# Hay Season 2021



## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

I will add to this over the next couple weeks/months.

This year is going to go down as our worse year ever due to weather. We haven't given up hope but we may just have baled our last dry squares today (10/2). Still have 100 acres of 2nd/3rd standing that could be taken off as dry but realistically it is October.......

Going to finally get some hay rained on. Tried to get a 15 acre 1st cutting custom job and 4 acres of my 1st cutting round baled but the forecast failed me this week. It was pretty optimistic attempt at almost 100 acres we were trying to cover of both 1st and 2nd with 3 hours or less of baling hours available in 4 days.

Still have a 3 acre spot of 1st still standing. If I wait long enough maybe bale it in November. Something that should take decades to do again.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Some pictures from the last week


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

I'm ready to be done for the year. Worked 6 am to 9:30 pm Sat. Finished up the last of my grass hay then shredded, raked and baled corn fodder. I then moved the fodder off the field and planted rye. All to beat rain that never came..


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

Hope you get some nice fall weather to get some of that made.


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

We had the opposite. Had a drought this spring that made for plenty of baling opportunities except there wasn’t a lot to bale. Then a really wet June and July which brought good second cutting, and then plenty of opportunities for third. So for me in SW MI it was actually one of the better seasons.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Hayjosh said:


> We had the opposite. Had a drought this spring that made for plenty of baling opportunities except there wasn’t a lot to bale. Then a really wet June and July which brought good second cutting, and then plenty of opportunities for third. So for me in SW MI it was actually one of the better seasons.


We had the same drought here and after hearing what members here were getting for yield and seeing our lack of growth we were concerned that we were going to be short on 1st. For planning purposes we figure 90-100 bales to the acre with 110-120 our normal yield. Still have no idea what happened but when we started squares in mid June our first field went 158 bales/a. Our best field 194 bales/a. What should have been the worst field 140 bales/a.


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

IH 1586 said:


> We had the same drought here and after hearing what members here were getting for yield and seeing our lack of growth we were concerned that we were going to be short on 1st. For planning purposes we figure 90-100 bales to the acre with 110-120 our normal yield. Still have no idea what happened but when we started squares in mid June our first field went 158 bales/a. Our best field 194 bales/a. What should have been the worst field 140 bales/a.


I had seen some yields on here reported at about 60% of normal, and that's almost what I was getting to the dot. What kind of hay did you have that you were getting that many bales per acre? My first cutting was on Memorial Day.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Hayjosh said:


> I had seen some yields on here reported at about 60% of normal, and that's almost what I was getting to the dot. What kind of hay did you have that you were getting that many bales per acre? My first cutting was on Memorial Day.


Just mixed grass. Nothing more than Orchard, Timothy, and Smooth Brome and those are the ones I put in. The others I'm guessing some fescue. Most are at least 10 year stands and I did nothing different from fertilizer stand point. The best part was even with those yields and taking majority of 1st cutting off in August it was not flat on the ground. We started normal here which is mid June. Rained most of July. Spent almost 4 weeks on a baleage job that should have taken 4 days.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Some pictures from last week. In the near term looks like just baleage weather. You know it’s a bad year when you ask the wife if you can stack baleage on her yard.


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## mstuck21 (Oct 4, 2019)

You’ve surely had to work for your bales this yr. Hoping 2022 treats you much better.

I’d love to have that double rake. I have the small single rotor which takes a lot of seat time when you want to combine several windrows.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

mstuck21 said:


> You’ve surely had to work for your bales this yr. Hoping 2022 treats you much better.
> 
> I’d love to have that double rake. I have the small single rotor which takes a lot of seat time when you want to combine several windrows.


It's been a good rake. Bought used in 2006 and it has seen a lot of acres from me not sure about before. It was all original right down to the teeth. I've only replaced one tooth since. It is semi retired but saw a lot of use this year. Most of the raking is now done with a single rotor Pequea.


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## mstuck21 (Oct 4, 2019)

IH 1586 said:


> It's been a good rake. Bought used in 2006 and it has seen a lot of acres from me not sure about before. It was all original right down to the teeth. I've only replaced one tooth since. It is semi retired but saw a lot of use this year. Most of the raking is now done with a single rotor Pequea.


Question for you since you have both types of rakes ... in that pic of the single rotary the windrows don’t look super huge that if I had that double rotary I’d be wanting to throw 3 or 4 together to make less passes with the baler instead of using the single.. is there a reason you don’t/wouldn’t do that? Are there certain conditions do you prefer the single over the double?

I’m not questioning your methods just asking for my own better understanding of how I think I would use it.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

mstuck21 said:


> Question for you since you have both types of rakes ... in that pic of the single rotary the windrows don’t look super huge that if I had that double rotary I’d be wanting to throw 3 or 4 together to make less passes with the baler instead of using the single.. is there a reason you don’t/wouldn’t do that? Are there certain conditions do you prefer the single over the double?
> 
> I’m not questioning your methods just asking for my own better understanding of how I think I would use it.


I did a lot of research to find what I thought was the "perfect" single rotor. Single is 13' and double is 18'. In the picture I will be going back the other way resulting in a total of approx. 3 windrows together. Same as i would be doing with the double. 5 main reasons for single purchase. 1. Kuhn was getting tired. 2. Might be easier for other operators to run. 3.Run multiple rakes or 2 different locations.
Reason for size,
4. For baleage it works great moving 3 to 1 for baling where the kuhn is 4 to 1. It makes for a big windrow in 1st cutting
5. For 1st squares we would run the Kuhn partially folded to take a theoretical 13' pass. Supposedly not good for it but we do. Need that width for tractor/baler/accumulator to pass with out running over a previously dropped bundle.


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## mstuck21 (Oct 4, 2019)

That all makes sense to me... thanks again


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

November hay. Will be attempting dry but realistically it will get wrapped in a week. In the mean time working on custom baleage job as well as my own. Taking fields off that we haven’t been on since the end of May. Makes for some rough looking 2nd cutting.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Finally accomplished a custom job after 3 of my 6 failed due to weather this year.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Made our first freeze dried hay. Made for a good and interesting experience. Really like the deep green color it maintains. Moisture surprisingly in the mid to upper teens, about 10 points lower than last we baled a month ago. I'm fairly confident that was the last dry hay for this season. Still working on baleage. Few pictures from past week.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Looking good!


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Hayman1 said:


> Looking good!


Thank you. It turned out really nice.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

I have decided 2021 hay season is over.


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

Yep, it's time. I missed your post from a couple weeks ago. That looks like really nice stuff!


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

paoutdoorsman said:


> Yep, it's time. I missed your post from a couple weeks ago. That looks like really nice stuff!


Thank you.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Few stats from this year,

For my grid, we received nearly double the amount of rain for July/August for a total of 15 inches. We are now at a relatively constant 260 acres of hay ground. Had 2 completely failed custom jobs never showed up to. 1 job of first cutting is still laying on the ground and I have a field of first laying on the ground, as well as 4 acres of first still standing. One custom job that should take no more than 5 days took 31 days. We baled 17,188 sm. sq. bales, 784 dry round bales, 485 baleage bales, and 838 sq. straw bales. 

Here's to closing out 2021 and (trying to) optimistically look forward to 2022.


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