Subject: Haying FAQ (draft)

From: [email-masked] (Ronald Florence)
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 19:08:39 GMT

This is a draft document.  It is almost certainly biased too much
toward New England conditions, has big gaps on subjects like irrigated
hay, and reflects my oft-posted prejudices.  I'd welcome comments,
corrections, suggestions, or even praise.  Hay generates its own heat,
so save any flames.	  -- Ronald

________________________________________________________________________

               Frequently Asked Questions About Haying
                DRAFT version 0.1 - 29 September 1994

            Copyright 1994 Ronald Florence <[email-masked]>

1.  Why grow hay?  I can pick up all I need at $2/bale in the field.

    There are at least three good reasons to grow hay:

	- as a business;
	- because you don't want your meadows and fields to revert to 
	  woods, jungle, or desert;
        - because you want some control over the quality of the feed
	  you give your livestock, and are willing to trade your labor
	  for a savings in cost.
	  
    Hay as a business is complicated and risky, requiring large
    outlays for equipment and labor, and a steady market.  When you're
    buying, good hay seems scarce and expensive; when you're selling,
    there always seems to be a glut.  The rumors about hay going for
    $110/ton always seem to apply to a different county.

    This FAQ is for small farm and property owners who want to cut hay
    from meadows and fields for their own use or for casual sale.
    Cutting your own hay, either alone or in a cooperative with
    neighbors or a custom baler, may not turn a profit, but it lets
    you control the quality of the hay you feed your animals, and if
    you have access to fields and haying equipment, growing your own
    hay can also cut down on feed bills.  Even if you don't feed
    livestock, in some areas of the country builders and landscapers
    pay as much as $3/bale for mulch hay.

2.  What equipment do I need to cut hay?

    Traditionally, hay is cut with a sickle-bar mower, which may be
    all you need for a small field or two.  A haybine, either pulled
    by a tractor or a self-powered unit, combines the mower with a
    reel that stands grass up for the cutter, a conditioner that
    crushes the stems so the hay will dry faster, and a windrower,
    which can be set to leave the cut hay in windrows or spread out.
    Sickle-bar mowers cut like multiple pairs of scissors.  They do a
    good job on grass and legumes, but are vulnerable to stones and
    stumps.  You can rivet on a new knife in the field, but the repair
    is time-consuming and the parts are relatively expensive.

    A newer machine for cutting hay is the disc-mower or disc-bine,
    which cuts with small, replaceable, free-swinging knives on
    whirling discs.  The whirling discs are said to stand up lodged
    (toppled) hay, and the free-swinging knives are less likely to
    break on stones.  Because the machines are less vulnerable to
    breaking or clogging, you can drive faster with a disc-mower,
    mowing more hay in less time.  Replacing a knife is a quick job,
    and the knives are cheap.  Disc-mowers are messy, and usually have
    a rubber skirt to confine the splashing juices.

    It is also possible to cut hay with a modified brush hog.  If one
    side is removed from the brush hog housing, the cut grass will fly
    out instead of staying under the housing to be chopped by the
    whirling blades.  A sickle-bar or disc-mower will do a much better
    job: it is difficult to keep brush hog blades really sharp, and
    the heavy blades hack the hay and knock off leaves.

    Whether you mow with a 5-foot sickle-bar or a self-powered 14-foot
    discbine, the mowing pattern is almost always the same.  Because
    the mower is offset to the right side of the tractor, you mow
    clockwise in a spiral toward the center of the field, then mow the
    last row around the edge of the field counter-clockwise.  Most
    mowers don't do a good job sweeping around a corner, so you
    usually have to either back up at the corners with the mower
    raised, or take a big loop around to position the mower for the
    next leg.

    Before haybines (mower-conditioners), some farmers used a separate
    conditioner that was run over the field to crush stems and windrow
    the hay after it was mowed.  They will still work, and are often
    available at auctions, but a separate conditioner means another
    trip over the field with the tractor, which is time and fuel.
    Most grass hays dry well without conditioning.

3.  What equipment do I need to dry hay?  What's the difference
    between a a tedder and a rake?  How do I use a hayrake?

    Drying hay is a race against the weather.  A light cutting of
    grass hay will often dry in one good hot day.  Heavy cuttings, and
    especially alfalfa and clover, are harder to dry, especially when
    the days are damp, cool, or short.  Some farmers spray special
    drying chemicals on their alfalfa as they mow it.  In areas with
    perpetual overcast skies, hay is sometimes dried on temporary
    tripods made of three limbs laced together.  Some English farmers
    insist that tripod hay is the only really good hay, and in damp
    counties they're probably right.  Chemicals and tripods aside,
    most farmers rely on tenders and rakes to aide the drying of their
    hay.

