop, 1st crop was made late. Big square baler was lined up to bale but the day it should have been ready it wasn't a good drying day. Raked it up baled with preservative and hoped for the best because the next days all had chance of rain, pulled some bales out of the barn 2 weeks later and you can see on the sides of the bales where they were touching that the hay heated a little but was cool when we took it out. A neighbor had the same situation labor day weekend and he had his hay tedded out, close to ready to bale and rain in the forecast next day. When he moved bales over a week later same results. The horse farm up the road was shooting for dry hay last Saturday and they ended up having to wrap it all because it wasn't dry.


----------



## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

Same here for making dry hay. Mid September and half the time iam done haying or close to done. But i still have 120 acres of first cut, 60 acres of greenfeed to finish before i can think about second cut. And i might have close to 150 acres of second cut. At this rate i feel like i will never finish????


----------



## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

This has been the most challenging year for me also. 1st cutting with the rain like every 2 days. 2nd and 3rd cuttings with the light spotty rains, then basically no rain (unless you call 0.02, .01 or .04 rain).

A first for me was tedding the same hay 3 times (got it baled, got 0.02" while picking up however). Waiting on a window to try for 4th cutting, was starting to blossom 2 weeks ago. Now it's growing being I got .35" of rain 10 days ago (0.76" last night ).

Larry


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Last 2 years have been difficult for us . But we have baled a lot of "sound " hay . The Massey Agco steel rolls have been a god send .


----------



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

endrow said:


> Last 2 years have been difficult for us . But we have baled a lot of "sound " hay . The Massey Agco steel rolls have been a god send .


Do you use the Massey on grass hay and alfalfa both?

Regards, Mike


----------



## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

r82230 said:


> A first for me was tedding the same hay 3 times (got it baled, got 0.02" while picking up however). Waiting on a window to try for 4th cutting, was starting to blossom 2 weeks ago. Now it's growing being I got .35" of rain 10 days ago (0.76" last night ).
> 
> Larry


Tedded 3 times??? For us here in New England, that would be the morm, if not the minimun!


----------



## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

In my part of the state, I couldn't make first cut happen due to the rain. Then the rain shut off and we could get first cut in. And the rain never turned back on, which took me forever to fertilize, waiting until there would be appreciable guaranteed precipitation. Second cut was slow to grow back, and I don't even know if my grass will get a third cut. We're getting some rain now and if the grass makes enough of a come back I will 'chase hay' because I've got the buyers.


----------



## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

This year was almost as bad as last year in my area. We had a really wet start to the summer and I got stuck for the first time ever while baling hay (half a load on the stacker wagon and the Ford 5000 just couldn't pull through). Got all of first cut in, but only about 8 acres of 2nd. Saving grace was that 1st cut was super thick... it actually had the JD4230 overheating on the JD 945 moco (flail conditioner). I don't know as we would have had much good hay at all without the flails though. They work great in our grass hay.


----------



## HayMike (Mar 22, 2011)

We had to keep a tow strap wrapped on the front of the 1049 all summer. Stuck 8 times in one day, and the hay was good and dry.


----------



## Beav (Feb 14, 2016)

this september has been cloudy cool and rainy have 100 acres of 2nd cutting to bale finished 1st cutting August 2nd looks like a 5 or 6 day dry window starting tomorrow. Time to roll the dice cut everything run both balers and get finished. These shorter cooler days make baling dry hay tough good luck everyone hay supplies are getting tight


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Not too bad here this year actually, biggest issue is after second cutting everything was getting really dry so regrowth was so slow won't be having a third on about half my acres.


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Vol said:


> Do you use the Massey on grass hay and alfalfa both?
> 
> Regards, Mike


yes


----------



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Josh in WNY said:


> This year was almost as bad as last year in my area. We had a really wet start to the summer and I got stuck for the first time ever while baling hay (half a load on the stacker wagon and the Ford 5000 just couldn't pull through). Got all of first cut in, but only about 8 acres of 2nd. Saving grace was that 1st cut was super thick... it actually had the JD4230 overheating on the JD 945 moco (flail conditioner). I don't know as we would have had much good hay at all without the flails though. They work great in our grass hay.


Yep, flails/impellars are great. It is just really hard to convince some folks of that who have only used rollers all their lives or have "heard" so and so said they "damaged" the crop.

