What do u pull your hay rake with?

**per** · Jul 14, 2012, 18:06

Massey 55 or MM U. Not too much I can use the old girls for.

**ALLFARMER** · Jul 14, 2012, 19:54

Those little MMU's were a heck of a good tractor.
Lots of power to weight and they purr like a
kitten. Guys never went deaf running them.

**grassfarmer** · Jul 14, 2012, 21:09

I use a 1CP model (that's one cow-power) they can
mow, rake and harvest without any diesel. 4WD, and
they can go among trees and in among rocks and wet
spots too.
I can buy the hay I need for 3c/lb or less and I'm
pretty sure no-one can maintain hay fields, replace
the nutrients they are exporting and mechanically
harvest it for 3c/lb.

**gaucho** · Jul 14, 2012, 23:22

I agree with GF... we have made 600 bales on rented ground that we cannot get cow on to and the rest we will buy... we will make some 2nd cut bales on fields the cows grazed once as the are now in the leases till November and then we will bale graze those with pairs till March... 3 cents a pound will buy all the hay landed that we can buy... besides if the hay is dry why rake it?

**kato** · Jul 15, 2012, 07:39

If no one can grow hay for less than 3 cents a pound, and that's what it sells for, why do they grow it? I would think it's only a matter of time before hay gets hard to find. Around here, it's the trucking that will kill you.

But back to the topic. We've only used our rake once in the past ten years. That was after a windstorm. Hubby's theory is that if you rake it, and then it rains again, the hay is done. If it needs to be used, it will be pulled with the old Deutz. It uses hardly any fuel at all, but you need to take the windows off or you will cook in there! LOL

**per** · Jul 15, 2012, 07:41

2 of the worst noxious weeds on the place came from imported hay. My goal is always year round grazing but my back up hay stack comes from my own ground. 3 cents won't always cut it here anyway, I've seen as much 5 as 3.

**grassfarmer** · Jul 15, 2012, 07:57

"If no one can grow hay for less than 3 cents a pound,
and that's what it sells for, why do they grow it?"

Because a lot of guys don't do their sums very
carefully? Also it's seen as an easy option - older guys
that sold off their cows but still have their hay
machinery. They don't seem to mind sitting in a
tractor all summer but wouldn't move an electric
fence every day because it is "too much work".

**ALLFARMER** · Jul 15, 2012, 10:35

70$/bale for hay here. Still have yet to get an
inch of rain.... TOTAL. When swaths are heavy
you rake to dry the bottom 1/2 other wise it sits
I'm the field another near week or so. When
swaths are skimpy you rake to get it up off the
ground. We watch our raking speed hence the
hydraulic drive rake. Also we near always only
rake when it's still quite tough to avoid shatter.

Our hay yielded 0.74 bales/ac, not bad
considering the rain volume.

Rain in the forecast....fingers crossed for a
second cut.

Looks like we will get some rain

**tweaker101** · Jul 15, 2012, 11:02

Don't have a hay rack, never seen the need for one as I agree with Kato if it rains and you flip it now you are really in trouble. As far as buying for .03 landed in my yard....well some years you may get away with it but I would imagine out of a five year average you would be higher than .03/lb and our trucking costs are the big problem. We attended a HM course and they were saying that most of the(HM graduates) just buy there hay....works fine with me...I would have more time in the summer and less stress if I did't have to make hay...and maybe acutally use my camper at a lake other than at the father in laws farm..lol. I think that we are going to work toward this idea of buying the hay, but that may be a few years off.

What do u pull your hay rake with?