Making hay with Farmall Cub and small round baler
Vložit
- čas přidán 23. 06. 2024
- We got a baler! It is a Massey Ferguson 1734 (Hesston 530) small round baler. We cut with the Farmall Cub, rake and bale with the New Holland Workmaster 40. Good to get some hay up!
I realized during my long-lost youth that I am addicted to both good hay and to the various processes which produce it.
The first hay we made was cut with a neighbor’s Farmall Cub, raked with a horse-drawn dump rake behind the Cub, forked by hand onto the bed of a 1974 GMC pickup, and stored in one end of the small shed that served as a barn. We tried an outdoor stack with a second cutting that year, but the experiment was not entirely successful. Our high-class Nubian goats were a large but worthwhile investment. Our eldest was helping milk before she was three.
Three years later, Charlene the Guernsey came to enrich our lives. We still had goats, but we discovered that we prefer the quadrateatular.
By the time Charlene arrived, we had moved to larger acreage. We mowed with a Farmall M powering a John Deere No. 5, drawbar-mounted, sickle mower. The M was never tainted with some fancy-schmancy three-point hitch. We windrowed with a pinwheel rake, loaded onto a flat bed truck with forks, and stored on the floor of a mercifully-large barn.
Over the years, our methodology adapted to available technology. We’ve mown with everything from a Grillo walking tractor to a New Holland swather. The range of motivation included an old Popping John and a nearly new Hesston diesel. My favorite mowing rig was a pair of Belgians pulling a freshly rebuilt McCormick Deering High Gear Nine. I replaced the five foot sickle with a six foot cutter from a Farmall A belly mower. Those horses would have wanted to trot the entire time if not for that extra foot of load.
My second favorite mower is an Austrian-style scythe that I’ve used around the homestead over the past few years. The 90cm blade was hand forged in Germany in the 1950s. It mounts to an extra long, bent-ash snath to accommodate my height and ape arms..
We’ve had a variety of rakes and balers, but we’ve never owned a round baler. I have fed an enormous number of round bales to milk cows, but they were all purchased. In the unlikely event that we return to making hay, I will get a round baler. The one you have looks to be the right size.
Stacy, you said more than you may realize when you mentioned the magical aspect of the workings of a round baler. The fact is that everything about hay borders on the mystical. I am awed by the realization that mere humans can invest honest sweat and summer effort into a process that eventually converts part of the unimaginable-but-indigestible bounty of grass into something as marvelous as Joyful Jersey Juice. It’s no wonder that ancient Caucasians considered one who owned kefir grains to be wealthy. Perhaps in the not-so-distant future, we will experience widespread appreciation of the value of a good cow and the means to feed her.
In the meanwhile, let’s join the late-great Gene Logston in proclaiming the profundity of Isaiah 40:6, “All flesh is grass.”
The late, great Gene Logsdon was a huge influence on us when we were planning how we wanted to farm. I cherish my copy of “All Flesh is Grass” from him as well as the myriad of other titles of his that grace my bookshelf. I still visit his blog from time to time just to re-read some entries.
One of the first farm tools I bought, before we even bought our land was a beautiful Austrian scythe with a Swiss snaith. I actually have two blades, a grass blade and a shorter, stouter bush blade. I love it for cleaning up fence lines and other tasks where one might use a weed-wacker… I have a nice Stihl weed wacker, but the scythe is a lot quieter than a two-stroke!
We’re excited about our baler! But I love mowing with the Cub. I like having the cutterbar out in front of me. I have two #9s I want to put together into one working one, and cut the bar down for a single horse.
Hay to me is stored sunshine! Love it!
The new baler will be a very handy addition to the farm. Fun to see the little Cub still out there working like it was made to do. It must be immensely satisfying to have a barn full of hay that was grown and harvested on your own land.
It really is. Hay is like stored sunshine in the winter’
Never get tired of seeing the mowing rig doing the job! That is really nice that you were able to find a really mint baler that will fit your tractor. Big win.Yes, making a nicely-shaped round bale is a learning process, but unless you're wrapping them individually, it's not a seriously important task. I've eliminated a lot of stress in that area by learning to make my windrows as wide as the pickup whenever possible. I'm not a fan of round bale feeders because there is so much waste, but we use them because there is no better option in some situations. One of the handiest tools we've acquired in the last few years is a McHale bale slicer. It is much better than a chainsaw and it, of course, makes it much easier to feed a round bale in a barn manger situation.
Keith-.
Previously, we just dropped round bales out in the pasture, so I’m hoping a round bale feeder will actually reduce waste! Haha! I have a Hiram Holt “Lightning” Hay Knife from my great grandfather I use. It cuts round bales pretty good. Originally it was for cutting chunks out of loose hay and I used it for that too. That loose hay compresses extremely tight under its own weight.
Anyway, hope you’re drying out back there! I have some baling to do tomorrow and then rain arrives!
@@vnthomas16 I see. Yes, a round feeder is better than none at all-LOL
My two-day hay window continues. Wilson and I baled and wrapped about 20 more 2nd crop bales last evening. Rained again overnight and during milking early this morn. Dumped another 3 inches out of the rain gauge after breakfast. Looks like we should be dry now until Thurs night.
You really have that 22 mower dialed in , I run a Cub and a Cub Lo-Boy and am always amazed at what they can do for their size 👍
Our Cub gets used as much, if not more than our bigger tractor! Our bigger tractor has a loader if course.