Regards, Mike


----------



## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

endrow said:


> Last 2 years have been difficult for us . But we have baled a lot of "sound " hay . The Massey Agco steel rolls have been a god send .


Have you had the opportunity to run side by side with flails. I'm intrigued with steel rolls and for the next mower undecided on what options to go with. I feel steel will do a better job just not sure if it's worth it for mainly grass hay.


----------



## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

IH 1586 said:


> Have you had the opportunity to run side by side with flails. I'm intrigued with steel rolls and for the next mower undecided on what options to go with. I feel steel will do a better job just not sure if it's worth it for mainly grass hay.


We always had rolls before we got the JD 945. I also ran a mower for a dairy farm I worked on that had rubber on steel rolls (one rubber, one steel). Never ran side-by-side with a all rubber roll conditioner, but it did seem to have a pretty good dry down. Not sure if any of the manufactures are making rubber/steel conditioners anymore, though.

Now that I've run them, I'd choose the flails for grass hays. I don't grow alfalfa, so I don't know how the flails would work on it (I suspect a lot of loss if the adjustments aren't correct).


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

IH 1586 said:


> Have you had the opportunity to run side by side with flails. I'm intrigued with steel rolls and for the next mower undecided on what options to go with. I feel steel will do a better job just not sure if it's worth it for mainly grass hay.


No I have not ran side by side rubber often . Guys at hay auction say the Massey rolls have the nicest looking alfalfa in the bale


----------



## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

Our Hesston sickle mower conditioner has rubber on steel rollers (might as well be steel on steel as they both crimp, not crush) and they do a great job conditioning the hay. The impellers on our Krone moco condition great too.


----------



## Trillium Farm (Dec 18, 2014)

I think that flails are great on grass, any grass, but rollers (steel or rubber) are much better for any leafy crop.

The flail action is very hard on the leaves, they may do an equal or perhaps even a better job on the stems, but on alfalfa, trefoil or clover I'd use rolls.


----------



## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

Trillium Farm said:


> I think that flails are great on grass, any grass, but rollers (steel or rubber) are much better for any leafy crop.
> 
> The flail action is very hard on the leaves, they may do an equal or perhaps even a better job on the stems, but on alfalfa, trefoil or clover I'd use rolls.


We have trefoil in mixed in with our timothy and don't have any problem with leaf loss. I think that's mainly due to the fact that it's in a mix that's heavy on the grass which provides some protection for the trefoil. Probably be tough to make that work with a lower level of grass in the mix or with alfalfa since it grows so much faster than grasses.


----------



## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Shetland Sheepdog said:


> Tedded 3 times??? For us here in New England, that would be the morm, if not the minimun!


Got my first tedder mid-season 2013, was the second one local dealer sold that year (they had one left). Tedders were scarce as hen's teeth in my county back then. If it wasn't for HT I wouldn't have even known what they were, let alone on a few tips on how to use one. 

2019 same dealership has sold a lot of tedders this year, they still have 8-10 on the lot. Tedder usage, still below 20% of hay guys in my county (but increasing fast). Got a couple of guys still trying to put in windrows right out of the haybine/discbine yet, leaving for 4-5 days then baling. Seems Mother Nature washes it more often than not however. 

OBTW, l normally, I only ted right after cutting, so tedding once is my SOP. Man, the difference of location sometimes amazes me.

Larry


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Owned rubber roll NH disc mowers for 5 years and now have flails. 
I like the low up front cost and lower maintenance, more rugged flails, but I'm going back to rolls if the opportunity arises. 
I do think the flails effectively remove the waxy surface, but i think it allows the stems to soak moisture back in them again. 
My Pottinger mower flails conditioning is adjustable. On the most aggressive setting, I'd say it's maybe a tie with my previous rubber roll machines, but I'd rather have a steel roll machine for my grass hay crop. I need the stems cracked open. When I look at my cut hay in raked rows, I still see some green stems among the dry hay in the same area.

Fortunately, we had a good tail end of first cutting and a pretty good second cutting here. August was very dry. I have probably 60 acres to go. It's now starting to get a little more damp with annoying showers every few days and heavier dews, but it's a walk in the park compared to last year.


----------

