Time to Bale that Hay..............

My Farmer servicing the baler.

Now on to baling.  Baling the hay is the tricky part.  You don't want it to dry or to wet.  If you bale it to wet it will mold and if it is really wet, it can get hot and actually burn.  Not a good thing.  We let the hay get dry, which usually takes 3 to 4 days, and then bale it in the evening with a little dew on it.  The dew helps  hold the hay together and keeps the alfalfa leaves from shattering.  However, when the dew gets to heavy, we have to stop.  Our balers have moisture sensors in the bale chamber that measures the moisture content of the hay and displays it in the tractor.  Very seldom do I run the baler.  I can, but luckily I don't have to very much.  We have two balers, one makes small bales, and one makes big bales.  The small bales usually average around 110 pounds, and the larger bales are 3X3's and they average around 950 pounds.    

This is our big baler picking up the windrow of hay

This is our little baler.

Here's Pete trying to lay in the shade of the bale.

 After the hay is baled, the last step is hauling it to the barn.  We use a stacker wagon to do this, and we actually use it for both kinds of bales.  The machine picks up the little bales by itself as you drive along. 

To stack the big bales, we load them on to the stacker with a fork lift.

Yep, that's my Farmer wearing shorts.....it was really hot that day!!

OK, so now all the hay is put away, and we have a break for a little while until it is ready to harvest the 2nd cutting.  Which, by the way, is now.  Not much of a break, but oh well, we'll live with it.  That's "livin' the farm life"...........Gotta love it!!!!!!