Mystang's Homesteading Circus

[mystang89]

Just finished raking. Learning experience. At first I was leaving large amounts of hay on the ground but as I went, I constantly adjusted the rake to where I thought was the best fit and also my speed. I feel like I just came from school. Don't go too fast, you'll leave hay behind. Don't go too slow, your wheels won't turn in order to pick up the hay. Don't put that wheel so close to the ground. You'll break the tines. No, just have the wheel too high, you're not going to pick what's on the ground up dummy. By the end of it, I was satisfied with what I had learned. Still don't know where to put the tines but it seems like if they are 1/2 in off the ground that should be ok. That lets them pick hay up but gives them enough play room that if the wheel bounces it's not going to get stuck in the ground....always. My speed was 3 gear low half throttle. Second gear low full throttle was too slow, third full was too fast, Goldy Locks was just right.

One thing I never could figure out was how to NOT run over the rows that are going around the perimeter when you are making your straight lines? This doesn't have a 3 point hitch so I just run over the outside rows.

Much of the reason it was more difficult than it should have been was because of how I cut the hay yesterday and left the rows. Towards the 3rd or 4th hour of my raking, I think NASA was looking at my windrows wondering if I was trying communicate with aliens.

Still curious how I know whether the springs on the wheel rake need to be replaced. Are they too springy? Is it just when they snap?

Oh, and note to self. BRING HAMMER! That darn bar which you have to move in order to adjust where the Wheel rake spreads out too is a PITA to take in and out of those darn holes!

For those of you who aren't prone to seizures due to videos jarring motion, here is a vid of my NOT picking up hay because.....me.

 

[farmerjan]

Okay. Your wheel rake is different from any we use for several reasons. First off, all of ours are V rake which means there are 2 sets of wheels that funnel the hay back into the center. You are basically using this one as a single row rake. If I had known that/seen a picture, I would have told you to get the roller bar rake. I don't believe that this one has any hydraulics? When we use the wheel rakes, V-shape, for raking 2 rows together, the hydraulics let the wheels down and then you set the lever in the "float" position. The wheels run on the ground, but they will bounce some with the springs. The tines have basically an L shape, so the flatter part actually runs on the ground and that is what helps to pick up the hay. They HAVE to run on the ground or they will miss too much of the hay. If yours has to be set at a certain height, it will drag on uneven ground because it cannot adjust to the ups and downs in the ground. A roller bar rake you set and you want the bottoms of the tines to just drag the ground but not dig in. So I am not very much help for you. We had a one row wheel rake somewhat like that one and found it was more pain than not and could accomplish what we were doing with the roller bar rake better.
One other thing, you have to keep the wheel on the outside of the hay so that it starts the process of rolling it up. You cannot get the outside wheel on the actual hay or you defeat your own purpose of catching the hay so it will roll.
Also, because it is a "fixed wheel" rake, you do not have the hydraulics to pick it up at the end of the rows, so you have to use this as you would a roller bar rake. Rake from the outside in so you do not run over all the mown hay on the outside rows. I was going on the premise that as you got to the end of the straight rows, you would be picking up the rake to go around to the next row you wanted to start down.
I know I am probably not making alot of sense to you. It is very difficult to explain it without showing you. I have a very old simple flip phone, and cannot take pictures with it to send in.
Another thing, you want to only roll the hay into the green grass area between the rows. You do not want to roll it over on top of the other row of hay as the idea is to have it "up" in the air so to speak, not laying flat. By the looks of the grass you mowed, it is fairly fine bladed. So you would roll 1 row into the center, then go down the other side and roll the other row into the center so they basically meet in the middle. It allows for any needed drying and makes a windrow that the baler can more easily pick up. So when you rake, basically you want to start the outside wheel, right NEXT to the row you ARE NOT raking, catch the whole row you want to rake, roll it over into the greener area, then come down the other side and rake that row into the center. If the hay were really thick and tall, you could single windrow it and so you would be basically turning the row over into the space between the next row.

Sorry I didn't see the wheel rake you were talking about first. I haven't seen a single row wheel rake in probably 35 years so never even thought about it. I apologize if I confused you as I was telling you what I knew based on what we have here.

