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Thank you for the very kind words! No manuals with equipment can be frustrating…but it will force you to learn more about how that equipment works. Just be safe and remember farm machinery is dangerous. HUGE CONGRATS on your first hay harvest! It only gets better from there! Thanks for subscribing and watching!

Thank you kindly! Yesterday I bush hogged off the test plot extension again…. Darn weeds! Maybe next year that small area will improve. Susan says hello! Tell Mrs Sally we say hello in return!

Thanks a bundle!

@@BertSchmidt-jt5go I use a clean stick or longer bolt to check the gear oil level in my drum mower. Just remove the fill cap and use something clean for a dipstick, straight down and straight up and measure the mark of gear oil on the stick. Your owners manual should tell you how much oil should be in the gear box.

If you find SAE straight 40W in non-detergent, I would think that would work just fine in the auto-oiler on the Farm Maxx baler. I’ll look later at the name on the bottle of what I have (I think it’s Warren brand, not positive)

@@BertSchmidt-jt5go also if you can’t find non detergent 10w40, I don’t think it would be detrimental to use regular motor oil.

Thank you! Im excited for you too! Best of luck to you on the new property!

@@user-vg9dg4pu7o my tractor is a non-live PTO model. But that’s good info, thanks!

Thank you very much. I sure appreciate those kind words.

@@tommywise1702 tell Mrs Sally we say hello!

@@8thdaychronicles Sally says Hi!

I generally mow at whatever is a comfortable speed for the terrain I am on. The drum mower has the capability of cutting at pretty fast speeds but often bumpy, hilly terrain dictate a slower speed due to control of the tractor. For MY fields, I generally cut in high range, 1st gear, maybe 2nd occasionally, but our fields are sloped.

I’m grateful thank you. Cut for two hours and turned it. Learning curve beginning to flatten out a tad……..

Thanks for the nice comments, and we sure appreciate your time watching!

Thanks a bundle. The issue with foxtail is, like deer tongue, its in the "grass" family. Broadleaf weed sprays wont kill it out. We used Crossbow earlier in the year and it done a very good job on all other weeds. It has a 14 day wait period for hay harvest, which we are w-a-y past 14 days. But the Crossbow is a broadleaf weed spray and wont kill this foxtail OR deer tongue. Leaves us in a bit of a delimma. Hay off the test plot extension is over for this year. But of course its not much area anyhow, but valuable to us. The birds are growing out fantastic. Hope you and family are all doing well!

@8thdaychronicles yep, we are great. The poorjoe weed is in the coffee family, so lots of stuff kills it. The issue is seeds. Poorjoe is a prolific seed producer, so we need a preemergent strike. I looked over the field yesterday and think I may be able to cut one or two acres as emergency food supply. There is no way I would sell the next cut. We had several people ask for late winter forage donation. Seems to be a problem with abandoned livestock or poor planning. Not the animals fault. Maybe this stuff would be ok for that. Your hay looks really good, very well done, sir.

@@tommywise1702 thanks Tom. That’s a great idea and very generous of you to donate what you can cut. You guys are my kinda folks! Like your poorjoe, I’m a bit worried this foxtail has a huge seedbank in the soil already for it to come out so thick in that small extension area like it has this year. I may havta find a tiller to borrow and till that whole area up this fall and glysophate everything in the extension and start over. Thank goodness it’s only .15 of an acre.

Thanks a bunch! Much appreciated!

Thanks!

It makes a great bale of hay. Thanks!

Thanks Tom. Hope you and Mrs Sally have a great weekend!

Thanks!

Coastal Bermuda makes great hay. Good luck with your hay and I pray your area gets some soft, soaking rain soon. Thanks for the comments, I sure appreciate it! May God bless you and your family!

Thank you Jason. I’m not the best hay rake operator but I enjoy trying.

Thank you very much. Best of luck to you!

Thanks!

Thanks. The rake works as intended, there’s some user-error occasionally, lol. I’m not the best hay rake operator out there, far from it. I understand about the weed load on your field. We’re doing the exact same thing on our test plot extension for 3rd cutting. It’s done for this year. The foxtail has taken that small area over since 2nd cut. We also plan to cut it and rake off the field to keep the seed heads from putting more seed into the sod. Painful probably but you made a solid decision. It will pay off next year. Our best to you and Mrs Sally!

