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| A bit of background:
I grew up in central Kentucky, where, by in large, there is significant opportunity to make suitable hay crops, be it grass or alfalfa. Of course crop density, field moisture, weather, equipment, etc. all factor in.
I moved to the PNW a few years ago, specifically Vancouver Island, BC, and making hay here is a whole different story. The air temperature is cooler, the baling window is short each day, the fields are small and all over the place, late spring rains often pop up off the coast and labor is SCARCE. The hay is a pretty standard mix of orchardgrass and timothy.
This haying side of this farming system relied heavily on New Holland stackwagons in the 90s. As the farm owner’s sons grew up, the wagons were parked and the bales were dropped on the field and loaded on to trucks by hand… pickups, flatbeds, car trailers, etc… stacked in old chicken barns with 8’ ceilings, all 20,000-30,000 of the bales.
I’ve been working with this family on their mixed method farm for four years now. The owner of the farm is looking to phase out, and my wife and I plan to gradually buy the operation. Small square bales for horse customers is the most profitable segment of the farming operation, but a transition to a lower labor haying system is on the horizon. I want to invest money in equipment that will make haying easier, and not regret it.
I have racked my brain thinking about how to maximize haying efficiency with a handful of guys on the payroll: accumulator and grapple, trail and load wagons behind the baler, bale round bales and convert them to squares, a Bale Barron…
I stumbled across the European HayTec system a few years, where farmers use Strautmann or Pottinger forage wagons to collect hay from the field and bring it to a drying barn, where a worker monitors hay moisture from the seat of a rail mounted crane with a grapple, drying it down. Guys in the UK Farming Forums and dairymen here in Canada one wagon can collect and dump 50-80 acres a day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDSb_ZPaIVo&t=146s
We can get hay dry in the field here, but square baling is slow, and picking up by hand is slower. I am fascinated by the thought of using a forage wagon to collect dry hay, dump it in the barn and stationary bale it. It is essentially the same methodology as rebaling, except for the round baling, hauling the roll bales, and shredding/ unrolling the rounds would be replaced by the forage collection wagon. Because the loose hay and stationary baler would be under cover, we could bale 12 hours a day if we wanted. The hay would have less sun exposure, maintaining its color. And there isn’t costs of making (net wrap, fuel) and moving the rounds.
I am curious of everyone’s thoughts.
Thanks for hanging in there through this monologue! | |
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Calling Rebalers: Loose Hay and a Stautmann Forage Wagon... Would it Work?
