Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Haying Day 3 - A Raking We Will Go





This is the easiest of the hay making steps for me anyway. The only part besides throwing the complete bales around that I have plenty of experience with. I have raked windrows over the years since I was a weeeeee lad for several different baler and operator combinations so I know a little bit about it.

All the raking I have ever done has been on an 8N too. In fact my first reaction to seeing someone else raking hay that is not on an 8N is to think they are doing it wrong :)

One trick I learned over three decades ago about running a bar rake is that if it doesn't have a dolly on it then use a cross bar.




In fact my grandfather's neighbor way back when had a New Holland rake with a dolly on it and took the dolly off and just ran the cross bar. Running the ground driven rake from the cross bar allows me to raise the rake from the tractors hydraulics enough to run over windrows if I feel the need without scattering the raked hay too much. It also allows me to do some minor height adjustments from the seat as the ground changes.




I was able to get the little Alfalfa field raked up into four windrows of a little over a foot or so high. In truth an experienced bale operator would laugh at my small windrows and complain there isn't enough there to bother baling but with the new (to me) baler which is small anyway and my lack of experience I decided to try some thinner windrows at first.

There ended up being more hay there than I feared although like I have mentioned more than once there is alot of vegetation just pushed over too.




Here is a section where two windrows came together just passed an old cistern cover on the edge of the field that I had to maneuver around. It's actually pretty good looking hay even if it is a bit sparse. It has dried to almost the perfect moisture level to my amateur eye anyway and retained a lot of it's green color too which I was always told was a good indication of nice hay.

Tomorrow we will see if the baler works and how many bales I get off this small cutting if it does. I am guessing between 25 and 30 myself.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!


10 comments:

  1. Boy does that bring back memories. We had the more modern Ford 801 which had the diesel engine and the Massey Furguson PTO driven rake. When I left the farm in 1981 dad switched over from square bales to round bales.

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    1. TT - My heavy work tractor is a 62 861 diesel from the old 01 series. Live PTO, power steering and external hydraulics if I ever get something to use it on. I use it for the cutting, baling and moving the small round bales we sometimes buy. Up until this year all our hay has been round bales since about 1990 going back to idiot cubes is entirely my idea as I try to run this place entirely with small tractors and 1960's era implements. So far it's working but the true test will come tomorrow I guess.

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    2. TT - Talk about bringing back memories. See that black spot down at the very end right side of the windrow picture? That's the stray dog lab-mix (like all strays are lab mixes) that came here almost six years ago and never left. Anyway what's funny is he went running out to check the windrows after I raked just like my old lab did when I was a kid. It reminded so much of being 15 again.

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    3. Some dog just aren't properly happy without a tractor to stir stuff up for them occasionally.

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  2. The 8N looks good with that rake. Can't wait to see you get some bales!

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    Replies
    1. Sf - I swear I always thought rakes were designed specifically for 8N's lol.

      I am anxious now to see if the baler works. If I have trouble I am probably stuck since I don't have an operators manual for it yet.

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  3. hey, hey, hey big PP is on his way...

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  4. Really, considering the conditions, I too feel you've done a fine job. Besides, there is always next season.

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  5. Thought you might find this interesting...
    https://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/i-work-in-my-delight-wednesday-july-29-2015/

    ReplyDelete

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