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Senior Member
 
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I got some fields last fall that were in their 3rd-crop-prime and teeming with alfalfa. It was breeding season for the sheep so I wanted to flush them. I prefer I quality natural feed over flushing them with grain so I needed a way to get the fresh cut grass to the sheep.
We sold our haying equipment years ago because we no longer hay (silage) so I used what I had. I bushogged the grass first. Then raked the stuff up with a hand rake, loaded it in the back of a trailer and fed it to the sheep like that. It was slow but my sheep LOVED it.
Now the corn was even more crude. Last year we had a two; back to back hurricanes followed by a Gale, and the fields were MUDDY. In fact in some places the boys on our dairy farm just left standing corn in the fields. There was just no way the chopper and the trucks could wallow through these areas. Now I am some frugal, so I saw this standing corn and figured I could feed my sheep on that.
I cut the stalks down with a chainsaw. Threw them by hand onto the back of a trailer. Then stored the full length stalks under a tarp. When it was time to feed out the corn, I would run the stalks through my small 5 HP brush chipper/shredder. What came out the spout was the same quality corn silage that comes out of our ¼ million dollar chopper (for the dairy farm).
While I was at this hand-foraging venture, I went around a few fields and picked up all the corn cobs that had dropped. What happens is the chopper will often dislodge the lower cobs onto the ground rather then swallow it up. A little bit of time and I had a trailer full of pure cobs. I threw them into my chipper and fed that to the sheep.
In all my corn venture netted me two months worth of winter feeding before I had to resort to feeding grass again. It reduced my grain bill as well and nothing went to waste. (Here is a picture of that adventure! :) )
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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Average Member
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Last Login: 6/14/2009 6:27:31 PM
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I know a fellow, he's some very very very distant relation actually. Is so stinking lazy. Good man, but if he can find a way around something he will. He let's his corn just stand, and then tuns the stock out in it. he actually sews corn. Why detach the spreader when you are just going to put down grass later 
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There is nothing wrong with that Meadowbrook, as it is efficient. In my case, grazing that corn would have resulted in far more work putting up a fence and getting the sheep to the corn versus harvesting it. But I admit it costs be some diesel fuel to grab it...and time.
The biggest issue I have with grazing corn stalks versus chopping it, is that the livestock will eat a lot more of it when its chopped up. Palletability it's called. (Sorry my Mozilla won't give me the correct spelling for that word). Of course the type of corn grown makes a big difference too. Here we grow corn for dairy cow feed so the corn is of a variety that has a softer stalk so the entire thing can be enjoyed by the cows. Corn destined for human consumption will have a stalk that is not quite so sweet tasting to the cows and sheep.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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Average Member
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I've taken to use'n the electric rope and fiber glass posts.
what a dream.
Then don't even challenge it any more. Also, what you put up with in Maine is far more harsh than PA. Your snow melt yet?
i bet owning a pair of shorts is almost a waste of money, unless you put them on in Nov.
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Senior Member
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It was warm today as I went shopping for groceries and I thought, "maybe its time to take the long handles off? I am still wearing them, but then again on June 1st we got frost. That is unusual even for us.
I had a great uncle that used to say, "I take my long handles off on July 3rd and put them back on July 5th. He was not far off the mark. LOL
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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Senior Member
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I was kind of thinking the other day that it is surprising that more small farmers do not go back to utilizing loose hay. About the only reason hale bales came into vogue was because it helped limit the amount of storage needed. Now that we have equipment (both big and small) that are pretty expensive, and at the same time, hoop buildings are relatively inexpensive, it seems to me a small farmer could build a pretty big hoop barn for what it would cost to buy a baler.
They say a scythe can knock down 3 acres a day, so at a bare minimum in investment a small farmer could flatten 3 acres of hay one day, then harvest it the second even if it meant hooking a simply trailer up to the Saab or garden tractor. 3 acres at 4 tons to the acre is 12 tons of hay...not bad for a few days of work.
For the lazy farmer like myself that is more creative and lazy, renting a sickle bar mower from a rental place would be easier then the hand scythe. A estate rake would cost you 300 bucks but could be pulled with a garden tractor to bunch the dried hay into rows. A really lazy person would build a minaturized version of the old hay elevators they used to have that pulled the hay from the field up into the truck.
The interesting thing is that the hay quality would be better because the longer the hay is, the better roughage it makes for ruminant animals. Hale bales are cut so some hay is inevitably shorter versus that of loose hay.
Overall I would think it would be easier and cheaper to go back to using loose hay then hay bales even if it was mechanized somewhat. (Just a thought on the subject this morning).
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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Junior Member
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far to labor intensive. Loose hay also sits like batter in the barn. Pushing out your barn walls. Imagine how fast you can go to the mow and toss down
200 lbs of dry hay, you know it's about 200 lbs... now do that with loose hay?
The cycle bar is alright, however the smallest thing can break it. just a wire or a small stone between those blades and the points and you got trouble.
We have dry hay to do, but the first cutting was all off this road, around 1,000 acres total in 3 days. If the rain keeps up, we could get 3 cuttings in a year.
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Senior Member
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| Medow...is that you? I've been gone a week and now you have a new name! Sue
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Junior Member
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yea sue..I get blocked every time I turn around. Don't know who I ticked off this week.
I was thinking about the whole hay thing....
this year everyone wrapped the bails and I'm the only farmer on the hill with first cutting still standing. we can make far more hay than before and have higher quality.... BUT
All that plastic???
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Starting Member
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| Last week I was at a friend's place in SC. We put up about 500 bales using horses in front of a 1930's McCormick Deering #9 sickle bar mower. The hay was then tedded with a motorized tedder that the horses pulled behind a cart. After that we used a side delivery rake to rake rows. My rake is a JD horse drawn and probably from the 40's but there is no real difference in them from then to now. Temp. was in the 90's and VERY hard work. If there are just two of you, like on my farm, it is a serious workout with the threat of bad weather always looming. We used a 1960 Ford baler pulled by a dually Dodge. My friend doesn't own a tractor. I like the idea of loose hay but my expertise of what is and isn't dry enough is shaky. I am always scared of fire, not having enough storage room, and having issues with properly cycling the hay where I use the older stuff first. If you don't have or want to use horses, a small tractor with a sickle bar mower, tedder, and side deliver rake would probably do it. We cut coastal bermuda (grass hay) and the old rotating ground drive tedders do poorly with it. We have to use a basket style which is much pricer. If you have a tractor and can use the rotating tedder you can probably spend $1500 for the equipment you need if you look around. Balers are a curse as something is always wrong with them. See if you can find someone who will (custom) bale a small field for a decent price. otherwise if you buy an older 1960's baler most will tell you to get an old Ford/New Holland.
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