Haying with a Cub

[DickB]

Probably not up everyone's alley nowadays, but perhaps some you do it, of have memories of old folks doing it? More for the need to maintain fields that to gather marketable hay, I cut some 5 or 6 acres of field. I've done this for some years now with the Cub. But somehow things have conspired to force my field cutting into haymaking. So that's where I'm at, and am wondering if you can add to my work with some info.

Here I am a few days ago.

I'd cut a field some weeks ago and followed that up with raking the hay with an old IH hayrake. But I don't think that is enough...or is it? Will the cuttings from the sicklebar, resting on the cut grass, dry out enough for edible hay IF a) I left it to dry, and b) it doesn't rain ?

From the photo you can see the gathered hay (machinery used? fading muscles and 3-prong pitchfork) is attractive, to some extent by the sheep. I think they are eating this and that, but mostly it seems that they like to romp in it. So, I am thinking that in a year the grasses will be tested for winter feeding. What I'm hoping to do is to gather loose hay and store it in the barn loft along with the usual stacks of baled hay that we buy for winter feeding. We lucked into this turn of the century hay trolley and grapple hooks, and I added new tracks in the loft for getting the loose hay up...just for your viewing enjoyment...but the Cub is key to it all.

So what I'm lacking is an understanding on how to dry hay in the field. Good enough to let it lay out there? Got to turn it? Some kind of a homemade drag? Or am I "good to go" with sicklebar and hayrake and pitchfork?

[Waif]

Interesting.
By not running a conditioner ,bruising stems and leaves to speed up drying..
Your cutting height might be one thing to work with.
A higher stubble allows more air under your grass/hay.
Just be sure it's dry before putting up to avoid heat problems....
Old timers used to put a heavy tall stake up outside and pack hay around it into a tall cone.

[Slim140]

What type of hay is that? Did you cut that hay some weeks ago and left it and are just now getting around to getting it out of the field into the barn? Hay turn around in N.C. is less than 4 days from cut to in the barn. Are sheep picky eaters when it comes to hay? I know our goats waste more than they eat if it isn't good quality.

[ScottyD'sdad]

We cut with a cub, then, next day, fluffed it with an old horse drawn tedder, modified for pulling with a cub. Maybe hit it with the tedder, next day, then raked it with the old, converted horse drawn rake, and picked it up. Last time I did it was 30+ years ago.
Ed

[Larry in WNY]

The hay should be under 20% moisture or it could spoil. You need a moisture tester to be sure. Mold will grow in wet hay. White dust is what it looks like. Horses don't tolerate mold but cows can. When wet, bacteria will begin to multiply causing the temperature to rise resulting in a fire. You want to get the hay in before it rains or the water will bleach it from green to brown and take some of the nutrients out. The field should be green when cut and not brown & stalky. Some animals will eat anything but green is better than brown.
Larry

[Matt Kirsch]

That's how it was done for a very long time: Knock it down, let it dry, fork it up.

The one difference is that hay tended to be more mature and was much drier when it was standing so drying time after it was cut was much shorter. Also second cuttings were almost unheard of. You let the hay grow until it was as big as it could get because you needed every ounce of it to feed the cattle and keep them alive over the winter. Quantity over quality. A cow that gives lots of milk and then dies of starvation halfway through winter is not worth much.

With a Cub there's not a whole lot more you can do unless you can find a ground-driven tedder. You would use this to stir up the hay for the first couple of days of drying, to expose more of the wetter material to the sun.

On raking, a slow cub with an old rake tends to wind the hay up into a tight rope, which will not dry well. You need to wait until the hay is nearly dry, or find a rake that you can make fluffier windows with so air can flow through.

[brewzalot]

Hay making is tough- spreading it out helps it dry faster but will spoil more if rained on. Putting it into windrows dries slower but will help protect the hay underneath better if it does rains on it. The taller/thicker it is the slower it will dry too. The weather report is key, you know they are always right?

Basically the biggest reason to rake hay is to make it into rows to make it easier to pick up- usually mechanical ( baler, chopper, etc.).
Or if its laying tight to the ground(on short stubble or if its been rained on) with no air able to get under it, you may have to rake it to help it dry. Lately many have gone back to using a tedder, which just fluffs it up without making it into a row . You really don't want to rake it into a row unless you are going to put it up that day.

For what you are doing I would cut it when the weather forecast looks good for a couple of days, leave it spread out as long as you can to dry, then rake it if you need to. You have the tools and are on the right track, just try to get it out of the field quicker, the greener the color the better it will be. If you take a large handful of it and keep twisting it up tight like a rope until it breaks in two, you will see a lot better if its dry enough. The ends shouldn't be bright green, sticky or juicy, they should feel dry.

