haying acreage and time

[dmiller]

Was curious what others were doing as far as productivity per day. Always trying to become more efficient so I can get more acres in with the few weeks a year I have off to farm.
I have an 806 tractor, a 1091 Hesston pull type swather (9 ft) a 336 JD baler (and a rake that I don't use often). Around here it is pretty common to get 2 or 3 weeks in a row with no rain so that isn't an issue most years.

I do small pieces for various landowners. Most are 5-10 acres in small patches (my average is a 3 acre "field").
I cut about 3 acres an hour, and can bale about 2 acres an hour. How does this compare to what others are doing. Would a larger baler (wider pickup) increase my baling efficiency? Or would it mean I'm baling at the same speed but could lay out a wider windrow?
By the time I cut, bale, move equipment around and go back with and get my share of the bales I only get in about 35 acres a week. Seems like I should be able to do a lot more than this, but I'm putting in 12-14 hour days now???

Obviously the whole operation would be more efficient if I could find larger fields and do less road time. Any other suggestions??

 

[LAA]

3 acres per hour mowing with a 9' machine works out to slightly less than 3 M.P.H. ground speed, seems like you should be able to easily double that groundspeed unless the hay is super heavy and tangled or if the small meadows are odd shaped and you can never really get going. As for baling, you mention hardly using your rake, I assume that means you are just baling the swaths left by the mowing machine, you should be able to rake two or more swaths together and the 336 hooked to an 806 should eat that hay at 8-10 M.P.H. groundspeed.

 

[Tx Jim]

(quoted from post at 01:20:38 07/04/11) you should be able to rake two or more swaths together and the 336 hooked to an 806 should eat that hay at 8-10 M.P.H. groundspeed.

LAA
I'm curious what type hay and how many sq bales per acre is the hay making that you bale at 8-10 mph while baling double windrows?

I never try to pull my JD 347 over 5 MPH

 

[GordoSD]

Neighbor just got a new to him NH disc mower. The first time he used it he cut 80 acres of thick alfalfa in just over 4 hours. He said he was traveling 12 mph. I watched him for a little while and I believe it. His Dad rakes two into one with a 12 wheel V rake at about the same speed. Then the son bales with A BR780 and I'll bet he is traveling 10 mph with that.
I'd guess thay do the entire operation on that 80 acres in about 14 hours. Rolling the bales not included.
Then thsy have another 440 acres of hay to do.

 

[hayray]

If you are doing 35 acres a week with those small patches then you are probably doing pretty good, but yes, a larger capacity small square baler will eat a lot more hay per hour. The pick-ups are wider, more plunger rollers for a stronger stroke and more tine bars on the pick up and wider throat for the plunger is wider and strokes per minute on the mid and high capacity models max out at 90 strokes per minute. With my Hesston 4590 baler in your climate I am sure I could bale 35 acres per day if dropping on the ground. In my area doing 700 to 1000 bales per day on a ten to 15 acre piece is doing pretty well on average because of the heavy dew in the morning and dews setting in the evening and hooking and un-hooking wagons because around here we don't drop much hay on the ground because of ground moisture and frequent rains.

 

[LAA]

I had a 336 behind an AC 190XT for several years, it was no problem to bale 250 bales or more per hour if the hay was there, mostly Sudan grass and Bahaia, the baler needed full windrows for best performance, I can't swear it was 8-10 MPH but you could clip along pretty good and cover a lot of ground.

 

[kyhayman]

I'd say with your travel logistics thats doing pretty well.

 

[dmiller]

Thanks for the input. To give a bit more perspective on the baler (I think it is just a bit too worn out to go the speed I'd like to).
Last evening I baled 314 bales on 4 acres (60 lb bales) in 3 1/2 hours.
If I feed the baler any faster than the speed I'm going it will miss tie. The baler seems to loose the right side knot anytime that it is really full. If I keep the feed moderate and even it does ok.
I end up with a knot and extra string (from the missed bale) still attached to the knot and bale currently being tied. I've sharpened the knife so I don't think that is it (also the bales that are tied look smooth on the end of the knot).
Is this a billhook that is just on the edge of too tight (or possibly not smooth) and the twine hangs up when the bale tries to go through faster than normal???

 

[dmiller]

Wouldn't that be neat. To have equipment that was younger than the guy operating it. I bet that with that kind of stuff a guy could really cover the ground.
Maybe someday, now I'm trying to work up to it without going into debt for a sideline business.

 

[hayray]

I think highly unlikley he could double his ground speed. I cut with a discbine and average 4-5 acres per hour with a 9 ft. cut.

 

[Tx Jim]

(quoted from post at 09:15:03 07/04/11) Neighbor just got a new to him NH disc mower. The first time he used it he cut 80 acres of thick alfalfa in just over 4 hours.Then the son bales with A BR780 and I'll bet he is traveling 10 mph with that.

How large a NH disc mower did your neighbor buy? I was unaware that NH built one large enough to cut nearly 20 acres per hr!!!!!!!!!

I agree that a person can pull a rd baler twice or more mph than a sq baler.

 

[WyoDave]

Probably a 16' self propelled one. They are all over in this country, and they'll cut that 20 acres an hour if your field is smooth enough to stay in the seat.
David

 

[GordoSD]

Something REALLY wrong here. You should be baling 314 bales in about an hour and a half.
You need to find a farmer friend that can show you how to put up hay.
For one thing you do not have the wiper arm set up right on your baler. In good conditions I toss out a blae every 17 seconds on an old NH 275.

 

[Ken Macfarlane]

In really well raked uniform hay, my 336 will spit out over 300 bales an hour. In normal conditions 200 bales an hour is easy to obtain.

I can shove more hay through than that (have done nearly 400 bales an hour once) but the bale quality goes way downhill into basically garbage and the pickup starts plugging.

Last night I baled about 340 50 lb bales in about 1.25 hours on about 3 acres, baled onto the ground. The hay was still tough as well but rain was coming.

 

[Ken Macfarlane]

I do something similar, small patches, spread out, but we have to ted twice and rake here due to humidity.

My 10 ft discbine knocks down about 5-8 acres an hour with how fast I drive, will certainly do more but fields are rough.

I can ted about 10 acres an hour.

My rake is super slow and small, a belt rake, about 3 acres an hour.

Baler is about 200-300 bales an hour, usually 100 bales an acre here.

A big baling day for me with 2 helpers is 1000 bales including putting it in lofts. One guy rakes in front of the baler, the baler works away with me and sometimes help stacking racks behind baler. Our big wagons hold nearly 300 bales each. Baling is all done here at 6-7 pm as the dew falls. The wagons are hauled to barn, unloaded onto conveyor by hand, loft stacked by hand. 1000 bales is about 4 hours to get into the loft.

If we had the weather, a week would mean 4 baling days, so 4000 bales, or 40 acres. If I didn't have to put so much in the barn by hand, and I replaced my rake, I could quickly move to 2000 bales a day. We used to do 3500 bales a day with 10 + guys filling the barns. No workers around anymore to do that.