HAYMAKING

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LXI, Issue 16, 27 February 1940, Page 2

HAYMAKING

CROPS AND METHODS OF HARVESTING

COMPARISON OF COSTS

Introduction

The purpose of the issue of this bulletin in the present month is first of all to replace a bulletin now out of print and out of date as regards some of the methods of harvesting now practised but especially to enable farmers to review their past season's experiences and costs of haymaking while this experience is fresh in their minds. Crops for Hay Old grass shut up in spring makes good hay, but the yield is comparatively low. Young grass, such as Italian rye and red clover, cut preferably in the second year in order to get a larger percentage of clover, gives hay of good quality and high yield. Hay made from paddocks which are normally intensively grazed is usually very good as regards quality, having the correct proportion of grass to clover, but the yield is somewhat lower than with young grass. Lucerne is a very heavy yielding crop on good land where it can be cut 4 or 5 times a year. Oats and vetches or oats and peas provide a very heavy crop of hay of good quality. Red clover alone makes very good hay, but is rather difficult to cure owing to its high water content. Oats cut for hay give a very good yield, but it is doubtful if this hay is superior to good chaff. Wheat which has failed to head is sometimes cut for hay, making second quality hay. Although wheat is 'not recommended as a hay crop this is probably the best me£_Tod of dealing with such wheat. Times of Cutting Grass should be cut when just coming into flower for if cut later the stalks become fibrous and the pasture may be seriously injured.

Oats and vetches should be cut when half of the vetches are in flower. If left until later there is a danger of the crop wasting to some extent owing to the vetches lying and the lower stems becoming rotten. In some districts also a black aphis makes its appearance about this time and, multiplying very rapidly, soon ruins a good crop.

So as not to allow the stems to become woody, lucerne should be cut before the flower heads develop. Since the leaf is much thinner than the stalk the cut material, should, as soon as possible, be put in small cocks or windrows to assist even drying.

Red clover should be cut when the flowers appear on half the plants.

Oats for hay should be cut when they are in the milky stage. In districts where rust is troublesome however, they should be cut before the rust becomes general.

Wheat may be treated in the same manner as oats.

Methods of Harvesting

The particular method adopted depends on the implements and plant available, the type of hay it is desired to produce, the type and density of the crop grown and the soil and climatic conditions. Some of the more important methods and operations will be discussed in detail.

(1) Mowing: This may be done with one or two horse mower or power mower, the amount done by one man per day varying from under 6 acres to over 20 acres. Some difficulty may be experienced, when mowing tangled vetches. This difficulty may be overcome by attaching to the outside divider a short pole to lay the uncut vetches back on the crop, while the pole on the inside of the dividing board lays I the vetches on the swathe.

(2) Raking: Rain, the enemy of, hay, may damage a crop so much that under damp conditions it may be better to stack the mown material for silage at once. In the case of very heavy crops the hay may be left in the swathe but with medium and light crops too much exposure to the sun bleaches the hay and reduces its food value. As soon as possible the swathes should, therefore, be raked into windrows with a side-rake. If necessary the windrows can easily be turned with the side rake or the side rake may be used as a tedder and the windrows exposed to the sun prior to stacking. The dump rake can be used instead of the side rake but there is likely to be more loss of

Haymaking in all its aspects is the subject of the current Agricultural Bulletin, and it is a particularly informative one. In addition to a discussion on many aspects of making hay, the crops to be used and the methods of harvesting, attention is given to a comparison of costs of different methods. The bulletin has been prepared by the Canterbury Agricultural College and published by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. The text follows:—

leaf and treading of the hay. In an average crop 1\ acres may be raked per hour.

(3) Cocking: To make the best quality hay the material should be cured in the cock rather than in the swathe or windrow. This allows even curing of stalk and. leaf. Small cocks made by the fork from windrows are best. Larger cocks can be made by the use of the dump rake or sweep but these usually allow moisture to collect underneath and therefore require turning. In the case of oats or heavy crops of grass hay large cocks may be made watertight so far as rain penetrating downwards is concerned by topping off the cocks with the fork. Large cocks of clover or lucerne hay will not turn the rain and if wet are difficult to dry. Therefore lucerhe or clover should, be kept in windrows or small cocks. In order to reduce labour requirements most hay is made from the windrow without cocking.

Gathering: Fitness for stacking or baling hay is largely a matter of judgment and experience but quite a good test is to take a representative sample in both hands and twist it tightly. If no sap is squeezed out, the hay is usually fit to stack. When overdry lucerne should be handled only in early morning and evening. Gathering in the heat of the day causes severe loss of leaf. Stacking is by far the commonest method of storing hay and whilst this method is cheapest in first cost, other methods such as baling 'or storing loose in a barn have much to commend them. Stacking was formerly done by means of hand labour, the drays being loaded in the paddock and unloaded on to the stack by forks. Various labour saving devices have been invented. The travelling hay loader may be used for loading from the windrow on to motor or horse lorries. Ropes may be placed underneath the load and the load hauled off on to the stack. The hay may be dragged to the stack direct from the cocks with ropes or chains or it may be swept in from cocks, windrows, or swathes by means of gate, tumbler or large 2 horse, tractor or car truck sweeps. In the caSe of motor trucks the sweep may be attached to the rear instead of the front of the truck so that the sweep is hauled out in top gear without turning and the load is pushed in without turning by using the reverse gear. At the stack a belt elevator may be used or the load may be lifted by means of a sweep or grab stacker. The stacker may be worked by means of an engine such as an old car engine and winch, by a horse attached to a wire, or by direct pull of a tractor or car.

