Stacey standing in hay field/pasture September 4, 2004
Steps for making a hay field/pasture from a corn field |
Stacey standing in hay field/pasture September 4, 2004 |
1) Robert tested the PH of the future hay field's soil to determine what amendments it needed - lots of limestone and fertilizer. |
2) Robert used his backhoe to clear the hay field of rocks that would interfere with the hay seeding and mowing equipment. Rocks that are OK for cornfields are not OK for hay fields- the mower conditioner cannot tolerate large rocks. Robert says that this will need to be done every year, because rocks pop up as the field is cultivated. |
3) Robert harrowed the field. A harrow is like a plow, but not so deep- it has discs that turn over soil. |
4) As told in the first week in May story, limestone and fertilizer were spread over the field. An 18 wheeler truck delivered the limestone and a 10 wheeler truck spread the limestone over the hay field. Robert used his backhoe to load the 10 wheeler truck. |
5) Robert harrowed the field again to work the limestone and fertilizer into the soil. |
6) Robert used his cultipactor pulled behind his tractor to seed the hay field with Ladino clover (taller that regular clover) and timothy grass. In the better drained soil he also planted orchard grass. The cultipactor has two rollers- the first metal roller makes indentations for the seeds with the bumps on it and the second roller packs the seeds again. |
7) This is the part that's unpredictable- Robert waited for sun and rain to make the clover and grass grow. |
| 8) Mowing - the last week in July, the hay field was ready for its first mowing. Robert used his mower conditioner pulled behind his tractor to mow down the grass leaving long columns of hay in the field. For one glorious hour he had a great time riding his tractor to cut his hay for the first time. He cut the part of the field he had carefully prepared. Then he decided haying was so much fun he would mow some grass outside of the prepared area. Right away the power takeoff from the tractor to the baler was disconnected by bumping a stone and Robert had to spend the next few hours repairing the damage. The first mowing was mostly pigweed which is useless for feed- but he was learning how to use his equipment. Mowing - the last week in August, the field was ready for its second mowing. Again, Robert used his mower conditioner pulled behind his tractor to mow down the clover and grass - leaving long columns of mowed hay in the field. |
9) Next the hay should be fluffed up using a tedder pulled behind the tractor. BUT ROBERT DOESN'T HAVE A TEDDER! He tried to buy a second-hand one, but the tedder he was considering was found to be defective and he never found another one. HE REALLY NEEDS A TEDDER for next year. The tedder fluffs up the hay and helps it dry better and faster. With no tedder, some of the hay got moldy so it's no good for feed. But the hay needed to be removed from the field. Robert proceeded as if the hay were good. |
10) He used his tractor to pull his ground driven side delivery rake around the field to rake the hay in neat rows. |
11) The fun part- baling the hay. Robert hooked up his baler/kicker to his tractor. Like magic, 2 bales of hay with string automatically wound around them were thrown into the air some 30 feet behind the tractor - then all the fun stopped. Robert thought maybe a pin had sheared off. He called a more experienced farmer neighbor for advice. His neighbor noticed a couple of missed knots and sections of twisted twine around the two hay bales. He told Robert that could be caused by using twine that became damp from being on the baler all summer. Fortunately, Robert had previously purchased 9,000 feet of new twine. Also, luckily, it wasn't a broken pin that stopped the baler, it was the dogs- not animal dogs! Dogs is a device that protects a machine from killing itself. It took an hour or so to work the pin out of the dogs and work oil in. Then the next day, Robert had a wonderful time throwing 30 bales of hay high into the air and onto his field without incident! |
12) Storing the hay. If Robert had a wagon to attach to his baler, then the hay would be all ready to take to storage. Next year, Robert hopes to find a wagon. Since he has no wagon, he had to manually lift all the hay bales into his truck and drive to a storage area. He piled up the pales and put a tarp over them. Since he had no tedder and the hay has some mold in it, the bales will used only to mulch their vegetable gardens next year - not to feed the horse Stacey hopes to get. Weather permitting, Robert may get another crop of hay this year. But with cooler weather and the sun lower, hay takes longer to dry. |