• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Wide Swathing

Help Support Ranchers.net:

3

3 M L & C

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
1,182
Reaction score
0
Location
Kansas
So been doing some reading today about the nutritional advantages and timeliness of wide swathing compared to windrowing crops. Just thought I would bring up the subject for talk. Also I put up mostly forage sorghum. Does anyone do the wide swathing with that stuff and does it help dry faster and or get better feed value?
 
I take the windrow shields off of my swather to make the widest swath possible, then rake two together before it's baled. In good haying weather, it will dry in one day, which to me, obviously produces better quality hay than if it needs to cure for two or three days. We cut only native grasses, so I do not know how other crops like forage sorghum cure, but would think any heavy crop would respond in a similar manner.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlFXTXcGTjk&list=PL6BBD38B92D8B2883&index=7

Well this is where I first saw it. I then read some other stuff around that was comparing wide unconditioned (basicly a cycle bar) to a wind rowed conditioned crop.
 
I started cutting hay with a 7 ft sickle mower with a wooden pitman over 50 years ago. The cutting part wasn't the problem, the raking was, odd shaped fields, 9 corners and everyone of them sharp. You left as much rayon the ground as I put in a cow, the only thing that saved it was turning the cows in for a few days to clean up the leftovers.
Hay baling has got nearly to the same point as epd's in cattle, always trying to figure out numbers to make better cattle.
You put the hay on the ground, shake it as little as possible, ( I know for sure that leaves feed value in the field) and put it in a bale as quick as possible, hopefully with out water falling on it. The quality is usually in direct relation to the size of the thunder head on the horizon, and not much else other than a broken machine.
 
Best grass hay I ever put up was mowed (not swathed), raked, baled, accumulated, loaded, hauled, and stacked in the hay shed all in the same day....all by my lonesome....and we're talking small squares. Every bit went to the horse tracks in Lincoln and Grand Island.
 
loomixguy said:
Best grass hay I ever put up was mowed (not swathed), raked, baled, accumulated, loaded, hauled, and stacked in the hay shed all in the same day....all by my lonesome....and we're talking small squares. Every bit went to the horse tracks in Lincoln and Grand Island.
Click to expand...

Although that's not he puts up hay, Mr. FH would totally agree with you. When it's mowed, it cures evenly. Makes fine horse hay. I've heard him
say it many times.
 
every year is different, what work's well one year might not work at all the next. we tried the thin and wide one year, lot's of raking and like cowman 52 say's the corner's can be problematic. we had some in widrow's and some laid out wide and got hit with a 2 week wet spell, we were able to bale the windrowed stuff but the out wide stuff was lost. depending on your end use the color factor comes in to play as well, the out wide stuff all of it will get sun bleached, the windrowed stuff not so much. we now try for a happy medium, windrowing it slightly narrower than the pick-up's on the balerand then raking/flipping it over ONLY if absoluteley necessary. that's the plan anyway's but like i said every year is different :wink:
 
We have done so much hay-testing for quality, believe it or not, that
bleached hay doesn't lose much protein. What it does lose is vitamins and
minerals. I was certainly surprised when the analysis of rained-on hay
came back as high in protein as hay that was put up with no rain. That
finding has stayed consistent over the last 20 years.

In Billings, Mt. someone found some little square bales of hay that had
been put up in 1947. It was stored inside, but they sent a sample of it off
and it came back 9-10% protein after all that time!
 
Faster horses said:
We have done so much hay-testing for quality, believe it or not, that
bleached hay doesn't lose much protein. What it does lose is vitamins and
minerals. I was certainly surprised when the analysis of rained-on hay
came back as high in protein as hay that was put up with no rain. That
finding has stayed consistent over the last 20 years.

In Billings, Mt. someone found some little square bales of hay that had
been put up in 1947. It was stored inside, but they sent a sample of it off
and it came back 9-10% protein after all that time!
Click to expand...


to a horse person/customer green anything outsell's black protein.and we won't even get into the dust issues involved with rained on or for that matter even raked hay.
it all depend's on the end use or market your trying to satisfy :wink:
 
Oh yes, Horse hay is another deal altogether. :nod:

It must be dust-free, for sure.
And we don't put up 'black hay'. There is a point where it turns to tobacco
in the bale, and the cows love that, but we sure don't strive for it. Mr. FH is really picky about when he bales hay, he'll stay out most of the night rather than bale hay in the heat of the day when it's too dry. Why put it up, if
you don't put it up right? My point was that rained on hay doesn't lose a
lot of protein. I didn't realize you were talking about horse hay in particular.

We have sold a lot of horse hay through the years, and it's the best of the best. We had some Kentucky Bluegrass in SW Mt. Didn't yield much, but we sold it to a race horse man from Louisiana! Yep, we know about horse hay
and we are picky about what we feed our own horses.
 
wasn't trying to start anything....just merely trying to point out that wide and thin is not without it's own pitfall's .....
 
Our haying changes from year to year if not week to week, rain every week. Then no rain for 4 months then no rain at all. One cutting can be baled. In 3days and the next takes 10 days. A windrow that fits the baler and leave it alone seems to work time after time. Best thing I found for wet hay is the old round balers with the compression roller, just run the hay through them and set it back up on top of the stubble. Once you could find the old trail type conditioners and run the hay through them, hard to find now.
 
Grandpa used to say hay is always better blue than black. Meaning on alfalfa hay, it is better to leave it standing and in bloom while waiting for better weather than to lay it down and have it turn black cause its wet. :D Lately, we havent had to worry about too wet. :?
 

Latest posts

Top