BALING OF HAY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19805, 18 December 1929, Page 14

BALING OF HAY.

LINCOLN COLLEGE EXPERIENCE The Canterbury Agricultural College Magazine, which 'was issued on Monday, contains an article on the above subject, which is reproduced:—In regard to hay making our experience with baling as against stacking may be of interest. Our practice is to cut hay early Ju its succulent stage and rake up as soon as possible. In good weather this will be almost immediately, in dull weather within two days. The rake used is certainly a most efficient and thorough gatherer of the sward. The hay when rowed with this machine can be gathered into heaps with the sweep, and the heaps then cocked. The total cost of I cutting, raking, and cocking a three- [ ton crop last season, allowing full wages ! and cost of horses, worked out at 6s I per acre or 2/- per ton. ! Hay can be baled much earlier than it can be stacked—a great advantage. Most of our baling last year was done 3 to 7 days after cutting. Bales will heat, but not to any harmful extent, as no air can enter them, and consequently the heating cannot last. With regard to the cost of baling hay this works out much cheaper than might be supposed. With a tractor as the power. unit, 7 men to work the plant, j 1 sweep and 2 horses, 18 tons of hay , can be turned out in 10 hours. Items j are as follows: £ s. a: 7 men, 10 hours at Is 9d ..686 Fuel .. . . .. 12 0 Oil . . . . .. 2 ft 2 horses and 1 sweep .. 15 0 Wire at 2./- per ton .. 116 0 Cost for 10 hours or 18 tons 9 14 3 Therefore cost of baling per ton is 10s 9d. Depreciation on a £2OO baler with a useful life of 10,000 tons works out at 4£d, making total cost of baling per ton lis lsd. As regards stacking hay we have these figures. A gang of 7 men, 1 boy, 2 sweeps, 5 horses and a stacker should stack 30 tons in 10 hours. Items:— £ s. d. 7 men at Is 9d .. ..686 1 boy at Is . . .. 10 0 5 horses, 2 sweeps, stacker ..200 Cost for 10 hours or 30 tons 8 18 6 Therefore cost of stacking per ton is 5s lid. From this data it can be seen that baling costs approximately os 2sd more per ton than stacking. It remains to be shown whether this 5s 2Jd is worth while. When hay is baled it should, if possible, be housed in a good shed, and it is a good plan to stack the bales in a location where they can be carted the shortest distance to the stack. Here we hjive one * ne chief advantages of baled hay. It need not be stacked in the paddock in which it was cut, but can be stacked just where it is needed, and so lessen the work of feeding out to stoek in winter. When carting there is no time lost in forking on a load of loose hay. The bales being compact and easily handled are loaded in a very short period- Owing to their uniform weight the correct quantity of hay is fed to the stock at each feeding, thus obviating any loss in the paddock. It is interesting to cost the difference between carting hay from stacks and' hay in bales. In many cases the dray has to go away from the shed to load at the stack, and when there it takes two men to load up, to say nothing of hay lost in falling off. If this takes an hour longer than loading direct, where the baled hay is stacked, the increase in cost is 2s 6d —3s per ton at least. Another vital point is the decrease in risk of hay being spoiled by rain when baled because, as has been stated before, it can be baled mueh earlier than stacked. Altogether everything is in favour of baling. In fact, considering the convenience of bales, it is questionable if baling actually costs as much as stacking in the long run. The only difficulty is the plant. This could either be owned by a number of farmers on the community basis, or on the other hand the machine could be hired each year.