[Donn Hewes]

Hi Bird, Have you considered how you are planning to learn the skills of working with draft animals? I definitely am in favor of folks seeking out mentoring situations, although I realize they come in many different arrangements. Some are close by and help is often available, others require you to put more time and effort to learn any thing. The only reason I mention this is I believe any time you spend working with some one else will help you form your own ideas about what you want and why. This will be invaluable when you bring your first team home.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Jean, just out of curiosity, how big is the sled? For my first mule I made one that was too small and boy did that not work! I would worry about lifting the front or not, it might lift a little with nothing on it, and loaded it will be on the ground. I would make the chain long enough to put the single tree two feet in front of the runners. Use a little caution at first until you learn the tendencies of your own sled. They all want to slide a little down hill, but it will vary from sled to sled, loads and steepness too. A little slip or slide might be all right, but sliding into the heels of the animals is not a good idea.

[Donn Hewes]

I have an Allis Chalmers side delivery rake. Not the best, and not the worst, but it does adjust for pitch. I didn’t know that until this year as it had never been adjusted. It was already pitched all the way forward, but hay still does not dry much in that windrow. I will be interested to do some experiments with a rotary rake. It is hard to imagine buying a rake as I already have two that work well.

There are days when I definitely dry to start tedding before all the dew is gone. A faster tedding process, like my new cart with a 14′ tedder will help a lot in this regard. Start at 10 am. and be done by 11:30 instead of 1pm. I am a little more cautious of rake with any dew on, but there are those super hot dry days were raking early with a little dew will help save the shatter, also spreads out the day and helps the work animals.

Hay making! Every field, every day is just a little bit different. You get to keep thinking up new ways to deal with it.

[Donn Hewes]

I just remembered I was bringing a cutter bar for you. I better put that on a ‘to go’ pile.

[Donn Hewes]

I spent about 500$, not including the mowers. I used two broken mowers to start with. I haven’t really looked at the receipt real closely, but that includes parts and labor. The labor I paid for was to knock the flywheel off, weld the gears to the hubs, cut a shaft and weld the pto spline to it. He also cut a key slot in the shaft to place the large gear on. Parts were steel plate, steel for a frame and tow hitch, tin for the covers, two blocks and barings, gears with hubs, and chain.

Given all the help I had (thanks Mitch), I didn’t think it was all that hard to make or all that time consuming. Maybe 16 hours, and that is because I am a slow welder. After I figured all the parts I wanted and ordered that, I used the time while I was waiting to fit a piece of plywood were the steel plate would go and figured out the shape and bolt holes and perfectly level. I still have time left to paint it and that is rare for me.

George, will we see you at NEAPFD? Could you bring a couple of guards from the easy cut system just so we could show them. Jay and I are doing a workshop on mower tune up.

[Donn Hewes]

Jay, I like the one handed idea, I am sure we all find that to be a very useful skill from time to time. Maybe just one obstacle, where you drive into a blind alley, then the natural thing to do is pick up your evener and back and turn your animals with one hand. Choking up with the other hand is OK as long as it only touches the lines behind the hand that is driving. I had a bad (read dumb)experience with teeth and a lead rope many years ago and I wouldn’t encourage anyone to put anything in their teeth!

Carl, the planks sound great.

[Donn Hewes]

Is that the same as the Hop Horn beam? Little tree with scaley bark? I made the tongue for my PTO cart with a chain saw in about fifteen minutes. I would have used a power planer but it seems to be not working at the moment.

[Donn Hewes]

That is working nicely. Looks like you might have some tongues in there. Just a thought.

[Donn Hewes]

Here are a few more pictures of the cart. I am disassembling it a little to paint it. One thing that is hard to see from the pictures is that the metal plate for the pillow blocks is leveled with the drive line out of the gear box. That is quite a different angle than the tool box, which is parallel with the tongue angle. You have to jack up the back end of the plate to level it.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Ben, I sent you a private message, but you might not have gotten it. I will be at NEAPFD! I would like to invite you to visit our farm while you are in Ithaca though. We are 40 minutes from there. Farming with horses and mules.
607-849-4442, Donn

[Donn Hewes]

This is a great start. One or two more obstacles would give us something in reserve, but we really don’t need that many. Erica, I think you could make that harrow into an obstacle with a couple rows cones or something else where the harrow just fits.

Carl, I like the idea of a shed or a wall, maybe just an arch way or a door to go through. Also I know I couldn’t do it, but may be some one more local could; I like the idea of having three logs to choose from just for a short test of strength. The secret to that obstacle is fro the teamster to pick the right log for their animal or team. To make it work right the logs would have to be carefully picked so the largest would give a team pause, the next should be relatively easy for a team but give a good single horse pause, and the smallest should be a good working log. Two logs might be enough as folks would have the option of skiping that station.

Also any suggestions from folks who might be planning / hoping to put your teams through the obstacle course? We would love to hear from you.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Mitch and George, My mowers are set up high and I leave them that way for clipping. It cuts down on the yield some times but I figure I will get it all eventually, (grazing in November,etc.) Also these lush pastures are why you are having a harder time mowing. I wouldn’t change them, but they will take extra persistence to make hay on.

300 bales from 6 acres is heavy second cutting. My field right in front of my house is probably yielding like that right now, but fortunately we are grazing it this year. Last year I fought a good fight with a beautiful second cutting only to watch it get soaked on the 5th day, UGH! Rained every day after that. A haybine would make fields like that dry faster, I do believe. I would just keep tedding it until you Think it is ready to rake and bale the same day.

[Donn Hewes]

I agree with a lot of what has already been said.

Some of the ideas I have taken home as I continue to learn hay making.

True with a tractor but doubly so for horses, I don’t want to do anything for little or no effect. I try to never rake until my hay is ready to bale ( I will rake early if I believe the hay is already dry and a little dew will reduce the shatter, but only if I am planning to bale it that day) . I might change that some day if I get a different rake.

I think the haybine made the hay dry faster, but only certain plants (red clover) and certain stages of maturity. Sometimes the difference MIGHT have been a day, many other times it was only a few hours. To a horse farmer a few hours is not as helpful as it is to others; I won’t be going out to bale at any hour of the day or night. This year I have mowed all but six acres with the sickle bar mower and I think I am done with the haybine. I will do a better job of tedding to hopefully make up for the drying effect of the haybine.

True testing is very difficult. The only experiment that would be of much value would be two rigs working in the same field at the same time. Even then you probably would get different results if you did the same tests the next year or even two months later.

I some times bale a field of hay and 10% of the bales are heavier than the rest. I will except this as a way of getting good hay in the barn. I can be careful to set those bales on edge on top of the stack or else where if need be.

Last week I made about 275 second cutting bales off 12 acres. A pretty light cutting. It was the last field mowed for first cutting, so it was only about six weeks regrowth. I mowed with sickle bar mowers one day (didn’t do the whole thing in one day), tedded the next morning, raked and baled the next day. There were a few heavy spots and one hedge row area that should have had an extra day to dry but it is all in the barn now. I was done by Monday before it got real hot.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Mark, I am quite unsure about 3 horses versus 2. I set it up for three even though I was tempted to build a tongue that could flip around for two or three. I am sure two horses could pull it. I think I might be just as happy with the three when I can ted for a couple hours and have the horses fresh for a little mowing or baling. Mark Kimball says he is tedding all day long with the I & J and two horses. Three is plenty and four would need a heavier cart to do heavier tasks.

[Donn Hewes]

I have all ways liked the teamster 2000 and would love to see one. Donn

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