    A tedder turns hay to expose green surfaces and speed up the
    drying.  The early tenders were ground driven, and gently flipped
    the hay; newer tedders are driven off the tractor PTO, and do a
    fairly violent job of airing and scattering hay.  Too much
    tedding, especially late in the drying, can knock leaves off
    alfalfa and clover, which is much of the nutritional content of
    the hay.  If you're buying a tedder, try to get one that matches
    the width of the windrows left by your mower.  A fourteen-foot
    wide tedder will take in two windrows from a seven-foot mower.  If
    hay is rained on soon after it is cut, running over the field with
    a tedder will shake the water off the hay and minimize the damage.

    If you are blessed with spells of dry weather, you may not need a
    tedder.  You still need a hayrake.  Before hay is baled, it needs
    to be raked into rows that the baler can follow.  The most common
    rakes are ground-driven pinwheels or side-delivery rakes.
    Pinwheel rakes do a terrific job on long straight rows, but are
    less effective on corners.  Hay is normally raked twice.  On the
    first run, you rake the hay `out,' which with most rakes means
    driving the field in a clockwise spiral.  The tractor and rake end
    up in the middle of the field.  A few hours or even a day later,
    you follow the spiral back out, driving in the opposite direction
    so the hay is raked `in'.  The final raking leaves room for the
    baler and tractor outside the last row.

4.  How do I gather the hay?  Is there an alternative to baling?

    Before balers, hay was routinely gathered loose, pitched onto a
    wagon or an elevator (conveyor), and stored loose in the mow
    (loft) of a barn.  The loose hay would continue to dry in the mow,
    and was fed out by pitching it down to the animals below.  Loose
    hay is a labor-intensive process and takes up a lot of space in
    the mow.

    You can also stack hay in the fields, in the traditional haystacks
    of Swiss fairy tales, or the enormous haystacks of Montana range
    country.  The bigger the volume of the haystack, the better the
    hay inside keeps.  Haystacks look great, but they're hard to
    build, the hay is rarely high quality, and tossing a bale in the
    feeder is probably easier than building a fence around the stack
    and feeding animals with a pitchfork.  Range haystacks are built
    with custom-fabricated beaver-slides; huge tractors with grabbers
    feed out the hay.

    Most small farms use square balers.  The baler can be adjusted so
    bales weigh anywhere from 35-60 pounds.  You can let the bales
    drop on the field and go around later to pick them up; or bale
    with a chute behind the baler, so that one or two people on a
    following wagon can build a compact load of 120-200 bales without
    bending over to pick up bales; or use a kicker behind the baler to
    toss the bales into a kicker wagon with sides and a back.  A
    kicker and special wagons make square baling a one-person
    operation, but kickers and kicker wagons are expensive.  Older
    kickers can be tricky to keep working.
    
    If you drop bales in the field, you can pick them up with two- or
    three-person crews and pickup trucks, low trailers that let you
    stack from the ground, or sleds low enough to let you sling the
    bales on with hay hooks.  Look hard enough at auctions and you may
    be able to find an old bale-picker that picks up bales onto an
    elevator.

    At the barn, you will probably want an elevator (conveyor) to take
    bales up to the mow from your wagons or truck.  Some are driven by
    electric motors, others by the PTO of a tractor.  For a large mow,
    a second elevator rigged horizontally can be a big labor saver.
    When there is a lot of hay to be brought in, there is no
    substitute for lots of hands, extra wagons, and a tractor or big
    pickup (don't try an import or 1/2 ton pickup on a loaded hay
    wagon) to haul wagons back and forth from the fields where the
    baler is working.

    Round bales are a one-person operation.  Years ago there were
    round balers that produced bales of 60-100 pounds.  Today, most
    round balers produce bales of 750-2000 pounds.  The bales are
    either left in the field until they are used, or can be moved to a
    covered storage area with a bale spike on the bucket-loader or
    three-point hitch of a tractor.  Round bales are labor-saving,
    both in baling and feeding, but even when the bales are stored
    under cover it is hard to get the same quality hay as small square
    bales.  For animals that trample their hay, like sheep, round
    bales require some thought in designing feeders.

5.  What about a little meadow of less than an acre?  Can I get hay
    off it without a major outlay for equipment?

    A small meadow can be hayed with no more equipment than a scythe,
    a hand forage rake (wooden, with wood pins for teeth), and a
    pitchfork to gather the loose hay on a cart, pickup, or wagon.
    Cutting hay with a scythe takes skill: an old-timer can show you
    how to keep the scythe sharp and how to cut hay without exhausting
    yourself.  For a slightly larger meadow, a walk-behind sickle-bar
    mower would do a good job of cutting hay.  If you have a
    cooperative neighbor, and cut and rake your meadow when he is
    haying his fields, you could probably arrange custom baling of
    your meadow.

