Second Cut of Hay 2024
Here in the Northeast, recent weather has been dry, sunny, warm, with light winds and lower humidity - perfect for the multiple day process of baling hay.
Hay is a harvested plant that’s dried and cured after being cut in the field. In most cases, hay is cut during the late bud or early bloom stage to maximize its nutritional value. Last week, my outdoor grounds crew cut, tedded, raked, and then baled the hay from my giant fields. They did a first cut back in June. This is the second cut - it's greener, more dense, and filled with lots of protein - my horses love it.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- My crew is at it again, pulling out all the necessary equipment to harvest our second cut of nutritious hay for my horses.
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- Timing is everything when cutting the hay crop. We hope for at least a week of good, dry, warm weather, so we can work in the fields and guarantee a good harvest.
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- This is our mower-conditioner. It cuts, crimps, and crushes the hay to promote faster and more even drying.
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- The discs and blades are located behind the protective shield of the mower-conditioner.
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- Here, Chhiring shows two blades – one new and one that needed replacing.
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- Each blade can be used twice – usually for the first and then the second cut of hay in the season.
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- On cutting day, Chhiring goes around the fields counter clockwise cutting all the hay. The process of cutting should take about an hour per field. I have three large fields.
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- The next day, the cut hay is ready for tedding, also known as fluffing. This is our hay tedder. A tedder spreads and fluffs the hay in a uniform swath. It uses a rotary motion to grab the hay with spinning tines that cast it out the back of the machine.
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- Here are tines, or moving forks, pointing downward and ready to aerate or “wuffle” the hay and speed up the drying process even more. The tedder moves up and down the field taking all the greener hay from the bottom and turning it over to dry.
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- Next, it’s time to make the windrows, which are rows of hay raked up and shaped before being baled. Here is Phurba pulling the bar rake and making windrows from the tedded hay.
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- The bar rake, also known as a basket rake is hydraulically driven. This rake allows for consistent movement across the fields making well-shaped windrows. One can see how the machine pulls the hay to create a windrow.
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- The hay is ready to bale when samples pulled from the bottom of the windrow make a crunching sound when snapped. My fields are all planted with a mixture of timothy, orchard grass, Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass, and clover.
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- Phurba creates the windrows around the fields as Chhiring sets up the next step, the baler.
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- A baler is a piece of farm machinery that compresses the cut and raked crop into compact bales that are easy to handle, transport, and store. The baler is attached to the tractor, and then the hay wagon is attached to the baler.
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- When the baler is in motion, the hay is picked up first in the front. Then it is formed into a bale.
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- Once it is tied, it moves up this conveyor belt…
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- In one compartment, large rolls of twine are positioned and tied to each other, so they can feed into the baler and secure the hay just before it shoots out into the trailer. There are three choices of materials to wrap bales – twine, net wrap, or plastic wrap. If properly baled and stored, hay can last a long time without degrading in quality.
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- And finally, the hay is picked up, made into a bale and thrown into this trailer where other outdoor grounds crew members work together to grab the bales and stack them.
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- Here is a bale of hay as it is lifted in the baler’s reel and moved up the conveyor belt. And then propelled into the wagon by a mechanical arm called a thrower or a kicker. The bales are manageable for one person to handle, about 45 to 60 pounds each.
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- In less than an hour, the wagon is almost completely filled with bales of hay. Each bale is about 15 by 18 by 40 inches large. The number of flakes in the bale is determined by a setting in the baler. Many balers are set for 10 to 12 flakes per bale. I have two hay trailers. Each one can hold about 150-bales.
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- Chhiring drives the tractor and starts the process midday when there is the least amount of moisture. Here he is driving our trusted Kubota tractor.
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- This cut of hay is stored first in the loft above my run-in shed. It will be moved closer to the stable when needed. And that’s a week of hard work in the hayfields – we got 663 bales this round. It makes me so happy to know I can grow good, nutritious hay for my horses right here at my farm.
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