Somewhat earlier than last year, the small grass meadow that we grow for baling is ready to be harvested. While last year was our first time baling, we learned a huge amount, especially the importance of preparing for the first cut and getting the timing just right. Following on from the June article, we’re finally getting the grass in.
Preparing all the grass equipment
The preparation of the mower was covered a few weeks ago in the “John Wilder” article; however, it isn’t the only front-line kit that needed a ‘glow up’. Last season, I bought a New Holland 376 baler straight off a local field just as it had finished its baling season. That meant the baler was perfectly set up, having also been drawn by an identical Ford 7610 tractor. This was a great purchase; with everything dialled in, I only had to add string, but there were plenty of improvements to be made.
Replacing the pickup tines
I noticed last year that when running the baler, there were a few ‘strips’ of grass being left behind on every pass. The cause was worn or missing pickup tines. Without these thin metal rods getting close to the ground, not all of the gut and dried grass is brought up into the baler for packing.
To reach the broken pickup tines, you need to remove the pickup bands (which guide the grass into the packing chamber). These mostly came out without a fight, although a few of the bolts were definitely not original.
With the bands removed, you can remove the nut and bolt that secures the pickup tine set. The top row shows the nine failed tines which were removed. Hopefully it’s clear that they are all missing a leg; less obvious is the thinning of the tines when compared to the bright yellow new tines.
The old tines get to join the failed tine collection. I have to confess that I didn’t change all of these tines. Digging anywhere near the previous owner’s workshop typically reveals a buried tine or two.
An hour later, the failed tines are all replaced. The bright yellow covers on the new tines aren’t likely to stay this way for long, but for now, they look ready for action.
At the end of last year’s harvest, the baler was cleaned and prepared for storage. This means all the settings, like the bale compression, were reset, so I will have a learning curve to get the adjustments right for this season.
One man waited to mow
This year’s weather has been rather variable. A heat wave while I was away followed by months and months of rain. Okay, maybe just weeks, but when you’re waiting to bring the grass in, time seems to stop being linear.
At the start of June, I was starting to get a little worried. The mixed-leaf meadow has a wide variety of grasses, and some had already reached maturity. Locally, farmers taking in silage had long since cut it, but nobody had brought in grass in bales.
The on/off nature of the weather made timing tricky. Every time I geared up to cut the grass, the weather turned. In preparation, I had already hand-pulled all the docks and reeds. Then on a bright day, I brought the headland down with the spearhead mower. After that, it was a waiting game, trying to find enough of a gap in the weather to get the grass bailed and brought in!
Off to mow the meadow
By Friday the 19th of June, I’d had enough of waiting. Rain was forecast for Monday afternoon; however, the three days before the rain were forecast to be dry and peak at more than 30°C every day. Would this be enough time to get the grass mown, dried and bailed?
At about 8 am on Friday, I was already making progress on the mowing. A brief delay came from a failed weld in the drivetrain. Apparently, my stick-welding attempt wasn’t strong enough for the PTO shaft.
Being the more readily accessible short shaft, it was quicker to take it off the mower and run it up to the workshop. Preheated with a blowtorch and MIG-welded with plenty of heat, the speedy repair held for the rest of the mowing.
By 10 am, the grass was all down, save for the few small strips I had missed. I’m convinced I could have managed a little more ground speed, but after all the work on the Wilder mower, I didn’t want to break it through haste.
Throwing myself into bringing the grass home added an extra challenge, as I was due to take the family on holiday that afternoon. Fortunately, the weekend was at a local vintage tractor show; unfortunately, this meant I couldn’t take the 7610 to the show as planned!
Tedding through the weekend
By Friday afternoon, I was all packed for the weekend away, the tractor loaded on the trailer, and the kids’ bikes strapped on top. This left me with just enough time for tedding with the Lely HayZip.
When the grass was cut with the John Wilder mower, the chopped sward came out in a lovely, neat pile running up and down the field. This was great for getting the grass on the top of the pile clean, but the grass underneath wouldn’t dry as fast. The solution is to spread the pile.
Exposing the bottom of the pile to sun and wind to encourage drying means setting theHay Zip to the ‘spreading’ position. In this configuration, the grass pile would be thrown up and wide behind the tractor, exposing the damp underlying crop and helping air get under allthe cut grass.
By Friday afternoon, the grass was already a healthy brown colour. I was starting to worry that I was pulling too much moisture out of the grass, reducing its nutritional value.
Over the weekend, I managed to nip back home a few times to turn the grass. By Monday morning, the hay was looking just right for baling. I was back to work and fairly worn out; however, the forecast rain turned into a light shower in the afternoon, and the rest of the week looked fantastically dry. I may just have got the timing perfect.
Rowing Up
While the spread grass will dry much better, if I run the bailer over now, the fluffy layer of grass near the floor will struggle to be picked up by the new tines without dragging them on the floor.
To get a nice tall pile of grass that the baler can collect, the Lely HayZip is deployed again, but in the windrowing position. The ‘windrow’ can also be used to help encourage drying and protect the crop from light rain.
A change in the angle of the tines and bringing the ‘gates’ closer together are all that are needed to turn the spread grass into a lovely, tall windrow that will continue to dry and make bailing a success.
By Monday afternoon, the windrows were formed and allowed a few more hours to dry in the sun. This was a frantic, busy lunch break, but so incredibly satisfying to see. The pictures don’t really do justice to the size of these rows; the majority are too high to step over.
Baling the dried grass
On Monday evening, I was all set to bale the meadow into conventional bales. The New Holland 376 was pulled onto the field, set to its work position, and the baling twine levels were checked. This is only a small meadow, but the New Holland makes easy work of it.
With a focus on getting the baling done before dark, I didn’t get too many ‘action shots’ of the baler in action. I also managed to miss taking a picture of the first ‘bale’, which would have made a great shot, as I forgot to engage the knotter and managed an eight-foot bale before I realised.
By 8 pm the whole field was baled, and despite a brief and light shower, I’d managed to dodge the rain. I have some learning to do; early mistakes created a mess at one point. But I must have learned something compared to last year having not broken a single shear bolt on the baler.
This year’s total bale count was 115 on the counter. This is down a little from last year’s 160 bales; however, the quality of this year’s bales is a huge improvement. More consistent lengths, better compaction, and more consistent bale weights. I was proud to get any bales last year, but this year I’m equally happy about the bale quality.
Bringing the bales under cover
The bale sledge makes collecting the bales a lot easier, leaving them in piles of eight. This saves a lot of time compared to wandering up and down every row. However, the bale grab, which should pick up all eight bales at the same time, has yet to go through the workshop, so collection is still very much a manual process.
However, I missed most of this fun, having found myself lying in a hospital bed after a dive from my motorbike. Fortunately, a small army was deployed to collect the bales, and I can’t thank them enough. Deploying the car trailer and the Fergie, they managed to drag all the bales back to the barn.
Then, with some back-breaking effort, the troop managed to get all the bales under cover and stacked. This is definitely a task where more hands make the work lighter, but I absolutely must get the eight-bale grab working for next year’s harvest.
All Under Cover
With the last bale stacked and the barn doors shut, that’s this year’s harvest done — 115 bales lighter on the field, and a barn a lot fuller. It’s not lost on me that I only got to watch the last part of it from a hospital bed; huge thanks again to everyone who turned up with trailers, tractors and strong backs to get it in before the weather turned. The mower, the baler, and the tines all did their job — next year, I’m making the bale grab do its job. And maybe finding a bale elevator.