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Made the Investment

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WesternMBRancher

Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2007
Messages
12
Location
Manitoba
Well after analyzing our overall input costs and operating cost ( diesel, labor, tractor hours) I have purchased a new Hydra bed and will have it installed on my work dually. I havent heard a bad thing about them.
 
OK, it's a flat-bed bale hauler around here! Hydra bed is a brand name. Not sure if that's the brand used here, or not.

I wonder if more people in this area use a double fork on the back of the tractor and put a couple of bales on the loader, since the tractor is needed anyway.

A hay saving alternative is a bale processor, which is what we use. It also can be used to apply molasses to the hay effectively, as it is processed. It can be set to chop the hay shorter for calves or longer for cows & bulls. Cattle leave almost none of the processed hay for expensive 'bedding'.

mrj
 
Not to sound argumentative; but what is the tractor needed for?
Three Hydra-Beds; a bunch of corn stalks; some cake; feeding irrigated alfalfa, and breaking ice should get them to to calving time.
This from a "feed-wagon" operation. We sure changed the backgrounding heifer operation last year.
No tractor feeding up north; 675 pair with winter range and alfalfa via Hydra-Beds, and five semi-loads of water in the supply tank every week.
If you haven't ranched with a bale-bed, IMO you should.
They're handier than " ____".

The existing seven tractors are to put up the hay....and raise the corn.. and bale the straw.
 
We run a larger purebred operation and we also run two newer JD 20 series front wheel assists and silage truck and and a payloader to load silage with for feedyard . We also own a bale processor and if you make nice nutrient rich hay such as we do running it through bale processor is the biggest waste of money there is (in my own opinion im not trying to insult anybody because we did it that way too.) . We try to keep the manure bill down as much as we can by keeping the cows away from the yard until a month before they calve. The location we keep them until late december is give or take 8 miles away and with price of fuel and tractor wear and depreciation . Also not to mention the time saving factor makes it seem like a big waste of money to drive a $100,000 tractor and haybuster that distance just to destroy the value of the hay and watch it blow away. Dont get me wrong our processor is an ranch tool we would be lost without as we have bed in this country big time in winter and those not so pretty bales are made much more appetizing processing them and lacing them with grain or molasses. I have been throwing the idea around for awhile and I personally feel for our operation that the bale bed will pay for itself and may hopefully save us a bit of money and time in the process :lol: :lol: . Sorry to drag it out I just thought i would give you my reasoning. Im not trying to tell anybody how to do anything this is just a tool that will help us do things easier and more efficently.
 
Our cows are strictly range cows and get fed some hay if pastures are drouthed out or there is too much snow. They don't know where our 'yard' is and the brush and rugged draws provide th shelter during winter and calving during April and May. The cows are wintered in several pastures, the farthest being 25 miles from home.

Water covered with ice isn't a problem anymore, as we have pipelines with either rural water or our own artesian well water in large used tire tanks with partial lids which do not freeze. I will admit we have not had any -40% prolonged temperatures since we put that system in. That might cause some ice needing to be opened! And it probably will happen eventually. Glad we get a few years between those experiences!

The three tractors we have are 'elderly' JD's, bought used long ago. They also take care of our haying needs and pull the feed wagon for the calves wintered in our lot. Guess we did buy a new tractor once, maybe 45 years ago. It was a small Ford and is still serving us well. I think it cost around $2,000.00. One can't even buy a new decent sized lawnmower tractor for that now!

Also not trying to stir anything up. Just find it interesting to compare notes on how we each make things work for our own situation.

mrj
 
I also appreciate learning what works for others and find it very interesting. In our case though we are not so lucky we received almost 2 weeks around the -40 to -50 weather last winter. With 2 and 3 ft of snow cover so the cows have to be fed somewhat around here . Dont get me wrong i would much rather have less equipment and and input. I appreciate your input and keep it coming. Also more bale bed owners tell what jobs you have used them for thatI wouldnt think of. Thanks all the best to everyone! Oh ya and we also have a couple elderly JD's that these ones are taking there place in the spraying and grain farming aspect of our operation as well. The 4020's still see many hours though lol.
 
My hydrabed has worn out 3 pickups and is on its fourth - cornstalks or any rough terrain is hard on your pickup with 1 or 2 bales on it. My Chevys failed at the frame where the steering sector bolts on - 1ton gear is better than 3/4ton gear for a haybed. For new haybed users, keep hay out of the pinch point or you will mess up the deck when you close your bed. Not a big deal, but avoidable.

Alfalfa is almost always your cheapest protein source if you can deliver it evenly without waste - a hydrabed on turfy grass meadows will let you pick up some cow condition in the fall pretty cheap. 5# alfalfa @ $100/ton every other day = .5 units protein per day for #.12 per day. Gathering with the horn on round up day is priceless (well convenient anyway). Honk every time you feed - your horn will need replacing many times.

Get your range calves digesting corn while still on the tit by laying down alfalfa then turning arround and dumping corn on the alfalfa. The cows will educate the calves on what that corn is for. Start out every third dayfor a couple weeks then go to every other day then wean and watch them clean the bunks.
 
It is sure interesting to get information straight from the horses mouth.Any other form of info along these lines is usually presented by someone with an agenda or machine to sell.It is also obvious that one way or size doesn't fit all but we can all borrow ideas from one another.As a rule we are a fiercely independant bunch of folks that refuse to look at other ways of doing things because of our reluctance to change what worked for grandpa.Yet here we are sharing ideas and stories with each other on instant typewriters.I can usually find a gem or idea in even the stories I read on this site that I can apply to my outfit.I am pretty stubborn and most of the changes I made for the better were out of the realisation that what I was doing wasn't working at all or anymore due to forces out of my control.I can't think of anything that we do different here that I thought up myself but I did learn to look and listen and steal other ideas that folks like us share with each other.We live along a major highway so there are no secrets here and it is sometimes hard to try new ideas because of that and not all things work out like we hoped but we have made changes that not only improved our bottom line but they are helping us tread water while some of the neighbors are sinking.Cross fencing and bale grazing are the two biggest improvements we have made to our opperation.The fencing cost a bit to do but increased our carrying capacity by at least 30% and added at least one month to our fall grazing even with the additional animals.Bale grazing was an even better no brainer because there was actually a lower cost to implement it as we only needed to start the tractor once every three days and no eqipment other than the loader and the wagon to take it out to the cows.
 
Bale grazing works well for us-if you get a new hydrabed get one with extendable arms and two cylinders-those big bales make my old bed groan a bit. I never could fathom bale processors hope I never have to-I think alot of guys them so they don't have to cut twine off their bales lol.
 

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