This time of year is really tough to dry hay regardless of how you do it.
And yes , sheep are picky eaters, they will eat the very best stuff first and stomp on the rest.

good luck-Tim

[DieselDennis]

Sounds like you're getting some good advice from the last two posters.

I'd say in your area look for a weather forecast for 3-4 days of good sunshine. Cut on the first day. Then rake it on day 3 or 4. Fork it up to the loft on the 4th day. When you're checking the hay for dry, reach down and get a double handful. Bend it in front of your face and get a good look. Anything that looks really green is too wet. A light green could be OK. Hay should bend a little. Most folks go by smell. Hard to describe what it smells like. It smells like ripe hay.

I would cut the hay when it's tall enough. No sense it letting it go further. Makes it harder to dry and is less nutritious. I would think stacking it loose in the loft would make the moisture content less critical. It's not like you're squeezing this stuff into a dense bale.

I think you're doing enough and couldn't do anymore unless you get a ground driven fluffer or tedder.

And bless you, your arms, and your back for your industriousness. Your sheep thank you. And they'll eat anything. May not eat all of it, but they'll eat it.

[Puffie40]

We have a little over 20 acres to cut, so we have pull-behind swathers for cutting hay. The little Cub gets put to work cutting the backswath (the stuff on the edge that the tractor runs over), cutting areas the swathers can't get at, as well as "pioneering" cleared areas we are hesitant to take the swathers because of rocks or debris.

For drying, we live in a fairly narrow valley, so sunlight is limited to about 8 hours. Combine that with a fairly wet climate and we have difficulty drying our hay. What we have to do is wait until the weather forecast predicts a heat wave before cutting, then turn the windrows daily until there are few green spots left. We find a belt rake fluffs the hay up a lot so no tedding is needed. The cubs cut needs to be fluffed by the rake before it dries- only the surface exposed to the sun will dry.

One other thing to note about hay: you have to treat it differently depending on the plant. Grass hay is fairly easy to harvest as the nutrients are throughout the plant. You can beat it unmercifully until it's bone dry, then bale it, and the nutrients will remain. Alfalfa, however, needs to be baled slightly wet as the nutrients are in the leaves.

Another thing to consider: you want to cut your hay just before the plants seed. The plant will have the most nutrients at that point.

[DickB]

Thanks for replies. Lots of knowledge there...which I gladly accept and will attempt to use. Primarily I was wondering about the "tedder thing" that seemed missing to me in my setup. It seemed that just maybe cut hay laying on dry ground (hah!) in the sunshine might be okay, but that's been dispelled for the most part...although that is all that I have available at this time. A horse drawn tedder would be the ticket, but I've never seen one here. Don't know if there are any about, but will attempt to pry a few old rocks hereabouts to see. If any out there, please P.M. me.

Thanks to info on the tedder I ran into two you-tube videos that are a kicker.
Here's one on a horse drawn tedder that surely would scare the crows for miles around -- it looks like a giant spider with those kicker arms. I love it! It is what I'm guessing would be really cool to find, restore, and use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpgM4ngTx_k

The other you-tube video shows a farm worker gal doing the work of a thousand men. And what she's doing with a windrow of hay I've got to try. I've simply been pitchforking from the windrows and tossing up onto the cart, but she's brought the whole endeavor into the realm of an Olympic sport.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIVAlV8YVF0

[ScottyD'sdad]

The tedder is similar to the one I used.
Ed

[WaMoo]

I put up 22 acres of hay with the Cub this year. We're blessed with low summer humidity, so, no tedding necessary. Nobody teds around here. Also, I have a wheel on the end of my sickle bar to raise it up a little. I end up with about a 6" stubble, which helps also.

This year, I mowed, two full days in the swath, and then raked the morning of the third day. Baled the next day. I baled because I am selling it. I also have a 1940's John Deere hayloader for putting it up loose.

[DieselDennis]

The link by DickB shows one of the pull type kinds I'm familiar with. Looked like it was doing OK, although the hay looked pretty thin.

There is one more kind of ground drive tedder/fluffer I know about. Pretty basic, think of one wide fork instead of a bunch of little ones like in DickB's previous video. Not sure how common they are in your neck of the woods.

[Ike]

When I was a kid, the New Idea hay rake we used (similar to the one shown) worked as a tedder as well by reversing the reel rotation.

Ike

[tst]

I did around 10,000 bales this season, some times I use a cub to rake with if I want to test the tractor out, almost never ted hay, need 3 good days to cut, dry, rake and bale hay, here is a 49 cub with me pulling a full size hay rake
Tim