Grassfarmer
Well-known member
I was looking through some old photos recently and thought I would post some - prompted by the pictures of the good hay crops gcreekrch has been posting.
Silage operations on our place in Scotland 10 years ago.
Cutting a typically dense (and stuck to the ground) sward - result of plenty natural irrigation :roll: 9 foot 3pt hitch Kuhn disc mower the tidiest cutter we ever used.
Looking onto about 4 acres of an 8 acre field - good crops but less than 5% of our land was like this, rest was steep, poorer and mostly uncuttable.
Raked up ready to bale - we put it all up as silage ranging from near hay dry matter to water running out of the bales occasionally. See how white the stubble is - result of the light being shut out due to sward density.
My friend and neighbor custom baled for us - he liked our big rows because he could get down into the low gears and really pump out some bales. We got between 12-15 bales/acre most years probably 1000-1100lb weights as they were only 4.5 foot bales. We have done over 20 bales/acre occasionally and a drought year would be 10bales/acre.
Our handling solution - a small handler that could lift 2 tons on the flat, rear wheel steer, 65hp excellent for tight spaces, flat ground/concrete yards. Rolled her twice on steep stuff and sunk her numerous times in wet conditions :roll: Good machine but not really for our conditions.
Hope you found these interesting.
Silage operations on our place in Scotland 10 years ago.
Cutting a typically dense (and stuck to the ground) sward - result of plenty natural irrigation :roll: 9 foot 3pt hitch Kuhn disc mower the tidiest cutter we ever used.
Looking onto about 4 acres of an 8 acre field - good crops but less than 5% of our land was like this, rest was steep, poorer and mostly uncuttable.
Raked up ready to bale - we put it all up as silage ranging from near hay dry matter to water running out of the bales occasionally. See how white the stubble is - result of the light being shut out due to sward density.
My friend and neighbor custom baled for us - he liked our big rows because he could get down into the low gears and really pump out some bales. We got between 12-15 bales/acre most years probably 1000-1100lb weights as they were only 4.5 foot bales. We have done over 20 bales/acre occasionally and a drought year would be 10bales/acre.
Our handling solution - a small handler that could lift 2 tons on the flat, rear wheel steer, 65hp excellent for tight spaces, flat ground/concrete yards. Rolled her twice on steep stuff and sunk her numerous times in wet conditions :roll: Good machine but not really for our conditions.
Hope you found these interesting.