Cutting and Preparing Our Hay Crop for Baling
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, the weather these last couple of weeks has been pleasantly warm, dry, sunny, with light breezes - perfect conditions for cutting, tedding, raking, and baling hay.
One of my objectives at my farm has always been to practice self-sufficiency. When I moved here, I designated three separate areas as hayfields, so I could grow lots and lots of delicious, nutritious hay for my horses and donkeys. I planted the fields with a mixture of timothy, orchard grass, and forage fescue - a quality custom seed blend from Hancock Farm & Seed Company in Dade City, Florida. This year, we have a bumper crop and the fields are ready for the first cut of the season.
Enjoy these photos.
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- 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.
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- Our seed is from Hancock Farm & Seed Company, a 45-year old business that grows its own seed and ships directly from its Florida facility. When selecting what kind of seed is best for any field, one should consider location, soil condition, and the desired goal. My fields are specifically for growing hay for my horses. Hancock created a seed mix that would work best for my farm.
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- Quality seed for hay should have adaptability, resilience, and excellent nutritional value. In the northern United States, varieties commonly used for hay are timothy, orchard grass, alfalfa and fescue. In the south, Bermuda and bahia hay are more commonly used, plus a mix of high quality legumes for protein.
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- One of my steadfast mantras is to “always use the right tool for the right job.” Here are the equipment attachments we use to cut, ted, rake, and bale our hay.
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- This is our mower-conditioner. Mower-conditioners are a staple of large-scale haymaking. It cuts, crimps, and crushes the hay to promote faster and more even drying. It is the first step in the hay baling process.
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- The discs and blades are located behind the protective shield of the mower-conditioner.
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- Here is the attachment with the protective shield in place. This equipment also works to remove the waxy coat on the crop as it conditions, making the hay dry faster – this means less waiting time and less chance for poor weather to negatively impact the hay quality.
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- Chhiring hooks up the mower-conditioner to our trusted Kubota M4-071 tractor. Chhiring is now in the cab of the tractor ready to cut. The process of cutting should take about an hour.
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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. Chhiring goes over the field slowly and evenly with the mower-conditioner. As the mower-conditioner goes over the grass, it cuts it and then conditions it – all under the protective hood of the machine.
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- Here, one can see what has been mowed and what has not. The first cut should be when grass has greened up and reached 12 to 16 inches tall.
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- 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. After it is cut, it is left to dry the rest of the day.
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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 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 even more.
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- 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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- Here is some of the fluffed up hay, which will continue to dry and turn colors from green to tan over the next 24-hours. 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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- Next, it is 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.
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- Here, one can see the tines creating the almost box-shaped windrows.
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- Here is a windrow now ready to bale. All the windrows are lined up straight next to each other with enough room in between for the baler to maneuver properly around the field.
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- The hay is ready to bale when hay pulled from the bottom of the windrow makes a crunching sound when snapped. I’ll share the very interesting process of baling the hay in my next blog. Stay tuned.
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