 

[mystang89]

Thanks very much @farmerjan ! You straightened out much of what I did wrong for me. For instance, I rolled 2 rows on top of one another. First I raked the left row closer to the right, then went back and rolled the right row on to the left I had just raked instead of just next to each other. Much of it is still clear as mud for me but that is definitely not your fault. It's simply what happens when you don't have a teacher right there with you. I'll get it learned though. It may take me longer but with your help and the help of everyone else, it'll get done. Might not look pretty, but done is better than pretty =P

Besides, I have my neighbors field I can practice on too LOL.

 

[mystang89]

Baled hay for the first time with a Massey Furgeson 12. One problem I seem to be having is the left twine keeps not getting tied or slips out from around the bale which means the bale comes out all over the place. It happens maybe every 7 - 10 bales. Thia isn't so much of a problem as I can just throw the hay back through the baler but twine isn't free.

Got the water heater for the barn today. Still working on the leaks, hopefully tomorrow will get that fixed.

Also got the cylinder for the well today. That'll hopefully get out together but next Thursday? I'll fit mowing in there somewhere.

 

[Mike CHS]

Have you figured out what you are going to do with all of your spare time?

 

[farmerjan]

Have you figured out what you are going to do with all of your spare time?

That's what we say......

 

[farmerjan]

It isn't the end of the world to rake one row on top of the other, but by doing so, if there are any not quite cured spots, they will be green when you bale and can cause mold or even heating to where a fire is possible. The baler will pick up the hay better if it is "fluffed" up off the ground. That said, if it is light, then I have raked 3 rows together and there fore one basically is on top of another one. But they are still "up off the ground" if that makes sense.
Knotters not tying are curse that every one of us that square bales has to deal with. My son knows alot more about that than I do. Suffice to say that we have our square baler worked on about every other year for things like it missing tying one of the strings. They get worn and don't always catch right. Yep, it wastes string.... no way to "re-use" string either. I make alot of lead ropes, and tie out ropes by braiding the baling strings. Looking for a pattern of some sort to use them to braid a mat of sorts to use in front of the door. When it gets crummy from muddy feet, toss it.
Unless you can ride with someone and learn by doing/watching them, then it is really a trial and error. And no offense, because ALL of our balers are used; but any used baler will have some quirks and the biggest thing is the knife doesn't cut the hay off and the knotters don't tie.
One other trick, when square baling...... if you run the baler pickup towards the "outside of the windrow" then the hay will feed into the chamber better. If you notice, the sweep will run from the outside towards the chamber, so the more hay on the outside section, it will feed in better, and it will pack tighter too. It will ball up sometimes if you run the baler over the hay and have it closer to the chamber, so the sweep doesn't have to pull it across, and there is nothing more of a pain than to have to stop and shut it down and sit under it and pull hay out that didn't feed in right.
The farmer that taught me to square bale in Ct also said something that I will never forget. If the windrows are heavy, use higher RPM'S and slower ground speed. So to slow the tractor down going forward, but keep the rpm's up so the baler doesn't run "overtop" of the hay too fast. Quickest way to get it "stuffed up" and break a shear pin because you were trying to put hay through it too fast. And buy a dozen shear "pins" or bolts at a time. They are supposed to break rather than break something serious inside the baler.

 

[farmerjan]

If one string is not tying as tight, you need to check the tension. On our square baler, there are 2 cranks right near/above where the knotters are. You have to make sure they are cranked down the same or the bales will come out uneven and one string will be tight and the other will be looser. The thing to do is "uncrank" them all the way then to crank each the same number of times. Or at this point, crank down the one on the side that seems to be tying looser a couple turns. Bale a few bales, see if the strings seem to be more even. If not then crank a little more. Trial and error on that too.

 

[Mini Horses]

I'm feeling better about the cost of hay.

 

[mystang89]

And buy a dozen shear "pins" or bolts at a time.

Yeah, I found out about that shear pin. I got ready to start baling today when the only thing that spun was the PTO shaft. Being as how I had no clue how this thing worked I started looking at the fly wheel where it hooked up to the PTO shaft. Turns out it was missing a "bolt"so I put one in and it worked. Knowing now that it was a shear pin I'll buy one when I get a chance.

As I was baling I did noticed in some of those areas where I hadn't cut well, (read completely missed), that the baling tines were picking up a bit of grass that hadn't been cut. I'll leave the bales out of the barn, but still covered.