6.  How much is the equipment going to cost me?

    New haying equipment is expensive.  If you're handy with tools, or
    buy carefully, for occasional haying on a few fields you don't
    need new equipment.  Many farms have part of the equipment they
    need, like a tractor big enough for a baler.  A 25HP tractor can
    run a PTO-driven square baler.  An even smaller tractor could pull
    an older gasoline-engine baler.  If you're planning to pull wagons
    behind the baler, especially on hills, you will need a more
    powerful and heavier tractor.  In either case, a live-PTO is a
    good idea on a tractor driving a baler.  You can often clear a
    clogged baler by backing up, but if the PTO stops when you shift
    out of gear, it may take a full-scale dismantling to clear the
    baler.

    Used rakes, tedders, and balers are often available at auctions or
    at implement dealers.  You may find some odd-balls that are no
    longer made, like three-point hitch side-delivery rakes and
    ground-driven tedders.  They will often do a good job on small
    fields, as long as essential spare parts, like rake teeth and
    knotter parts for the baler, are available.

    Haybines generally require a tractor with auxiliary hydraulics,
    and many sickle-bar mowers only fit a particular model of tractor
    because they require some special link to the drawbar or
    three-point hitch to control the raising and lowering of the
    cutter bar.  A sickle-bar mower can be a versatile implement for
    trimming fence rows and clipping pastures as well as mowing hay.
    Make sure you can get replacement knives and stone guards for the
    mower.

    Used hay wagons (hayracks) are also available, especially if
    you're willing to replace worn tires and rebuild wooden beds.  It
    is not a good idea to save money by putting auto tires instead of
    heavy-duty implement tires on a wagon: a load of hay can weigh six
    tons.

    Cost?  You can probably find a serviceable used baler for $500 to
    $2000, depending on your mechanical skills, the area of the
    country, and the season when you shop the auctions and implement
    dealers.  A used sickle-bar mower could be as cheap as $200; new
    ones cost $1000 and up.  A used hayrake can be had for $500.  If
    you hay with a friend or neighbor, you may not need even the
    minimal equipment.

7.  What does it take to convert my overgrown lot to a hayfield?

    Hard work and patience.  Once the field is clear of stones and
    stumps -- which may require a bulldozer or backhoe and hours of
    stone-picking -- do a soil test and add lime as needed to bring
    the pH up to whatever your planned hay crop requires.  Lime
    migrates slowly in soil, so adding more than two tons/acre may
    require a year or so of alternate crops before the pH is at the
    required level.  Once the pH is where you want it, you can either
    disc the field or kill the existing vegetation with Round-Up and
    plant no-till.  

    A heavy drag behind the disc will help level the field.  To
    control weeds, it sometimes works well to disc and plant an annual
    crop, like buckwheat, oats, rye, or dwarf rape that you can later
    disc in, perhaps with a heavy application of manure, before you
    seed the hay.  A dense stand of buckwheat will choke out weeds
    that would overwhelm your new hay seeding and add to the tilth of
    your soil when you disc it in; temporary crops like rape, turnips,
    rye, or oats can provide pasture for animals or a quick cutting of
    hay while they're helping get the field ready for seeding hay.

    On a disced field, after you've applied the needed fertilizer, a
    Brillion or other heavy seeder will do the best job on small
    seeds.  If you can't borrow one, you can broadcast from a
    hand-carried Cyclone seeder or a three-point-hitch fertilizer
    spreader.  Increase the application rate over the seed bag
    recommendation if you are broadcasting.  Rolling broadcast seed
    will probably provide the highest germination rate.  If you don't
    have a roller, disc lightly after broadcasting, or a pass with a
    drag or branches will cover the seed.

    For no-till seeding, you may be able to borrow the needed machine
    from a local agricultural extension or soil bank office.  It is
    important to follow the instructions for early mowing or heavy
    grazing to control weeds after no-till seeding.

    Fall seedings work well, and provide hay the next spring.  Some
    farmers like to plant oats as a cover drop with spring or late
    summer seedings.  The fast-growing oats are supposed to keep down
    weeds.  Be sure to inoculate legume seeds to increase the
    nitrogen-fixing ability of the alfalfa or clover.

