Collecting Hay With No Equipment

I find myself in quite a peculiar situation. I need to collect a great deal of hay for cattle, but I do not have access to a bailer, a tractor, or any more of a mower than a lawn mower. I have only one year to collect enough hay for next winter, and a lot more things to figure out between then. I rolled around some ideas in my head, but I knew there was only one forum that would think out-side of the box enough to help me out of this mess. Thats you Permies!

I will tell you my ideas thus far;
Mow everything up and shove whats left into tons of trash bags... however thats a problem for many many reasons, moisture, and the number of trash bags, etc.

use a 4-wheel drive truck, find a horse drawn cutter, and a hay loader that will fit the bumper hole on a truck. Pack it all into the back of a truck, or even a hay wagon, and store it inside of some sort of shelter, or even make some piles and cover them in tarps. I got this idea from this video:


What do you think? Is there a better way to collect hay? Would pulling a truck around the fields make a mess?

Hi Joshua,

I am curious, how many acres do you have?  This is just to give an idea of how much work needs to be done.

I do like the horse drawn equipment idea—do you have access to this?  

Another idea is to see if you could find a friendly neighbor to cut and bale it up for you.  Possibly you could pay him with some of the hay if you have enough.

Personally I would think that mowing and raking by hand would be impractical.  While it might be possible, I think it would take most of your time and effort.

I am curious as to how this works out for you, please keep us updated.

Eric

Joshua,

I think we need some more background to provide good advice. Is this truly a one year problem, or is this going to be a recurring issue? What is the size of the hay field, how many cattle worth of hay do you need to put up? Is this hay on your land, or someone else's, are these your cattle on your land or someone else's? What is the amount of time you have to put into this project? What is your budget for acquiring additional tools and equipment? Can you build, weld, and/or repair damaged equipment?  Is there truly no access to a tractor/conventional equipment?

Eric Hanson wrote:Hi Joshua,

I am curious, how many acres do you have?  This is just to give an idea of how much work needs to be done.

I do like the horse drawn equipment idea—do you have access to this?  

Another idea is to see if you could find a friendly neighbor to cut and bale it up for you.  Possibly you could pay him with some of the hay if you have enough.

Personally I would think that mowing and raking by hand would be impractical.  While it might be possible, I think it would take most of your time and effort.

I am curious as to how this works out for you, please keep us updated.

Eric

John Young wrote:Joshua,

I think we need some more background to provide good advice. Is this truly a one year problem, or is this going to be a recurring issue? What is the size of the hay field, how many cattle worth of hay do you need to put up? Is this hay on your land, or someone else's, are these your cattle on your land or someone else's? What is the amount of time you have to put into this project? What is your budget for acquiring additional tools and equipment? Can you build, weld, and/or repair damaged equipment?  Is there truly no access to a tractor/conventional equipment?

I have roughly 25 acres of land that I can use for cattle, and another 20 that I can use to harvest hay. I do have a friendly neighbor who can help, by turning it all into round bales... however they would also require payment, and I cannot move those on my own. Letting them have a share of the hay is not enough. Raking by hand all of that land is beyond impractical. The reason that I need to figure this out quickly is because I am going to be taking in 6 to 15 cattle this spring, and I do not have the money to buy tractors and bailers, nor do I have the money to buy a lot of hay. As time goes on I will have more cattle because they will reproduce. I am confident I will figure something out in a year or two, but I do not have the time. I need something that will work this year. I do have a 4 wheel drive truck, however I do not have the old horse driven equipment... What I am looking for is horse driven Mower, a Side Delivery Rake, and a Hay Loader. A hay wagon would also help, however i can have the hay loader pack it into the back of a truck if need be. I have seen similar equipment sold for $200 to $600 around here though and that is much cheaper than anything else. I know that the Amish do it with a scythe and whatnot and it takes them days and days. Just curious if anyone knows of an alternative, smarter, easier, way to harvest hay.

Joshua,

That is a dilemma.  From the sounds of things you want square bales as they can be moved by hand.  

If you have access to the horse-drawn equipment, that might be the best route.  Another, medium route might be a 2-wheel tractor with hay equipment.  This will definitely set you back more than $600 and will make for a very long day(s) mowing time with you walking behind, but it might be worth considering.  *If* you think this is a viable option, then earthtools is a good option.  But I understand if this is not an option.  

There probably is no rental option is there?

Sounds like the horse-drawn option is the best if you can get it.

Eric

Joshua,

I just checked the price of a small round baler at earthtools.  This is probably out of your price range which is too bad.  You would still need a 2-wheel tractor, a sickle bar mower, etc. so this is not exactly a cheap option.

About the only other option I can think of is to maybe reduce the number of cattle on your property till you can obtain hay baling equipment, hire it out, or buy it in.  Maybe expand your hay baling as you expand your cattle operation?  

I will try to bounce ideas around in my head and see what I can can come up with.

Eric

I think the options boil down to many more hands to do it the old-fashioned way (a haying bee) or access to equipment. Or, as previously suggested, fewer cattle to start.

Round balers don't have to make full-sized bales. They can make them half-size or three-quarter size. It takes more time and more twine. But a half-size bale can be transported with a truck and winch. Could you exchange x hours of labour for some of the cost?

Sometimes agricultural fairs or societies will know people who restore and demonstrate antique horse-drawn equipment. Or steam, or old diesel and gas tractors. Some of them will have old sickle mowers and balers to match. These old farmers do it for love, and are often itching to be useful and helpful. (Just remember that they are retired, and operate on "grandpa time.")

What kind of experience do you have putting up hay? Do you know how much hay the land in question produces?

Joshua, managing 25 livestock +20 hay=45 acres is to me a lot of property for cattle without a tractor.

If you are in a climate where animals can remain in a field over winter I would encourage you to look into rotational grazing. Thin the herd in the fall to match the animals you can overwinter on your property. I know some states have cost share avalible to help set that up. Put up a little bit of hay by hand if possible as a emergency backup.

If you can't or don't want to rotationally graze, sell one cow early and use the proceeds to pay to have hay baled this first year. Get square bales, or rig up a hay mover for your truck or on a cheap trailer.

If you do thin your herds this fall, use the proceeds to buy equipment over the winter, usually prices are lower off season and if equipment needed some work you would have time to get it ready. Then you would be more ready for next year.