November 14, 2014

Slow going for the mower.

November 13, 2014

Clover ready to cut.

November 12, 2014

Roadside assist.

Remembrance Day

We will remember them.

November 10, 2014

Getting closer to the end of oaten hay.

Step 4. Stack

The final part of making oaten hay.

The all-important stacking and covering.

Aerial photography courtesy of Vince Bucello.

 

  Bale stacker in action.

We pick up the bales in the field 2 ways: either with a bale stacker; or front-end loader with trailers. The bale stacker in the photo above has just picked up the 4^th bale. It will get another 2 bales before heading back to the stack, reversing in, and offloading against the end of the stack. You can see this here: Farm-ily Oct 20.

 

The second method we use is front end loaders with trailers, carting back 30-40 bales at a time to the stack.

 

Our oaten hay is paddock stacked. We reserve our haysheds for the lucerne (alfalfa) hay. All our stacks are covered with Hay Caps the day the hay is stacked. Our hay can sit in these stacks for 6 to 12 months so covering it is essential. If left uncovered the rain will go into the top of the bale causing it to go mouldy, lose nutritional value and decrease its value.

 

 

Building the stack of hay, Hay Caps atop.

 

 To the right of the stack you can see some individual bales with Hay Caps. These bales go to the top of the stack as it is being built by the front end loader. But when the bale stacker comes in with its load, its 6^th bale already has the Hay Cap attached.

 

And that’s how we build our wall of hay Farm-ily Nov 1.

 

Now it is at this point that I should mention that Hay Caps are our invention that we have been manufacturing since 2007 and sell all over world. Sounds like an advertisement for Hay Caps I know but that was not my intention - it is rather a why and how we do what we do.

 

A big thankyou again to Vince of Midstate Video Productions for allowing me to share these drone stills over the last few days. At the top of the photo where the cars are is where Vince is with his remote control for the drone. The drone can travel about 500 metres from that base.

 

We have found it fascinating to view our farm from this perspective,

and hope you have too.

 

Step 3. Bale

Part 3 of our series on making oaten hay.

Aerial photography courtesy of Vince Bucello, taken from his drone.

 

 Baling as the sun comes up.

 

Baling takes place the day after the field is raked, providing all the hay is completely dried down. Like raking it needs to be done with dew or moisture in the hay, but unlike raking too much dew and the baling has to stop. There is only a small window of time that is right for baling each night. Generally this is somewhere between 2am and 5am as the dew is coming in, and again as the dew is going out from 6am till 9am.

 

We bale our hay into big square bales that are 8’x4’x3’

(they are actually not “square” at all, rather rectangle, but called big squares).

Each bale weighs approx. 600kgs.