8.  What kind of hay should I plant?

    Depends on location, climate, soil, and the intended use.  Some
    general observations:

	- alfalfa (Arabic for `best fodder') is a high-yielding,
    highly nutritious, and highly palatable legume hay.  It requires
    well-drained soils and a neutral pH.  In some climates alfalfa hay
    may be difficult to dry well without a haybine or conditioner to
    crush the stems, it may be susceptible to weevils and other pests,
    and for some livestock, like horses, alfalfa hay may be too
    nutritious except as a supplement.  Alfalfa fields generally have
    to be reseeded every 4-6 years; it is often grown in rotation with
    corn or other crops.

	- clover hays (Red, Alsike, Ladino) are highly nutritious and
    often highly palatable.  They are hard to dry well and usually
    require fairly neutral pH.  Clover is often planted in combination
    with a grass such as timothy, orchard grass, or brome grass.  For
    the first few years the clover will predominate; as the clovers
    thin out, the grasses take over.  Ladino clover makes terrific
    pasture, but is low-growing and hard to mow.  There is some
    evidence that red clover retards ovulation in sheep, so it may not
    be a good hay to feed breeding ewes.

	- grass hay is generally grown in long-term fields.  Some
    grasses, like reed canary grass, will grow in wetter soils, but
    may be less palatable to fussy animals.  Timothy, orchard grass
    and brome grass will turn brown and dormant in the middle of a hot
    dry summer.  Grass hays generally dry faster than legumes, so they
    may be a better choice where haying weather is iffy.  Some recent
    research suggests that with proper fertilization grass hay can
    have a protein content as high as legume hays.

	- oats and other annual grasses can produce high yields of
    nutritious hay.  It may be more advisable as a rotation crop:
    grain hay attracts mice and rats, and baling oats can be the
    hottest, itchiest job in the world.

    Extension and soil conservation service agents can often suggest a
    good seed mix for your area and soil.  Unless you have a good
    reason to do otherwise, you may want to follow the lead of your
    neighbors.  If they grow mostly orchard grass, it may be because
    timothy doesn't do as well in the area, or because local buyers
    aren't interested in timothy hay.  Trying to beat the odds --
    alfalfa in a heavy acidic soil -- rarely works.

9.  How much should I fertilize hayfields? 

    Depends on what kind of hay you're growing and how high a yield
    you want.  Fertilized hay is generally higher in total nutrients,
    and feeding your animals fertilized hay can avoid some mineral
    deficiencies.  A soil test from a state agricultural extension
    office or university lab will tell you the exact blend of NPK and
    application rate to achieve best yields on your soil, and whether
    you need to add lime or micro-nutrients.  If you buy your
    fertilizer in bulk from a blending plant, you can get the exact
    mix you need, and save the extra cost and inconvenience of
    paper-bagged fertilizer.

    Grass hays need plenty of nitrogen.  For highest yields, fertilize
    grass hay twice, in early spring and again after the first
    cutting.  Excess fertilizer is a waste of money.  Too much
    nitrogen leads to lodging -- leggy hay that lies down and is hard
    to mow.  For `generic hay', you may be able to get by with no
    fertilizer at all: yields and nutrition will be lower, but you
    probably won't need a tedder to dry the hay, and lower yields may
    suit your available labor pool and hay needs.

    For legume hays (alfalfa, clover, birds-foot trefoil), you can
    usually get by with one application of fertilizer per year,
    typically a blend like 0-10-40, with added boron.  Mixed hay
    (timothy and alfalfa, orchard grass and clover) is usually
    fertilized to favor the legume.

    Manure is good for a hayfield and will cut down on fertilizer
    bills.  If you don't have a manure spreader, you may be able to
    borrow one once a year when you clean out your barn or barnyard,
    or to hire a farmer to spread your manure.  Winter, or after the
    final cutting, is a good time to spread manure on a hayfield.
    Soil tests immediately after you have spread manure won't be
    accurate.

10. When do I cut the hay?  How many cuttings a year can I get?

    The quality of hay, particularly the all-important protein
    content, is determined in large measure by the stage of growth
    when the grass or legumes are cut.  For most hay, the later in the
    bloom you cut, the greater the yield, but the lower the protein
    content and palatability.  Alfalfa hay can range from 20% protein
    in a late vegetative state (before bloom) to 11% protein at the
    end of the bloom.  Timothy can go as high as 18% protein just
    before bloom to as low as 6-7% protein in late bloom hay.  For
    mulch hay or livestock on maintenance rations, a late cutting is
    fine.  For high-production dairy animals, late-term or lactating
    sheep, or hard-working draft animals, you may want the highest
    possible protein, which means early cut hay.  Unfortunately,
    weather and other commitments don't always let you cut hay at the
    optimum time.
    
