Baling the first hay of 2023!
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- Опубліковано 18 тра 2023
- And we're off! The earliest hay I've ever attempted - for reasons I discuss in the video :) (If you’re wondering why I wouldn't wait for the grass to grow more - I have too much acreage to do, in all dry small squares, and if I wait, the last fields of first cut will be extremely overripe. Second cut yields also ought to be amazing on this regrowth, unless we go extreme-dry again this year. More details in the video!)
That said, questions or thoughts always welcome!
As always, these videos are mostly a video diary for myself as I wind my way through each haying season - and yet I've come to realize that others enjoy them too, in this niche youtube hay community. I'm by no means a perfect videographer, and when in doubt, I tend to leave footage in for my own future enjoyment. I hope you enjoy this too, but please recognize I'm not aiming to be a professional youtuber :)
(We are a 53-acre haying operation in Conway, MA - making all small square bales for the local food, fiber, and livestock community. Learn more about our farm at www.windrowfarmconway.com, or follow us on instagram @windrow.farm)
Equipment List:
Massey Ferguson 275 Tractor
Massey Ferguson 165 Tractor
Massey Ferguson 135 Tractor
Vermeer TM610 disc mower
Vicon RS410T Tedder
New Holland 256 hay rake
Massey Ferguson 124 baler (with New Holland 70 bale thrower)
Four kicker wagons
Delmhorst FX-2000 Hay Moisture Meter
Sundown Fertilizer Spreader
Looks good and green for Hay. Only you and the weather know when to cut and bale. good luck.
Nice hay. More important, I love the patina on your machinery. I had a mf 165 and an mf 20 bailer as my first equipment. In Ireland many years ago . Thank you for the memories that are flooding back 👍
Hey there, thanks so much! Glad to hear of that connection, the 165 is a dear favorite of mine. (I’ve never used a 20 baler, but did use a #3 and have seen some #12’s - I know the whole lineage up through mine have a lot of similarities. Definitely love the MF combo too.
Thanks for tuning in! Glad to share it with others 😊
Enjoyed your video learned a lot About bailing hay thank you
Thanks so much for tuning in!
Beautiful looking hay from my view on this end. We usually deal with a lot of dew at night and that is murder on bleaching. Later in the summer dew isn't usually such a problem. With good tedder rack usage we shoot for a three day cycle most of the time, sometimes four days when the humidity is higher. Nicely done! Nick North West Farmer (Oregon)
Thanks so much! Same here on lots of dew - New England has often wet ground and very heavy dews too (though would be curious if there's a metric to compare). Interestingly I've never noticed that as a bleaching problem - are you doing all grass hays too, or alfalfa/mixes? I don't have any experience with alfalfa, but I feel like just gently working the grass to keep the dry-down even has helped me a lot. I'm with you on 3 days being the norm, that'll hopefully kick into gear in June once the temps go up a bit and the nights stop being so chilly. And yeah, humidity sure changes everything...
Thanks for tuning in! Looking forward to seeing if you ever want to share your slice of haymaking. Good luck with the season!
thats excellent
:)
Thanks!!
I love that series of MF tractors. I've always wanted one. I have the MF 128 baler, and it's been fantastic. What a great machine. Hope it's a good hay season for you.
Hey there! I remember seeing your 128 in your videos - I agree, I absolutely love that series. Knock on wood, the 124 (and I assume 128) is such a reliable baler even approaching 50 years old.
Had a great early start, but have been on hold for all of June so far with unending cloudy/rainy, with barely a day and a half of sunny weather at any moment around all of the wet/gloom. *Really* hoping for a pattern shift. How has your season been so far?
Thanks for tuning in!
@@windrowfarm Yep, they have the simplest knotter out of all of them. It's really surprising nobody else copied that platform. One thing I love about the knotters, is they don't leave that extra tuft of cut off twine on the bale, like NH and JD do. Cheers!
@@DennysCountryLife Agreed all around!! It's funny, I see JD and NH knotters and don't 100% know what's going on. I just know the MF sure-tie so well. (I grew up working for someone else who also had a 124, so it's really all I know.)
@@windrowfarm I'm in the same boat with the weather. I baled a little on our farm, which was a good test for the hay equipment, before I venture out in the county. It definitely looks like it'll be a July hay year for us. Oh well, I'll take what I can get! Have fun and be safe!
Cut. rake wrap it the same day ! Takes the weather out of it ! Been wrapping hay now for 15 years..... wet or dry....I wrap it ! Cheap and good hay !
Hi there! Not much of a market around here for baleage - plenty of folks make it for their own herds, and some sell excess, but trying to sell it as a main product is a very different sliver of the market, unfortunately. Crunching the numbers to tool my operation up for it and then making less $ per acre (around here) doesn’t really pencil out - but that’s okay, I like the challenge of the dry hay game (even when it makes me crazy 😉)
Where abouts do you farm? Glad to hear you have a system to beat the weather!Thanks for tuning in!
Cold weather will suck the moister better and your hay will stay green in color.
Thanks!! And I agree, very little bleaching in this despite being out for almost 5 days. We actually got patchy frost the night before baling. Hope you are well!
@@windrowfarm We are good Irrigared and Fertilize the Tifton 85 and it looking good. Had a bunch of fary rings. I think its to much uria.
I do the bite test too!
Looking for no chew and all crunch! Haha,
Love the operation!
That wind can be a pain, I've seen people put a tractor and rake right in front of the baler in the past,
Looks like you had a great window though, got it done right!