Thanks a bundle, glad it was useful to someone!

Thanks! That Kubota L3200 has been a heck of a good tractor.

Which model did you buy? That might save someone else from buying the same model.

Yes my FDM135 came with both cat 1 and 2 reversible hookup pins. Are you hooking your lower 3 point arms to the outside of the mower category pins or the inside? Hay mowers can be dangerous if unfamiliar with them and how they operate, as can all tractor hay implements. I’d strongly suggest a visit to your county extension office and ask for someone to stop by that’s experienced in hay equipment and have them look at your issue and offer advice. Much of this by typed word is hard to relay. The extension office would probably assist you in your first time cutting/ baling as well. Please use caution and do so at your own risk. Best advice I could give you is to seek in-person advice from someone local that is experienced in hay equipment.

Thanks a bundle! I appreciate your kind words! I’ve jammed up my baler a couple times too, trying to pick up too much hay (too big of windrows) at once. Never broke a shear bolt yet, just lucky I guess. It’s a pain to clear a clogged baler for sure. When I get into big windrow areas I slow way down (even stop momentarily and creep forward) to let the baler take in what it can but not too much. The drawbar setup allows good sight behind your tractor to allow you to see what’s going on back there MUCH better. Plus the turning benefit without lifting is awesome. I have not noticed any additional vibration with the drawbar I have or longer pto. I’d say it was basically the same as before. Thanks for watching!

Thank you Sir. A couple years ago we had a lot of hay down and the forecast changed and it rained hard on our hay all day and night and we ended up loosing a whole cutting. That winter I bought a tedder. We would have probably still lost some of it but could have maybe salvaged some too. Our Tedder purchase has been worth every penny we paid for it. We have the same hay philosophies it seems! If they hay needs kicked around it gets it, if it’s starting to dry good, adjust rpm at the pto lower and tractor ground speed up to help reduce leaf shatter some. Premium quality hay don’t just happen, it takes sweat and work. Thanks for watching and we pray you have a FANTASTIC 2nd cut coming up!

@@8thdaychronicles thank you and God bless you and your family.

Thank you much!

Thanks, Tom. It was a good decision to wait. One more day didn’t hurt a thing. We had great weather the following day and dry down reached a proper level. Our best to you and Mrs Sally.

Thank you kindly Sir. Im just a country boy that learned from the school of hard knocks, and have been wrong more than once, lol. However, hanging around some old time hay farmers as a teenager leaned me a few tid-bits of good information. On a tedder....some decent used smaller tedders out there. Just take your time and find one thats been lovingly taken care of. I MUCH prefer a drawbar model in comparison to a 3-point attach model. We did a video about 1.5 years ago on buying our used tedder if that interests you. That video is in our "small-scale hay equipment" playlist. Thanks a bundle and our best to you!

Thanks, Tom. Around here weeds are a constant. Gotta stay on top of them here or they will take over. Best to you are Mrs Sally.

Thank you kindly! Baling this field was a real surprise, not sure how I misjudged it so bad. I'll explain in a later video on the baling. Thanks a bundle for watching, much appreciated!

Yes, the hay kicking out behind the tedder and the tractor just humming along, its relaxing to me. Just finished baling our main hay field. Long, long day. Some great folks bought the hay and loaded it out of the field. It was some premium grade hay, good stuff. Video forthcoming. The 2 spacer test on the drum mower on the field was perfect. Once all the hay was up and gone it was much easier to judge the cut, and it was dang good. We currently this year are cutting about 7 acres. God bless you and your family!

Thanks a bunch. Yes, I’d suggest start out with just a couple and try it. Maybe even give it a try at the factory setting first, you may be happy with it there. If you feel it cut a tad too low, put on 2 spacers and try. Increase slowly, you’ll eventually hit a point where you went too many for a clean cut. God bless and best to you!