    In most areas of the country, grass hay can be cut twice,
    sometimes three times, per year.  The first cutting, in late
    spring, generally has the largest yield.  Some animals, like
    sheep, prefer the tender stems of second or third cutting hay.
    When a haybine or conditioner is used, first cutting hay may be
    just as palatable as second cutting.  Alfalfa can often be cut
    four times, even when it is not irrigated.  The last cutting
    should either be after a frost, or well before the first frost, so
    the plants have time to push nutrition into the root system for
    the winter.

11. How do I beat the weather?

    Pray, and watch the weather channel or pick up weather charts off
    one of the Internet sites.  In many parts of the country, weather
    systems provide windows -- a period of 3-5 days of dry, crisp
    weather between two fronts.  The beginning of a dry window is the
    time to cut your hay.  Sometimes folk wisdom, like the feel of a
    coming northwester in an arthritic knee, can predict haying
    weather better than the charts.

    Given a choice, waiting for dry weather and cutting the hay beyond
    its peak is better than the risk of getting hay rained on.  Rain
    is not always the ultimate disaster for hay.  Little harm comes to
    hay that is rained on right after it is cut, then quickly dried
    (see question 3).  If your hay gets rained on late in the drying
    cycle, either feed it out immediately, sell it to a neighbor who
    can feed it out immediately, or bale it for mulch hay.

12. How do I tell good hay?

    Sending samples to a lab will give you exact protein and TDN
    measures.  Failing a lab, good hay smells and looks good.  The
    best grass hay is usually silvery green in color.  Brown hay was
    probably cut too late or dried too long.  Green hay is too wet to
    store in a barn.  It can be fed out immediately, but in a barn it
    will rot, mildew, or possibly start a fire.  The smell of good hay
    depends on the grasses and legumes in the mix; hay that smells
    dusty, mildewy, or over-ripe is probably no good.  When hay starts
    to cure in the barn, you can and should test it by putting your
    hand deep inside bales.  It should generate warmth for several
    days after it is baled; excessive heating is a danger signal.

    Before you bale hay, pick up a bunch and twist it tightly in your
    fingers.  If it is too dry to hold the twisted shape, it is
    probably too dry to be really good hay.  If it feels wet when you
    twist it, it is too wet to bale.  When there are trees around your
    hayfield, the hay on the outside rows may dry slower than the
    inner rows.  Test different rows, and if the outside rows are too
    wet to bale, start baling a few rows in, then return to the
    outside rows after you've baled the rest of the field.

    If you are buying hay, you probably want to look and smell samples
    from inside a few bales.  Check bales from different loads, or
    different ends of a load.  Everyone who sells hay isn't
    unscrupulous, but even innocent mistakes can burn down a barn or
    leave your livestock sick.

13. Haying sounds too risky and too labor-intensive.  Is there an
    alternative to get good feed from a field or meadow?

    In many areas, unpredictable weather and labor shortages make it
    tough to bring in good hay, particularly in the spring.  An
    alternative is haylage, usually done with first-cutting alfalfa.
    The alfalfa is mowed, conditioned, and windrowed by a haybine,
    then left in the field to dry for anywhere from a few hours to a
    day.  A hay-chopper (a corn chopper with a haylage head) is then
    run over the field to chop and gather the partially dry hay.
    Stored in a silo or lined pit as haylage, it makes nutritious
    feed.  Haylage is probably only workable if you or a nearby custom
    operator has the equipment.

    Another alternative to dedicated hayfields is to combine a cutting
    of hay with extensive pasturage of the fields.  Many farms have
    too much forage in the spring flush, followed by shortages during
    the dry months.  If your pastures are clear of stones and stumps,
    you can take a cutting of hay in the spring, then use the fields
    as a pasture in the dry months.

14. Is making my own hay really worth all the work?

    Even if you only cut a small meadow and store the hay loose for a
    pet animal, completing the cycle of old fashioned farming --
    manure from the animals fertilizes the hayfield, hay from the
    field nourishes the animal -- is rewarding.  If you own or can
    borrow the equipment, and if family, neighbors, and friends add up
    to the needed labor for timely baling and storage of hay -- haying
    your land or rented land can provide the best possible feed for
    your livestock at a good price, the pleasures of shared hard work
    with friends, and the rewards of a cold beer or dinner after
    bringing in hundreds or thousands of bales of good hay.  If you
    have to hire a bulldozer or backhoe to clear the land, buy
    expensive equipment to do the haying, can't find the helping hands
    when you need them, and have terrible luck with weather -- haying
    may not be right for you.
--

				Ronald Florence