Baling: There are also several variations of methods by which the hay may be baled, in the paddock. The pick-up baler may be used to pick up the hay direct from the windrow. The tractor hauling the power pick-up baler may have attached to the tractor and in front of the baler, a side-rake to rake or turn the hay as it is being baled. A small baler may be moved from large cock to large cock and the hay baled direct from the cock. One or occasionally two sweeps may be used to sweep the hay in from swathe, windrow or cocks to the large baler.

Storage: Bales dropped from the pick-up baler may be stocked or stood on their ends, individually for a further curing period. Such bales may be collected immediately by attaching a trolly behind the pickup baler in which the bales are placed, and as one trolley load is ■ hauled away for stacking a second I trolley replaces it at the baler.

Baled hay should be stacked on the permanent site as soon as possible and every care taken to protect the bales from rain. The site of the stack should, of course, be as near as possible to the land on which it is intended to feed the stock in winter.

Straw sheds made by threshing

straw over a wooden framework, or open sided dutch barns provide shelter at a low cost. Stacks should be placed in a high and dry position, covered with straw and weighted down with anything which is cheap and suitable.

Improvement of Hay: The use of salt sprinkled on while the hay is being stacked or baled will improve the hay and also help to cure the hay and absorb any excess moisture. MolaSses may be mixed with a little water and poured on to the hay to improve its palatabUity prior to feeding out. Tho weather, however, is the major diffi-i culty encountered in making good hay. The principles are simple: the material is enabled to be stored without loss of nutritive materials by just sufficient and even drying of the stem and leaf. This curing process necessitates avoidance of exposure to rain or too much direct sunlight.

Costs: Two examples of costs of naking hay will be given, the one 'or grass hay made on heavy land md stacked by means of a sweep md grab stacker and the other for ucerne hay made on light land by means of a pick-up baler, each method being probably the most convenient and efficient method when consideration is given to each farmer's individual conditions. Case I: Equipment and Costs for 15 acres yielding 30 tons. Mower £40; 14ft. sweep £30; portable grab stacker £35; Hay I rake £'20; wires and weights and sundry fencing material £5; Total £130. Mowing: 1 man and 2 horses and mower 12 hours—l 2 man hours and 24 horse hours. Gathering: 1 man, 1 horse and hay rake raking while 2 men and 2 horses are preparing sweep and erecting the grab stacker—the stack being built near to a straw stack for convenience in making foundation and covering. A runway by means of a wire attached to 2 posts is erected to which the horse on the grab stacker is attached by a short running connection So that he pulls forward and backs alongside the wire. Then 1 man on stack, 1 man with 2 horses and sweep and 1 man with 1 horse and grab stacker in 22 hours stack and cover 30 tons of hay. =66 man hours and 66 horse hours. Total labour cost 78 man hours at 2/6 9 15 0 90 horse hours at 6d 2 5 0 £12 0 0 Overhead costs: j Repairs and Depreciation at 10 per cent on £130 —£13. 26 acres stacked per year—lo/- per acre and for 15 acres 7 10 0 Total cost £19 10 0 And for 30 ton —13/- per ton. Case II: Equipment and costs for 35 acres lucerne yielding 35 tons per cut and 3-4 cuts per year:—ln addition to tractor, a side rake £40; 7ft. power mower £40; and pick-up baler £370; Total, £450. Mowing: 2J acres per hour 14 man hours at 2/6 1 15 0 14 tractor hrs. at 5/- 3 10 0 Side-Raking: 21 acres per hour 14 man hours at 2/6 1 15 0 14 tractor hrs. at 5/- 3 10 0 The windrows may be turned again with side rake prior to baling dependent on weather conditions. Pick-up Baling: 2_\ tons per hour, 1 man pn tractor and 2 men on baler. 42 man hours at 2/6 4 5 0 14 tractor hrs. at 5/- 3 10 0 Stooking Bales: 1 bale on end and 4 bales leaning inwards with 1 horse and sledge, and carting and stacking and covering. 7 tractor hrs. at 5/- 1 15 0 14 horse hrs. at 6d. 7 0 21 man hours at 2/6 2 12 6 Total labour, horse and tractor cost £22 19 6 Overhead cost, repairs and depreciation at 10 per cent, £45, and for 35 acres cut 3 to 4 times per year=£l3 per cut. Cost of wire at 2/6 per ton—£4/7/6. (Note: This may be straightened out again after use and used again for several seasons.) Total cost—£4o/7/----1 =£1/3/- per ton approx.

The baled hay is easier to measure and load for feeding out. Where sheep are being fed on dry ground it can be left in bales without breaking up. However for cowfeeding or on heavy land baled hay although easier to load is

more difficult to unload and spread over the ground evenly. When the cost of the wire is also considered the net advantage of the baled over the stacked hay is not so obvious. As indicated at the out-' set the suitability of the method used will depend on individual conr ditions. Many farmers depend on contractors for getting the hay harvested, but where contractors are not employed under dry conditions the least labour is involved in the use of the pick-up baler. Under damper conditions the sweep and grab stacker worked as above seems to involve the least labour requirements. Where the configuration of the land is suitable and adequate drainage is available, then the hay may be collected from the windrow by a one horse tumbler sweep and the sweep loads tipped over a prepared depression or siding of a hill. When feeding out, the 'hay can then be carted up from the lower side of the depression. This method will enable a considerable saving, of labour in haymaking on one man farms.