Haha, thanks!! Glad I’m not alone in my haying eccentricity 😂. Appreciated!
Hay looks great! Ought to fetch a good price with that color...👍
Thanks! I do price a little higher for the early stuff, but folks definitely want it
We baled most of our first cutting last week, including some alfalfa. All but one of our Bermuda fields started out with a good bit of weeds in them, so we round baled them for first cutting and then we're gonna square bale them for second and third. We're gonna bale the last couple first cutting round bale fields this next week, but some of our good clean Bermuda for square baling still has a couple weeks to grow. Its still fairly short yet. Course I'm from Arkansas, so the growing season is much longer than y'all experience in the Northeast.
That’s great!
😊😊
We may be making our first cutting next week here in western North Carolina, weather-dependent.
Oh, that’s great! Hope the weather holds for you
First time visiting your channel. I live in Palmer I graze beef cows on occasion. Very small acreage. I think it's a good call baling early. We got a beautiful rain Saturday. What's your fertilizer plan.
Hey there, small world! And thanks! I’ll certainly be at first cut for the next couple of months in all likelihood, so I think I’ll thank myself later too.
I fertilize before each cutting - late April and then on a rolling basis as I work on getting first cut done. I try to target ~50 lbs of actual N per acre per cutting, and use a few different fertilizers depending on what the fields need for P and K.
How many beef cows do you have? And what breed? Glad to know you’re there, keep it up! And thanks for tuning in 😊
Boy you got on it early. I’m planning on mowing Monday and going the entire week but we’re supposed to get a cold spell coming through that might derail my plans.
How wide is that mower? Doesn’t look like it takes much hp.
yeah, personal record by the calendar, for sure. I super lucked out with a 5 day dry/sunny/windy stretch. I'm at the point where every year I get through hay successfully, I take on another field (or two)😅 - so my plan is evolving that the first few fields are gleaning a beautiful but lower-yielding first cut, so I can also hit the "reset" button and hopefully get a bumper crop of second.
I hope the weather cooperates for you! Last week was pretty cool as well (60's, some 50's, and even patchy frost). Sun/wind makes all the difference though.
Loving the mower. 8.1 foot cut, only has a 50 hp requirement (no conditioner, but I think we've talked about that in the past?) Both main tractors run it super comfortably, so it's delivering exactly what I was hoping to get out of it. Very well made.
Thanks for tuning in, and I appreciate what you do as well!
👍
Interesting video, nice content what tractor you using.
Hi there! The two main tractors I use are a Massey 165 (mowing/raking in this video) and Massey 275 (tedding/baling). I also have a 135. Thanks for tuning in!
I can SMELL the hay!
The best smell! Thanks for watching 😊
Total non farmer question. What type of grass is that. Is it just regular field grass ?
Oh, great question! That particular field is a mix of orchardgrass, timothy, and other "native grasses" (maybe some fescues - I'm trying to remember if that particular field has any perennial rye). The top wetter edge actually has some reed canary, but cut early it seems really palatable and goes over well with customers (and yields pretty heavily). No idea when that field last saw a plow or a re-seeding, but if I had to guess it's been 25 or even 50+ years. (That's the case with a lot of the fields I hay). I find that with good fertility and a good haying regimen, they settle into an equilibrium of what grows well there.
Thanks for asking, and thanks for watching!
@@windrowfarm thanks for the quick reply. I don't have enough area for hay, got 10 acres of pine needles, lol. Well except for where my shop sits. Love watching you guys do this stuff. Due to health issues, I can't do it right now. Have to live vicariously, lol. Great videos !
@@markjohnson9402 thanks so much, but sorry to hear that! I hope things improve for you!
gran bel posto
Goodmorning,
Where do you get your spreadsheets? Thanks.
Hi there! Ah, I actually make them myself - and they’ve become a pretty messy evolution over time that I wouldn’t wish on anyone else to follow 😅. But just basic arithmetic formulas and a lot of color coding. (Expected yield per acre x number of acres, things like that)
Thanks for tuning in!
Why you need a spread sheet ??
@@user-tc3ou6sy5f farming is a business, and for me good business decisions take number crunching 😊
i worked at mf dealer when 165 were new couldnt keep them on lot good all around size tractor i still have one over 10xxx hrs still going
Wow, that’s great! Love mine to death. Did have PTO clutch pack issues with it back in 2017, which I know is a common issue. But since then, knock on wood, it’s been nothing but a workhorse. It’s due for some new tires, and I dream about a paint job.
Thanks for watching!
Hi didnt look like the hay was mature enough to cut. My opinion. Enjoyed your video have a good day sir.
Thanks for watching! I talk about that in the video - I have too much to get through to wait for the first field to be prime. If I do that, the last one will be extremely late and low quality.
Still got about a couple weeks here
Most around here would also say the same thing. I’m the eccentric one starting early 😁
Thanks for watching!
We arnt to far here in Ohio
Will never dry
It did! Just have to be patient with it and not afraid to work it a bit.
Thanks for tuning in!
Esa empacadora va muy despacio, esta poco seca la mies...
Interesting - I think it really varies depending what part of the world you are in. I know I bale faster than some, slower than others. And this hay all held up well in storage over 5 months, so I'm relieved that it was indeed dry enough. Thanks for watching!
And i had a Mf baler and a 273 NH always had straiter bales with the Massey
Thanks for tuning in! Agreed, the 124 makes a great bale. Never seems to mind about windrow size or thick/thin yields, great bales come out so long as I have the tension set right
That old MF baler is eating it up