How was cutting hay handled years ago(weather)

We usually cut the alfalfa when it was beginning to bloom, as it was supposed to have the most nutritional value at that point. Unfortunately that usually occurred during a fairly rainy season in late June or early July. If the unbaled hay got rained on, it would need to be turned with the rake (with the loss of lots of the little leaves). If it had been baled and got rained on significantly, the bales would need to be stood up and leaned against eachother like teepes to dry better. A couple of times we never did get the bales as dry as my Dad felt comfortable about, and we had to put rock salt over every layer of bales in the barn. This was supposed to stop the fermentation or rotting of the hay and the buildup of heat, which could have burned the barn down. Almost every year we had to deal with rain. Every bale was handled many times before it was stored.

I didn't do much haying after I finished college. My Dad retired from farming and subdivided our property. Others now own the hayland and I think they still put up some hay.

They way we did haying required a lot of manual labor, which my family had available while my brothers and I were around. Very few farmers around here do the small bales anymore, because they can't get anyone to handle them. There are machines that can be used to handle small bales, but sooner or later they have to be stacked by hand. Most farmers have gone to the large round bales or the truly huge square bales with 5 or 6 twine ties on them. The large bales are handled with large tractors or forklifts.

A friend of mine was the football coach for many years at the local high school. He told me that when he started as coach, there was absolutely no reason to have a weight room at the school--the players had all spent the summer working on farms and were tough as nails. But later, these jobs dried up, and he needed to get the boys pumping iron, just like at a town school.

I have a corner of our old ranch and have around 7 or 8 acres that are tillable. Over the years, this land has got very brushy and it bothers me to see it uncared for and out of production I retired a few years ago and have been clearing the tillable area to grow hay. So I am in the market for a working small square baler, and will probably do all the haying myself, alone. Funny how things sometimes go full circle!

Around here, eastern NY, it seemed that hay, alfalfa etc. was a big part of agriculture. I can recall so many fields that are now housing developments. Everyone had their preference on how they would do it, but it was always predicated on the the equipment functioning and the weather + the help available. I don't think that has changed much, obviously resources for weather prediction have increased, but with the amount of rain and or hot humid tropical type weather it's still difficult to get good green hay dried and baled around here.

I recall ( like was mentioned ) that many people would bale after it was topped out and tanning up a little, early July and later, usually one cutting, now that has changed, especially with the horse industry demands. We have up to 40 horses sometimes at our place and some of the crap that is out there is amazing, like what is in the photo above, a plastic bottle, we got the shaft on a few hundred bales and the seller immediately replaced the lot. All kinds of garbage in it, besides being tan and stalky, what a mess in the stalls, screws up the compost manure, too much carbon etc., so much better whe they eat it up, you have to feed 2-3x as much just to get the same effect.

I know that to cater to horse industry, they like it green, un-rained on, less stalky, consistent without weeds, and some people can really be a pain about it, not knowing what goes into baling hay. We really try to be real about it, and some of the locals just show up with a few bales to try or look at, also some of the best we can find, it's good to try and work together, neither side the fence is easy to work on the way I see it, we're both in the same boat.

One guy we bought from does nothing with his fields, bales them tight and heavy, out of 200 bales in one load last year, I found 26 soaked bales, ( could have burned the barn down ) his theory is the other dry ones will absorb the moisture from wet ones in his mow. I've loaded thousands out of his place, some are like bricks and have lots of weeds and crap in there. Horses pick through it and make a mess, takes longer to clean a stall and takes longer to compost.

The farmer who plants the place where I live, keeps the fields up, not a lot of weeds and garbage, does a nice job of drying ( when the weather permits) and bales them a little looser, I buy all I can get and he ships it 30 miles, I'll be trucking some myself in June. His 2nd and later cuts are really nice, some alfalfa, quite a bit of timothy, I've seen some recent fields that he planted, looked like orchard grass or similar and it was like a thick green carpet, no weeds at all, it's too bad the customer who was also a friend of ours for many years passed on last year, the fields were just planted and let go last year, I'd love to get some off those fields, it grows well around here, especially if done right, was over 60 acres worth.

We have an appreciation for what it takes to bale up the small squares, having done it for so many years ourselves, and really try not to pester any sellers like some do. We look at it closely, as long as there is no mold, even if rained on a little and tanned up some, sometimes it has to do, our neighbor the farmer had some good stuff down and rained on a little, he turned it after and it dried, was still good hay, better than a lot I've seen. I see some of the best hay in the area, go for $8.00/bale at the feed supply place by the racetrack, if properly done, a lot of these people will pay top dollar. The horse industry does not seem to be getting smaller, but the producers of hay still have the same headaches, makes you wonder what it will be like in the years ahead.

I'm amazed at how little the price has gone up, the headaches are still there, equipment, weather, just handling squares, real hard sometimes to find any help today. Kind off the subject a little, but I've always enjoyed the smell of fresh hay, just hated being up in the loft/mow covered in sweat and chaff.

We had 2 huge barns here years ago and myself and the neighbor/farmer who used to fill it with hay, besides his own place, were commenting on how large they really were, there used to be a lot of barns arond here like them, same with the fields, don't see the same production anymore for over 20-30 years give or take, that has certainly changed.

They showed the grass being cut by hand...then tied in tuffs, and hung on racks to dry...then carried to the barn.

All of the photographs showed only Women working with the hay. The captions explained: "...most of the heavy farm work in Norway is done by the Women and Girls...the Men have a gift of forecasting the best weather for working of the fields..."

Perhaps, we could learn something from history...☺☺☺

We used to have to "turn hay" a lot using one of these gizmos. Just catch the windrow and flip it upside down so it would dry out on the underside.

As wet as it is this year, I'm thinking of getting this old sister ready to be put back in service.

Allan

Used a rake in the beans tho, clear up until around 1975 before we got the bean windrower. :>)

Allan

We used a J.D. 14T with a kicker; kicked those little bales into wagons, dumped 'em in an elevator to the hay mow, let 'em tumble in. Didn't hold as much as tightly stacked 90 pounders, but was alot easier and dried better.