After greasing the baler and having a light lunch, my husband gathers up the hay wagons.  We hitch the baler up to the tractor and a wagon behind the baler.

I drive the tractor and baler out to the field.  He drives the John Deere B  with two other hay wagons in tow.   The farm dog, alert with anticipation, waits for his signal from my husband that he may follow.  He darts through the rows of corn to the hay field while we travel the dusty road to our destination.

Swath of hay resembling a rope of hay before it is baled

My husband parks his tractor and gets the baler ready for action.   He rides the wagon as I drive.  Our baler makes small square bales.   My husband rides the wagon to receive the bales and do the stacking for the first load.

The newly raked hay rows lay ahead resembling a rope.  Baler tines pick up the hay off of the field and forks move the hay into a chamber.  In the chamber, a plunger packs the hay tight into bales.  As it comes out, needles

Hay baler at work making square bales

threaded with twine wrap the bales and the knotter ties the twine.  There are tension controls on the twine that we can adjust.  That way we can determine how heavily packed the bale will be.

The bales come out of the baler on a chute that lifts it up to a level that the stacker can grab it and pile it neatly in the wagon.  One wagonload holds roughly 80 bales.  When the first wagon is filled my husband takes it to the farm for unloading in the hay shed or in the barn.

John Deere B and loaded hay wagon

Since haying is a 4-man job at our farm, the second stacker joins me in the field.  Another person is already at the farm ready to unload the wagon, so that my husband can work at stacking them in the sheds or barn.  This has been a team job for our family.  We all get tired out, but haying, in most cases, is a satisfying time of working together.

Photo credit: Wenda Grabau
Photo credit: Wenda Grabau
Photo credit: Bretta Grabau

If humidity levels are normal and the sunshine has been steady for a day or two, then we bale the hay.

Hay Drying in the Sun

After the morning dew has sufficiently evaporated, my husband or I go out and rake the hay.  The haybine has already dropped the hay into neat swaths on the first  pass through the field.  So when I rake, I just have to follow the rows laid out for me.  The rake has a series of tines that rotate into the hay and sweep it to one side.  This action lifts the hay up and rolls it over much like the curl of an ocean wave as it reaches the shore.  This exposes the hay on the underside of the swath to the sun and completes the drying process before we bale it later in the day.

At this stage, if a sudden rainfall catches up with us, the hay is ruined.   Even in making hay there is risk involved.

Hay is important.  If we have good quality hay, we can market more milk and our annual income is better.  If the hay is worthless we use it for bedding or take it off the field so it does not smother the new growth in the field and discard it.  If we have to buy hay, our profit is greatly reduced.

photo credit: Wenda Grabau

Tractor pulls the haybine as it cuts the hay.

When it is determined that the hay is mature enough for cutting, that weather outlook favorable and that the machinery is in readiness, then my husband cuts the hay.

We have small parcels of land that have rolling hills.  So smaller tractors and machinery work well here.  The main machine for haying is the tractor.  Most of the specialized tools we use are powered by it.

In the old days before we farmed here, haying was a bit slower process than ours today.

Before we began our farming careers, farmers would:

• cut the hay with a cycle mower pulled by a tractor
  
• then crimp the hay stalks with a hay conditioner

This way the tractor had to run through the hayfield once for cutting and once for crimping.  The hay-conditioner has rollers in it that crack the hay stems in multiple places.  That speeds up the drying time.

Without the crimping the hay would have to lie in the field a longer time.  This would increase the chance that a change in the weather (rain) could slow the process further and cause decompostion of the hay to start in the field.

Neat Hay swaths made by the Haybine

Hay must be sufficiently dried for storage.  If it is not dried, the moist hay can heat up in the barn so much that fires can start.

Now, we have a tool called the haybine that both cuts and crimps for us on the first pass through the field.  When the weather makes it harder to make the hay in a timely fashion, we cut the hay with the haybine and the next day crimp the hay a second time with our old hay-conditioner.  We use the older technology, too.  It helps our hay to dry a day sooner.

photo credit: Wenda Grabau
photo credit: Wenda Grabau

Alfalfa Ready for Cutting

Making hay is part of the farmer’s job.

Hay includes:

• clover
• grass
• alfalfa

The high protein value of alfalfa makes it a prime diet for dairy cattle.  Although we are thankful for the grassy hay that comes our way, the alfalfa hay makes for more milk.

Making hay may sound like a simple job, but many variables in cattle, seed, machinery, weather, climate, soil conditions, storage facilities and manpower add to its complexity.

The ideal circumstances are seldom the norm.  So we have to make the best of our hay conditions whatever they are.

In our part of the world, hay grows all summer.  We try to make hay 3 times a year.  Some farmers are able to get 4 or more crops in a season.  Hay is a staple for our animals and warrants a lot of our attention and effort.

photo credit: Wenda Grabau

“Amber waves of grain” is a familiar phrase from the patriotic song, America, the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates.  It makes a poetic sound to the hearer.  But how many non-farm folk have really experienced such a sight?

Wheat, oats and other grains grow up in fields across our land.  As the wind rushes through, the jostling plants resemble the motion of waves in a body of water.  As the grain ripens it turns from shades of green to golden or amber.

Oats are grown on our farm as a cover-crop.  The oats and alfafa are sown together on the freshly tilled earth.  The oats grow quickly while the alfalfa grows more slowly.  The oat blades act as a protection for the young alfalfa.  By the end of July, they are generally ripe and ready for the harvest.

The oat crop is mowed down.  It is left to dry in the sun for a few days and then the combine removes the oats from the straw and collects the grain.  The straw is left in the field for the baler.

We store the oats in a grainery on our farm.  We use them for grinding into feed for our cattle.  The baled straw is stored in the barn and used for bedding for the animals.

Since the alfalfa was also in the crop, was that cut down too?  Yes.   But once the straw is cut, its growing is over.  When the alfalfa is cut, it grows back and supplies a new field of hay.