Where is everyone #5

It can be, if it’s not dry enough

 

I've seen hay catch fire twice. Both times I would've said it was impossible.

Good friend lost a 200 bale stack this week.

 

A couple of years ago hay was in short supply locally so I found some in East Texas and when he was about a 130 miles from the house it caught on fire. He was able to get his pickup out of the way, but it burned the trailer and hay to the ground. He got on the phone right away and found one of his buddies to bring me a load. I'll kiss your a ss if his load didn't catch fire almost in the same spot and his trailer and hay met the same fate. My mistake was not playing the lottery then with odds like that.

 

Dang! I haul a lot of hay. That makes me want to put some insurance on my trailer

 

Not just alfalfa, grass hay will too.

When I was in high school I worked on a ranch during the summers bucking bales. As we were stacking them in the barn the owner would have us throw salt on each layer to help draw the moisture out of damp bales (ostensibly) with the added benefit of providing salt for the cattle when feeding.

What's interesting here with alfalfa is hay producers will bale in the wee hours of the morning into mid-morning to capture the dew in the hay. Many of them have even gone to pulling the baler behind an implement that adds steam to the hay. I guess there must be a fine balance between enough moisture in the hay to make good hay and solid bales, and too much moisture which creates heat/mold.

I worked on a ranch at a high elevation in Northern Nevada where we could not start baling until mid-morning on grass/meadow hay because it was too wet until the dew burned off, and we would bale until 2:00 in the morning or so until we started braking sheer pins due to the hay getting tough.

It's interesting how similar things can differ so much regionally.

 

It is crazy for a guy who has never been around alfalfa to see guys baling hay in the headlights.

We have so much humidity at home. Depending on the day, but I usually would run the tedder the day before, then start raking the next day around 1.

Bale till sunset

 

Always fascinated me - wet laundry in a basket can also catch fire.

One road over a few years back the neighbors barn full of hay went up - Could easily see the flames a mile away.

 

Any of y'all ever run a haybine?

I remember us having one as a kid. I can't remember if it cut hay, or was just like a rake. I remember it having rollers at the back, and left the hay in a neat row about 3-4 ft wide.

IIRC, my grandpa mentioned it drying out the hay faster, but not certain.

We kept it forever, but it must have been a PITA, cause I only remember using it 2 or 3 years

 

I run a S250 mower conditioner on some grass. My Grandad would call it a haybine.

It cuts it, runs through a crimper to take moisture out then windrows it. Main difference is his had a sickle bar and a reel like a combine to bat the grass in the crimper. Mine is a disc bine or least that’s what we call it


Every area has a different name or use for a particular piece. As close as @Big Road Skateboard and I are we probably do things differently with different equipment