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Donn Hewes
KeymasterNeal, While I have had my share of wet days, but I think a lot of people have had way more inches of rain than I have. I was hoping to mow tomorrow but my fields are good and wet now. How do you know you are making hay in the Northeast? When you wear rubber boots instead of a sun hat to go out and mow!
KeymasterPouring rain and baking cherry pie! Mowed on Sat, and baled 288 on Sunday. When I started mowing the forecast for Monday was a slight chance of a shower and when I finished it was 50%! Just gotta laugh. I had a great drying day Sunday but with all the soil moisture I did not think it would dry in 26 hours. I tedded twice, from 9 to 11 and 12 to 2, raked from 3:30 to 5:30 and baled from 6 to 8. All that tedding is a lot of extra work and if the weather would permit it I would rather not work that hard; but the nice hay was dry at 6. The ground was soft and I overworked one of my horses who came up a little lame the next morning. Vet out to today and said she has a little sprain. A week or two of rest and bute and she should be fine. Unfortunately I still have a lot of hay to make. Yesterday I used three head on the baler and baled to the ground instead of the wagon. That takes longer but it will work for a week or two. Good thing we have a young intern to pick them all up off the ground. Now I am thinking about buying another horse. How do you know when to mow? – wait until it starts to rain and then you know you can bale when it stops!
KeymasterHi Mink, A picture is really helpful for someone to suggest if your britchen is too high or too low. Some rubbing might be normal, especially on the road as it is a light load. It should only effect the hair though. Find the point of the butt were it goes from sloping back to curving forward. This is the farthest aft piece of the horse. Put a finger on that spot. Your britchen should be two inches below that. Britchens are often worn too low. I hope that helps.
KeymasterHi Karl, 24 hp Honda is gas. I think a small diesel would be nice but there were a couple reasons for the gas. first, the gas motor is a lot cheaper, and second the diesels usually start a little bigger like 35 or 40hp. I paid about 3,000 $ to a local Amish shop to make most of the modifications. I all ready owned the cart, and I spent about 300$ putting the brakes on it the next year.
KeymasterHi Joel, The tongue slides over for hooking three or five. The evener is still bolted in the center. Yes, backing it is a pain! It has a feature on it to lock the front wheel and tongue to back straight. I have never liked it and don’t really use it. I can back it up to hook on to something, but to back up while hooked is almost impossible. For a three wheeled cart a dolly wheel might be a better idea. Donn
KeymasterThanks for mowing; the forecast is just starting to change for the weekend! Just kidding, I will mow some this weekend and pretend I am making hay. Some times I bale bedding hay.
KeymasterNice work Dry Branch, those are nice looking loads of hay. I too was trying to bring in some hay yesterday. I got a couple loads in the barn by 5 pm. when I got a flat tire on a hay wagon just as the black skies rolled in and really opened up. Challenging work for good horses and mules. By the time I transferred about thirty bales to another wagon and raced (almost a trot) back to the barn, it was thunder and lightning and trees braking. Quick unhook horses and stand in the barn and unharness while the storm passed. A few wet windrows today. I would have left the field a few minutes earlier than I did, but for the flat tire.
KeymasterGeoff, One possibility is that you don’t need a tedder at all. With lower humidity and good weather in summer, most hay out your way is probably made with out one. I mowed yesterday, and it will rain tomorrow night. That is tedder time. I can ted tomorrow and see if the hay is dry enough to bale before it rains or ted it Friday after it rains and then go to baling. Just a thought.
KeymasterIf Jason is mowing hay I will start tomorrow! Ground is pretty soggy here today. Donn
KeymasterRod, If you want to see a picture look at the “mule” section. Thread called “horses and mules mowing”. If you do a lot of mowing with Halflingers I think this set up would be great.
KeymasterHi Rod, I am not sure we have all the technical names right but I know which parts of the bridle you are talking about, I think! Start with the throat latch; yes too tight will effect the breathing. I put my fingers right under the throat, slide them back and forth. Now, you called it a pole strap, I don’t know the true name, but that is were I make a bridle path; and yes adjusting that does effect the fit of the whole bridle including the bit in the mouth. Usually to adjust a new bridle to a new horse, you use those buckles to adjust the height of the blinders, and then use the bit straps to adjust the bit in the mouth.
It sounds to me as though you have a bridle with a strap between the ears that splits and goes to either blinder, If you do that should be loose enough to pull the mane from beneath it.
Finally, the band across the forehead should have all the mane pulled out from under it. Ideally it is long enough to allow the bridle sit on the face with out hitting the base of the ear or eye socket. Some big horses will get a rub from a bridle that is too high at the ear or eye. Rain, rain, rain.
KeymasterHi Rod, I don’t think the halters are causing the rubbing or the bridles coming off. I like to keep a bridle path (clipping the main) behind the ears. Makes it easy to put a bridle on and fit right. The throat latch should allow for three or four fingers under it when on; but not more. A loose throat latch will allow the bridle to come off. I don’t think you will get them to stop rubbing over night but continue to reprimand them, and make them stop. The problem with rubbing is eventually someone will get something caught and you will start up before you realize it. Not desirable.
KeymasterI have never found the tongue weight to too much on a mowing machine. I think the vibration of the machines is just as much cause of sore necks as tongue weight. Some vibrate worse than others it seems to me. I am using a crazy wheel rigth now that I think is great. If you can’t find tongue trucks you might consider one of these, made by the Amish. I got it in Pa.
KeymasterThere is nothing like baling hay, putting it in the barn and then watching it start to rain! I know it is more luck than anything else but it still feels good. The hay was just barely dry enough to bale. Fortunately the barn starts out empty so we can make a single layer of bales over the whole floor. Made about three hundred bales yesterday. Not a great yield from that field, but nice early hay. Now we are getting some much needed rain. I can fix a vacuum pump, and do some more pasture clipping. Here are a few pictures.
KeymasterHi All, Joel’s description of a good corner pretty well says it all. In one of his early posts he mentioned just a hint of pressure on the foot lift as you turn. Like riding the clutch, this helps the bar slide backward. I hate to stop at the end of the row but I will if I mess up the timing of the turn and am about to go to far. The horses get used to the rhythm of it and start to want to turn to early. You just hold them to the left a little as the corner approaches, then they will come right over with the command if your timing is good.
Another corner that I use a lot is if I am mowing large rectangles, I stop mowing across the end when it is about 60′ to 80′ (or more)feet wide. I just lift the bar as we roll of the end of the cutting into the mowed end, make a nice semi circle with the bar above the cut grass, and drop it as we enter the standing grass. For a mower with a lift that works well, and nice and high, this is a fast and easy way to finish the field. This is a standard haybine method because it is almost impossible to make a corner with out a little rooster tail, but it works equally well with a mowing machine.
baling today. Rain forecast for tonight!
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