Howdy! Thanks so much for watching, subbing and leaving such kind comments. Much appreciated! Thank you! Time between cutting, then raking then baling, if I had to summarize with a couple words it would be "moisture content". Proper moisture content of your hay is super-important. Too moist at baling and you'll end up with moldy hay, or even worse, a possible barn fire from storing that high moisture content hay, from combustion. Flip side...too dry hay (sun bleached, super low moisture content, dry as dust), most of the nutritional values of that hay has leached out, and, livestock dont like it that well and will refuse alot of it (waste). There's a fine line with proper moisture content in dry hay of what makes great, premium hay and what is not enough. There are various methods of testing the hay for moisture content to know if it's ready to rake and bale. Before testing instruments the old-timer hay farmers used twist methods (which still works good if you know how, what to look for). Much of it is determined simply by "feel" of the drying hay. We also use modern moisture testers. Weather is probably the biggest factor in the drying process. Solar effects are the big factor. Sun, or the lack thereof, temps, humidity, rain (hopefully none while hay is drying!) all play a role in determining when to rake and bale. Theres no "set" number of days. Its all weather dependent. In my area of western NC mountain area, generally speaking, I need 4, sometimes 5 days for proper dry down time to get to a suitable moisture content for grass hay. Of course thats all weather dependent. Other dryer, hotter, less humid areas of the country could be much different in days needed. Hope this answers the question. Again, thanks a bundle for watching!

@@8thdaychronicles Thank you very much for the reply. That makes a lot of sense and I understand a lot more about it. Your answer helps a lot!

Thanks a bundle! Tedding the hay after a shower can be good for the hay drying but if you have just had a shower, bad for you, LoL. Thanks for watching, much appreciated!

Than you much! Reducing the cut height for this thicker, lower-growing hay was a good choice. While cutting and today, tedding, I found this cut of hay to be much better than I was expecting. It’s darn good hay. Weeds…argh!!! All hay producers deal with them at certain degrees, just depends on the quality of hay you wanna make. I suppose some hay producers are fine with weedy, junk hay. Recognizing and dealing with weeds is what often sets apart quality hay producers from those that, well, aren’t. Susan says hi and hope you and Mrs Sally have a good evening as well!

That twine actually has a tag on it that says “feed from inside”. That’s what I do. Make sure your plug to the remote bale door button to the baler ain’t plugged backwards (upside down). Turn the baler on (start the pto) and push the button…the bale door should open. You didnt mention if you started the baler.....the pto powers the gear box which in turn powers the hydraulic pump....the hydraulic pump has to be running to pump fluid to the cylinder to open the door. The electronic push button just signals to the hydraulics to push fluid to open. I have a question for you if you dont mind. Have you ever been around farm equipment and tractor implements? Thats a serious question. Putting hay implements together and running hay equipment can be a very dangerous thing if you're unfamiliar with how this equipment works. Folks have been injured bad or even killed by hay equipment, entanglements in moving parts, tractor roll-overs, etc. If you have never used hay equipment or tractor implements before, I would HIGHLY suggest you find someone in your community that is experienced in this stuff and have them mentor your first few times using it. If you cannot locate anyone in your area, go to your county extension office and ask for someone there to help you get started with your first cut/bale. Thats what they are there for, to help farmers. Please dont haphazardly start running this equipment if you have no experience with hay implements without some on-site guidance from someone experienced who can coach you through the process. It can be very dangerous. I just dont want to see anyone get injured or worse by being unfamiliar with this type equipment. Use at your own risk if you do.

Thanks so much for the kind words! Much appreciated. Good luck with the first cutting. Best to you and your family.

@@8thdaychronicles of course! And you were NOT kidding when you said once she’s leveled she cuts as good or better than any other system and as fast as you can stay in the seat!!

@@leostewart1361 A good drum mower, for the money invested, is hard to beat for smaller family farm haying operations. Our hay fields are all sloped to varying degrees and because of that I cant run high gear full throttle here (not sure I'd want to anyhow, LoL), but as fast as ive been with the drum mower, it never skipped a beat. God bless you and your family!

@@8thdaychronicles takes me a bit longer than the neighbors with their large scale equipment but you can’t put a price on independence!

@@leostewart1361 Very true!

Thanks!

Awesome, thanks a bunch!

Hey! Shor nuff hay! Lol.

