Taking work out of hay making

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33774, 21 February 1975, Page 6

Taking work out of hay making

There was an item on these pages two weeks ago about handling hay with a minimum of human effort. There are more than 6000 bales of lucerne hay and ryegrass straw in the stack in the accompanying photograph and only about 20 or 30 of these bales have had to be touched by hand.

The stack is on the Pahau Reserve property of Mr M. G. Johns, near Culverden, where a New Holland bale waggon has been used for the first time this season. It can be seen in front of the stack. The stack is one of several on the property in this season of prolific growth when some 20,000 bales of meadow and lucerne hay, Italian, short rotation and perennial ryegrass and barley straw have been made. An attachment at the back of the hay baler turns the bales over on the side as they are deposited on the ground. They are then picked up singly by the bale waggon, which takes 105 at a time, and deposited in stack form on the ground — all automatically. Once the operator of the bale waggon has mastered the art of using it. Mr Johns says, about 300 bales an hour can be picked up and stacked in the paddock where the bales have been made. Where it is desired to stack the bales about a half mile away, about 200 could be similarly stacked in an hour. The bale waggon cost about $ll,OOO, but Mr Johns says that to have had the 20,000 bales he has made this season shifted by trans-

port company lorry would have cost about $4OOO. Ideally Mr Johns says that the bales should be picked up and stacked by the bale waggon at the same time as the baling is being done in the paddock. He is hoping to do that next season. If the hay is fit to bale, he says, it should also be fit to cart. This season he has done most of the hay making himself, including all the carting. His father has helped with the baling. Use of the waggon, which cuts down man-handling of the bales to a minimum, also reduces the labour involved by a half. Whereas formerly there would be a man on the tractor drawing the baler and another on the sledge behind the baler, and a man on a tractor with a front-end loader and another on a motor truck to cart the hay, only two men would now be needed. In the past the front-end loader was used to cart hay up to half a mile and over that distance the loader and a truck were both used. In the past inability to cart all the hay already made has meant that it has not been possible to get on and cut further material when it has been ready.

In going in for the bale waggon, Mr Johns believes that he will be able to make more hay — and as his property is likely to fall within an irrigation scheme in due course there is likely to be more growth to turn into hay — and he also feels that the present type of baler is likely to be always about because of the handy size of the bale produced. He says that he is certainly going to have to

so much hay this season that some will go uncovered — it is expected that the first tier of bales will turn the weather with that underneath still being in good condition. The bale waggon leaves the bales stacked seven high on their edges and about 10ft high. Mr Johns says that for covering with canvas sheets or hay covers, a top tier of two bales could be left, but this would

handle the bales when it comes to feeding out, but this is something that he does not mind in the winter — he says that it “keeps you warm.”

To cover the stacked bales he has constructed some panels of two 10ft sheets of corrugated iron on 4in by 2in runners, which are tied to the stack by baling wire. He says that for materials alone these cost about $lOO to cover 1000 bales and have turned four or five inches of rain quite well. He has

reduce the load taken at a time from 105 to 100. Mr Johns says that it is desirable to select reasonably level ground for the stacks of bales, and he says that in a paddock where it is proposed to set up a stack it is desirable first to put in three poles about the height of the stack, with supports, and held together by pieces of 4in by 2in timber, to set the stack against.

He has got three hay bams on the farm and two of these can still be used with the waggon. Where there is a clearance of 12ft, he says, the sheds can still be filled to about twothirds of their capacity with the waggon. To fill them beyond that point would require handling of the bales. Mr Johns says that sheds can also be specially constructed to take stacks built by the waggon.