Flat Out Farming®: Waiting To Hay

As they say we always need to make hay when the sun shines, and while the sun has been shining, it’s not been consistent enough to get it cut and baled!

We have just 10 acres that we cut largely for our own animals but in the years before we met, James offered it to other farmers locally to bale it and take it away, he definitely didn’t want to be ‘messing with baby bales again’. However, I thought living on a farm with no furries was a travesty, so firstly with a lot of convincing, came the chickens, then goats, and then a (stupid) pony. James’ ma also has a selection of hay-munching friends, so we bought a baby baler – it was that or an engagement ring, and the baler seemed a better idea at the time. Luckily enough he did buy me a lovely ring too (hehe).

Baling conventional bales can be quite a faff

So off we went baling baby bales, seemed like a great idea to me, but the air soon turns blue, cursing at the faff; in year one with having no sledge, which gathers them up while they are being baled into 8 bales for the fork truck to pick up, we hand-balled each and every one onto a trailer or loadall bucket and moved them, then stacked them up by hand. It was like hay initiation, one of the only jobs that gets much much harder the more you get done! Year two, and we did have the sledge.. much easier, although much swearing when one was dropped off the grab and when the stack was wobbling around. And usually at this time of year I’m not overly popular due to my wish for little bales, because they are a pain in the ass and worth every bit of the four or so quid they are sold at (although James’ ma does appreciate the much-easier-to-handle little bales over the big ones too.) 

Mower on the Fendt 933

Well 2022 we had cut and baled the hay before the end of June, the year before it was mid-July.. and here we are with rain/shine/rain/shine heading to mid-July again and no consecutive days to get it cut, turned, rowed up and baled. What you don’t want is to cut it, and it then get wet, as the process is super important to make the nicest hay. Mid-June we did get a run for cutting, but it wasn’t quite ready, and hindsight is a wonderful thing: we should have done it then. I’m know we’d love to get it ticked off the list, get the mower put away and be focussed on the harvest that is fast-approaching rather than waiting to get done with fiddly little bales. We sell them locally, usually in van loads of 20 and the odd bigger haul, and they are very popular as they can fit easily through a shed door and are better to manage than the larger bales. We may consider not baling small bales this year though, because the focus totally has to be on the bigger projects we’re working on, like the barns and with it coming closer and closer to harvest, maybe faffing stacking and moving baby bales is not exactly at the top of the priority list. We’ll have to see.

In previous years other farmers have baled the hay

The process is to mow it, then it dries out and it is turned to help it dry out fully – also known as tedding – with a hay bob or suchlike, then this machine is used to put it into rows so it can be baled. Then we have to move it as fast as possible under cover so it doesn’t get wet. Wet bales will just go mouldy.

We’re patiently waiting for a big enough break in the weather to bale the hay

Once stacked we’ve then got to monitor it, as hay can spontaneously combust as it suprisingly holds a lot of heat, when stacked together it’s like lots of warm bodies in a cramped room. If it’s baled when completely dry this is less of an issue, but if there’s still an element of damp it will go funny and be an increased risk of fire. Who knew. It’s then a good 8-12 weeks before horses can eat it, when it’s fully ‘cured’, but we’ll begin selling as soon as we can as people begin to think about stocking up for winter, or have little grass due to warm spells.

So, for now we’ll be watching the weather like hawks and waiting to get it cut, so we can prepare for the bigger task of the year… Harvest 2023.