OK...Ill answer with a question (or 2): Is your tractor a "live" PTO model or "non-live"? I found that with a non-live PTO tractor, the run/stop/run cycle to start the twine wrap is a problem sometimes. My tractor is a non-live and I had to go to a larger diameter twine in order for the baler to pick up smaller diameter twine after stopping. Also, personally.....I dont like jute twine. Too thin, balers dont pick it up well, its weak, breaks easily, etc. I would encourage you to watch this video, towards the end, I discuss some new baling twine I used, and so far, it works GREAT in these type balers: ruclips.net/video/0mPctQXsKeg/видео.html My baler dont like poly twine. The coating and it being slick plastic, combine that with the rollers having to "grab" the twine to start wrapping, is a not-good combo. I dont suggest poly twine with these balers. Sisal twine is what I recommend. I found larger diameter sisal twine is not good either. Too big and it will not feed thru the pulleys well, jumps off the white pulley grooves occasionally. Sisal twine in the 90# knot strength range seems to be PERFECT in MY BALER...your mileage may vary. I have a buddy who uses 190# knot strength sisal twine in his and loves it. If your baler is not wrapping good AND your using POLY twine, go to sisal twine. Poly is just too slick for the rollers to CONSISTENTLY grab it. Jute is thin and weak. My baler runs the sisal twine (specifically the 16,000 Green, Tytan brand great. Hope this helps.

@@8thdaychronicles Does this help? Yes! That's some, no, the best specific information I've gotten from anyone anywhere about my baler challenges. And you drilled right down to your favorite twine pick, saving us much trial and error. I knew the twine was causing much of my frustration, and yeah, that jute twine FarmMaxx includes is worthless! How much do you mess with the tensioners, seems like they may be contributing to my woes.

The tractor is a little Kubota B-2601 with live PTO and hydrostatic transmission so that's okay though the tractor is too light for the heavy baler on our very hilly terrain.

@@ericalmquist889 Check out the video I linked above for more in-depth info on the Tytan brand sisal twine.

@@ericalmquist889 With that small tractor you would benefit much from fabricating a drawbar system for that baler instead of using the 3-point attachment system. Heck even a larger tractor would benefit from it....I LOVE our drawbar assembly we fabricated.

Thank you kindly! Yes, we try to interact all we possibly can with our FANTASTIC subscribers. And thank you for the kind words, much appreciated!

Thanks Sir. I done a small cut in a small area for an experiment with a weedeater just after filming. I whacked off a 5 ft circle pretty close to the ground, just to see how the growth would be…. And it has shot up very good. So, I may cut next week when our forecast is more conductive. As with any field, bumps, dips, even minute, can change your cut height slightly. This will be a trial cut with 2 spacers.. so I’ll measure stubble when I cut and let you know what the average cut height will be at 2 spacers. I pray God blesses you and your family!

@@craigwarren3439 great thoughts, if I had no plans to for another cut this year. I found out last year if you mow and leave it for compost fertilizer and then anytime later that same summer cut it for hay, that grass you cut does not have enough time to compost and degrade down into the sod before the next cutting. The tedder and rake will kick the old cutting all up into your fresh cut hay. I found that out the hard way last year on our reclaimed hay field. Now, if I had no plans for another cut of hay off this field this year, that would be a GREAT plan, it would have fall/winter to degrade and compost down into the sod and would be very good. This field was only bushhogged several years prior to us making it a good hay field and to this day I still see some spots with old cuttings down in the sod. Based on the fact we will probably take another cutting off this field later in the early fall, if we cut it now I’d choose to rake and bale whatever amount it gives just to get it off the field. Hope that makes sense. Thanks a bundle for the comment and for watching, I REALLY appreciate it much!

Thank you much for your kind words! I appreciate it. I’m no expert or any of this, I learn something every time I’m in the hay fields, whether seeding, cutting, baling, etc. We can learn together through this medium. Thanks again

@@8thdaychronicles Well, your closer to an expert than I am. As you learn more, I'll be hot on your heels to improve what I'm doing. I also liked your "test plot" idea. Except mine is a section hidden from view so others can't see me screw up before I move to the bigger fields.

@@Gilikemail thanks! The idea of a test plot wasn’t my idea actually…I learned about doing a small plot to “test” methods and ways of trying things on a small scale first on another channel several years ago. For the life of me I now don’t remember the channel I learned of it but I think it was during an interview a state extension office was doing with a farmer and he brought up the concept of a small “test plot” on their farm where they try different techniques without spending a lot of money. I thought what a great idea and started my own. And it has proven VERY useful. Thanks again!

Thanks for the good info from your area. Much appreciated!

@@wncprepper thanks a bundle! I walked the hay field again this evening and looked closely and I’m leaning towards cutting it the more I look and study about it. Appreciate your opinion!