Now THAT's Some Hay, Baby!

The title is quoted from the wonderful man I married, right after he inspected the first chopping of the year and it passed with flying colors!

As promised, this is the blog of the next step in our haying process...
Alot of hay that people see being processed is mowed, allowed to dry very dry and then baled.  We do a little baling, too, but most of the hay that we grow is mowed, allowed to air out a little (not too wet, not too dry) and then chopped to be stored either in the silos or in an agbag.  The chopped hay is called haylage and I think of it like sauerkraut: just like cabbage is chopped and allowed to age to turn to sauerkraut, the hay is chopped and allowed to age and turn into a whole different product than what it started as.  Cows love it and couldn't ask for a better meal on a cold winter's day.



We all have to get to the field AND have a way back home somehow.  Since we knew that the menfolk would be working late and we would want to be back home before they were done, Caleb and I followed Josh and Sarah in the car.  Its a good thing we did.  We pulled out the driveway at exactly 6:00 that evening and Josh didn't come in 'til after 10:30.  See Little Sarah Rose sitting beside Daddy in the tractor?  She would turn around every once in a while and give a big wave, proud as could be that she was with Daddy in the tractor!


 

Hooking up.  On the left side of the picture is, of course, the tractor.  Behind the tractor is the silage chopper and behind the silage chopper are the two wagons.  You'll see pictures below of how the wagons are filled.  When the front wagon is filled with chopped hay, the wagons are unhooked, the filled wagon (the front one) is left where its at while the back wagon (the still empty one) is hooked back up to the chopper to be filled again. 

 

The view from inside the tractor looking back. 




The silage chopper is centered over the wind row of hay.  The chopper has "teeth" along the bottom to pick the hay up off the ground and a small auger across the top to feed the hay through the machine.  Inside, there are a series of "knives" that chop the hay fine.  After being chopped, the hay is fed through the side, up the chute and blown out the back. 







The chute.  This is what Josh and Loren were replacing the liner in in the previous post.  As you can see, its reattached.  The hay is blown up the cute and into the wagon.  Whoever is operating the tractor/chopper setup also has to direct the chute which way to blow the hay into the wagon.  The object is to get the wagon filled evenly from side to side to make sure you have a good full load.  If the chute just blew the hay straight back, the sides of the wagon wouldn't be filled...just the middle.  So, the chute has to be moved from side to side to make an even load.







The view from the outside.  See the hay being blown into the wagon?  I like this picture because the silo that the hay will end up in is in the background. 







Whoever is driving the tractor looks back more than they he looks forward.  The left side of the picture is actually the front of the tractor where the steering wheel is.  The driver glances forward every now and then to make sure he's going straight, but most of the time he's looking backward to make sure the chopper is centered over the wind row, the chute is aimed like it should be and that everything is running smoothly.  Many a farmer has come in with kinked necks and backs due to this!



 



"Now THAT's some hay, Baby!"  This is what the hay looks up like all chopped up and ready to go.  Its a mixture of alfalfa and orchard grass (maybe one more thing I can't remember?).  The hay can't be too dry or it won't cure... it can't be too wet or it will mold and be all soggy.  We always have to take the weather into consideration: if its extremely humid, it won't dry as fast; if its really windy, it'll dry faster; if its cloudy or sunny affects it, too.  Also, hay that has been mowed can't be rained on, which is why we're always checking our friend Radar.  There is a lot to consider to get haylage just right.  This particular cutting was called "24 hour hay" because it was mowed and it dried just right in 24 hours.




When a wagon gets filled up, its unhooked and left where its at to be picked up by the second tractor working in the field.   This next bit of info is very important for any of you who think you might have a prospective job helping chop hay one day:  the wagon MUST be unhooked on level ground to avoid a runaway load of hay!  The tractor bounced me and thus the camera, so the picture looks like its on a hill.  But trust me, if the person unhooking has seen just ONE runaway wagon, he makes sure that every wagon he parks is level from then on!





There comes Papa Loren with two empty wagons to be filled up. He's on the road parallel to the hayfield on his way to drop them off ....





...and then pick up the filled wagons to take and unload at the silo while the two empty ones he just brought are filled up.  Someone is always chopping while the other is unloading so that wagons will always be available.  (The unloading process will have to be another blog post.)
We have several hay fields that allow us enough feed to make it through the year.  A hayfield, in a good year, should produce three full cuttings; during a great year, it should make four. 



Quality Control Inspector #21207.  Looking out the back window to make sure Daddy's doing it right!

Getting the hay up off the ground is a matter of doing what you've just read over and over again until everything is finished.  Josh and Loren have worked so many hay fields together that they almost read each other's minds about everything.  They know where the other wants the wagons parked, how long it will take to fill a wagon, how long it will take to unload a wagon, when they want to switch jobs, when coffeetime is and where to meet for it, etc...  And when they can't read each other's minds, they have their unique "Van Zante Hand Gestures" code to talk between tractors (with the occasional cell phone use if they REALLY have to clarify).

  Although the concept is easy, anyone who has worked with hay knows that it can be a long, stressful job especially when one eye is on the sky while the other is monitoring the equipment.  I hope you've learned something about haying..stay tuned for unloading: a wonderful tale involving more wagons, PTOs, a blower, silos, heights and more!