Thanks a bundle! Tedding the hay after a shower can be good for the hay drying but if you have just had a shower, bad for you, LoL. Thanks for watching, much appreciated!
Thank you kindly! Baling this field was a real surprise, not sure how I misjudged it so bad. I'll explain in a later video on the baling. Thanks a bundle for watching, much appreciated!
Thanks a bunch. Yes, I’d suggest start out with just a couple and try it. Maybe even give it a try at the factory setting first, you may be happy with it there. If you feel it cut a tad too low, put on 2 spacers and try. Increase slowly, you’ll eventually hit a point where you went too many for a clean cut. God bless and best to you!
Looks good! The mower worked perfectly. Glad ya waited. We will be cutting next week, but we have had a weed issue that we will be dealing with this week. Tell Susan we all say Good evening.
Than you much! Reducing the cut height for this thicker, lower-growing hay was a good choice. While cutting and today, tedding, I found this cut of hay to be much better than I was expecting. It’s darn good hay. Weeds…argh!!! All hay producers deal with them at certain degrees, just depends on the quality of hay you wanna make. I suppose some hay producers are fine with weedy, junk hay. Recognizing and dealing with weeds is what often sets apart quality hay producers from those that, well, aren’t. Susan says hi and hope you and Mrs Sally have a good evening as well!
I've always wanted to get into making hay. You've inspired me and I've learned a lot from you. Excuse my newbie question, but what is the proper time frame between steps? Like cutting, then X days before raking, then X days before baling? (I understand weather can play havoc on that schedule)
Howdy! Thanks so much for watching, subbing and leaving such kind comments. Much appreciated! Thank you! Time between cutting, then raking then baling, if I had to summarize with a couple words it would be "moisture content". Proper moisture content of your hay is super-important. Too moist at baling and you'll end up with moldy hay, or even worse, a possible barn fire from storing that high moisture content hay, from combustion. Flip side...too dry hay (sun bleached, super low moisture content, dry as dust), most of the nutritional values of that hay has leached out, and, livestock dont like it that well and will refuse alot of it (waste). There's a fine line with proper moisture content in dry hay of what makes great, premium hay and what is not enough. There are various methods of testing the hay for moisture content to know if it's ready to rake and bale. Before testing instruments the old-timer hay farmers used twist methods (which still works good if you know how, what to look for). Much of it is determined simply by "feel" of the drying hay. We also use modern moisture testers. Weather is probably the biggest factor in the drying process. Solar effects are the big factor. Sun, or the lack thereof, temps, humidity, rain (hopefully none while hay is drying!) all play a role in determining when to rake and bale. Theres no "set" number of days. Its all weather dependent. In my area of western NC mountain area, generally speaking, I need 4, sometimes 5 days for proper dry down time to get to a suitable moisture content for grass hay. Of course thats all weather dependent. Other dryer, hotter, less humid areas of the country could be much different in days needed. Hope this answers the question. Again, thanks a bundle for watching!
Great video! I learned something! On the teddering after a shower…Tedder as many times as needed to overcome the shower. Thanks!!
Thanks a bundle!
Tedding the hay after a shower can be good for the hay drying but if you have just had a shower, bad for you, LoL.
Thanks for watching, much appreciated!
Hayfield looks great. Timing was good and rainfall was good also for you. Looking forward to more!.
Thank you kindly! Baling this field was a real surprise, not sure how I misjudged it so bad. I'll explain in a later video on the baling.
Thanks a bundle for watching, much appreciated!
Thanks for the info on the spacers. I am going to set mine up next week and get ready for our second cut. God bless
Thanks a bunch. Yes, I’d suggest start out with just a couple and try it. Maybe even give it a try at the factory setting first, you may be happy with it there. If you feel it cut a tad too low, put on 2 spacers and try. Increase slowly, you’ll eventually hit a point where you went too many for a clean cut.
God bless and best to you!
Looks good! The mower worked perfectly. Glad ya waited.
We will be cutting next week, but we have had a weed issue that we will be dealing with this week.
Tell Susan we all say Good evening.
Than you much!
Reducing the cut height for this thicker, lower-growing hay was a good choice. While cutting and today, tedding, I found this cut of hay to be much better than I was expecting. It’s darn good hay.
Weeds…argh!!! All hay producers deal with them at certain degrees, just depends on the quality of hay you wanna make. I suppose some hay producers are fine with weedy, junk hay. Recognizing and dealing with weeds is what often sets apart quality hay producers from those that, well, aren’t.
Susan says hi and hope you and Mrs Sally have a good evening as well!
I've always wanted to get into making hay. You've inspired me and I've learned a lot from you.
Excuse my newbie question, but what is the proper time frame between steps? Like cutting, then X days before raking, then X days before baling? (I understand weather can play havoc on that schedule)
Howdy! Thanks so much for watching, subbing and leaving such kind comments. Much appreciated! Thank you!
Time between cutting, then raking then baling, if I had to summarize with a couple words it would be "moisture content". Proper moisture content of your hay is super-important. Too moist at baling and you'll end up with moldy hay, or even worse, a possible barn fire from storing that high moisture content hay, from combustion. Flip side...too dry hay (sun bleached, super low moisture content, dry as dust), most of the nutritional values of that hay has leached out, and, livestock dont like it that well and will refuse alot of it (waste). There's a fine line with proper moisture content in dry hay of what makes great, premium hay and what is not enough.
There are various methods of testing the hay for moisture content to know if it's ready to rake and bale. Before testing instruments the old-timer hay farmers used twist methods (which still works good if you know how, what to look for). Much of it is determined simply by "feel" of the drying hay. We also use modern moisture testers.
Weather is probably the biggest factor in the drying process. Solar effects are the big factor. Sun, or the lack thereof, temps, humidity, rain (hopefully none while hay is drying!) all play a role in determining when to rake and bale. Theres no "set" number of days. Its all weather dependent. In my area of western NC mountain area, generally speaking, I need 4, sometimes 5 days for proper dry down time to get to a suitable moisture content for grass hay. Of course thats all weather dependent. Other dryer, hotter, less humid areas of the country could be much different in days needed.
Hope this answers the question. Again, thanks a bundle for watching!
@@8thdaychronicles Thank you very much for the reply. That makes a lot of sense and I understand a lot more about it. Your answer helps a lot!