Cutting and Preparing the Hay for Baling
Here in the Northeast, today's weather is expected to be very hot and humid with temperatures in the 90s. Last week, while the temperatures were still warm, but much more pleasant, my outdoor grounds crew worked hard to get all the hay at my Bedford, New York farm cut and baled before the heat wave.
When I moved here, I designated three separate areas as hayfields and planted them with a mixture of timothy, orchard grass, Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass, and clovers - all great for producing good quality hay. The hay is also treated with agricultural lime, a soil additive made from pulverized limestone or chalk that works to correct the acidity of the soil, eradicate any noxious weeds, and raise the overall health of the land. To make hay, we cut the hayfields, tossed the grass for the crucial drying process, raked it all into tidy windrows for collection, and then baled the hay.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Time to make hay for my horses! This time every year, we hope for at least a week of good, dry weather, so we can get the first cut of hay from the fields. Timing is everything when cutting the hay crop. The first cutting should be when grass has greened up and reached 12 to 16 inches tall.
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- Here is a closer look. Next, it’s important to consider the time of day that’s best for mowing. The plants’ sugar content is highest at dusk but because of moisture, it’s not ideal to cut hay at night. The best time is to start as soon as dew is off in the morning, which will maximize drying time.
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- I am fortunate to have all the necessary equipment here at the farm. This is our mower-conditioner. A hay conditioner crimps and crushes the hay after it is cut to promote faster and more even drying.
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- When weather conditions are ideal, these machines allow farmers to cut wide and fast – the best formula for quality field productivity. My outdoor grounds crew foreman, Chhiring, goes over all the fields slowly and evenly with the mower-conditioner.
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- Here, one can see the mounded rows of cut and crimped grass.
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- Here is another view after the mower-conditioner goes back and forth over the field. On the left – cut hay, and on the right, the hay that is still waiting to be mowed.
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- Here is a view from above. Chhiring’s son, MingMar, took the next few photos with a drone. The mounded rows are called windrows – rows of cut hay or small grain crops. They are so beautiful and all perfectly straight.
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- Chhiring follows the shape of the field and works from the outside in – until every bit of hay is cut.
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- Here is the last section to be done.
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- This freshly cut hay will need to dry before it is baled. The hay is ready when hay pulled from the bottom of the windrow makes a crunching sound when snapped.
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- On the next day, Chhiring goes over the fields with the hay tedder. A tedder spreads and fluffs the hay in a uniform swath after the mower-conditioner has made the windrows.
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- It uses a rotary motion to grab the hay with spinning tines and then cast it out the back of the machine.
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- Here is a closer look at the tines, or moving forks, which aerate or “wuffle” the hay and speed up the drying process.
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- Here is Chhiring with the tedder attached to our trusted Kubota M7060HD12 tractor – a vehicle that is used every day here at the farm.
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- Here is the tedder moving up and down the field taking all the greener hay from the bottom and turning it over to dry.
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- Here is another view – look how the tedder picks up and fluffs the hay with its forks.
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- Here is some of the fluffed up hay, which will continue to dry for the next day. On average, it takes about three days per field, depending on the size of the field and the weather, to complete the entire process of mowing, raking, and baling hay.
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- From above, one can see how the tedder works to turn the hay around and around.
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- After the hay is tedded, it is then raked. Raking the hay is the fastest part of the process. There are different kinds of rakes – they include wheel rakes, rotary rakes and parallel bar or basket rakes. This is a parallel bar rake. This type uses a gentle raking action with a lower chance of soil contamination than the wheel rake.
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- The parallel bar rake picks up the cut and drying hay and rakes it into more windrows that can be baled.
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- And here is a row completely raked and ready for the last stage – baling.
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- All the rows are perfectly straight. They will continue to dry out until they are made into bales. I am excited to see how many bales of hay we get from this cutting. I’ll share the very interesting process of baling hay in my next blog. Stay tuned.
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