SO excited for you guys with the new baler!!! love it!! thanks for the video!!!
Looks great - lot of those Hesston 530/MF 1734 round balers around here.
Nice, I like the simplicity of that bailer
Congratulations on the new baler! You will like having it, those Hesstons are pretty much bullet proof, easy to get parts for etc. I've always enjoyed watching you put up loose hay, but with all you two have going on now, it's the practical way to go!
Thanks for your support!
🎉❤Yay another video!! Looks Beautiful there and Congrats on the Baler!! It was interesting to learn about it!! 🐂
Enjoyed the answer to the hay question.
I can’t believe all your progress !!!!🎉🎉🎉🎉
Yay! Hard work, but rewarding!
nice new baler,,,great job
Thanks!
I actually thought it was a new bailer! It's in great shape, best of luck with it!! 👍😎
It is in really great shape. Need a little work but it came field ready!
That's outstanding! I'm thrilled for you guys. It looks like it's in really good shape. Enjoy!
Thanks! We’re really excited!
Awesome 👌 😊
Excellent work guy keep the great videos coming. Buckley Wa
Thanks!
nice hay! better than money in the bank... (when its up ;-)
I was glad that you are still using the Farmall Cub to mow your Hay! You get more nutrients in your Hay not cutting it with the new equipment! Good luck with your new bailer!
I really like having the mower bar out in front of me, rather than craning my neck!
Congrats on the baler. Looks like it is in good shape. Hope it performs great.
Thanks! So far so good!
Awesome!
Thanks!
Saturday I brought my Amish friends to an auction in peebles ohio about a thirty minute drive away and saw the same model of new idea l62 hay loader i have sell for 2k all the various pre ww2 sickle bar mowers sold for 1.5k they only had one post war no 9 there, there was an immaculate cornbinder and a immaculate wheat binder, and i got the knifes for my no9 sickle bar mowers for half the price of new and i got the track for the hayloft barn im planning for a dollar!!!!!!, im going to set my loft up so that the stalls for my horses have hay feeders that are gravity fed so all i have to do is use a catwalk on the sides of the hayloft to fill them once every couple days
Using gravity to your advantage makes sense!
Nice. As your herd grows, you have to increase your efficiency. I love that little Farmall Cub. Great little sicklebar mower. That baler looks just the right size. Have you had any bales roll out and just keep rolling away, down a swale? On the plus side ,less loose hay handling means less less hay down your back . 👍 Take care guys.
Haha! No, not yet! I try and be cognizant of where I drop the bales though!
Congratulations on the new baler, but why did you cut your hay high and leave so much stubble grass in the field?
Two reasons really. The higher stubble helps the hay dry faster, especially when there’s soil moisture and since we don’t condition. More importantly though, our predominant grass is Smooth Bromegrass which has really high growing points, so cutting high is better for regrowth.
You get older but not faster is what we say, just curios why you cut the grass so tall, is it for the regrow because i think the growing point of the grass is much lower, thanks and greetings from a Dutch dairyfarmer
Our predominant grass is Smooth Bromegrass which has really high growth points compared to other common grasses. So we do cut it high for regrowth .
@@vnthomas16 oké that explain things, thanks for the reply
Mymymy fancy wancy operation!!!! God Bless!!!!
Thanks!
If you make wider winrows you probably won’t have to weave while baling. Maybe try raking two winrows together for wider rows.
There’s definitely some experimenting to be done! I do feel the “weaving” isn’t as drastic as some people described. I think in lighter hay moving two windrows together like you described would work well.
You might have enough cows that a Greg Judy bale unroller would work well. You could bale graze on your pastures in the winter.
We’ve done some bale grazing. Not sure we’d try it again.
@@vnthomas16 interesting! Curious why you don’t like it. I have two cows and a heifer and feed them a few flakes of the big squares (3x3 & 3x4) in a different pot every day on my pasture. I live in Northern Iowa. I’m seeing a big improvement in my soil health after doing it the last few years. I don’t like so much giving them a round bale in one spot. It takes couple years for that spot to recover.
For anybody who wants to see a small scale practical demonstration of how the baler creates the bale, watch somebody rolling a cigarette with a rolling machine. Same principle.
Old guy, Just wondering...? Why do you cut your hay so far from the ground? looks like eight inch stubble! I aim for two - three inch max.. is your ground rocky or uneven? If not... drop that bar right down so it sits right on the ground. adjust the float spring so it takes about five\ten lbs to lift it off the ground.. most of the hay is in the "bottom" the first foot of growth... if you don't take it most of it dies back brown before the new growth anyway! So why not?
Our predominant grass is Smooth Bromegrass, which has very high growing points compared to other common cultivated grasses. We cut at about 4-5”. Any shorter and we won’t get any regrowth this year. The higher stubble also helps drying, since we don’t condition. Thanks for watching!
😅👍👍👍👌
Is there a reason why you leave such long stubble when you cut your hay?
Two reasons, faster drying since we don’t condition, and more importantly, our predominant grass is Smooth Bromegrass which has really high growth points. Cutting high helps with regrowth.
@@vnthomas16 I've farmed 60 years and never seen hay mowed like that. Your hay seems plenty dry from all the fine chaff coming out of the baler with the bale.
Looks like traveling too fast cutting
If you can’t fix it with baler twine and gray tape you can’t fix it.
🚜 🚜 🚜🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄 🚜 🚜🚜
I thought WA DOE made round bales illegal.
We love our round baler!