Hay on a small scale

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Silly me -- searching the Web instead of going straight to Permies! Check out this improvised sickle mower:
https://permies.com/t/41610/Cordless-Hedge-Cutter-Sickle-Bar

That’s brilliant!

Scroll down in the link. There are goats!

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Scroll down in the link. There are goats!

I saw them! Cuties. I may have to post a photo of our goats eating homemade hay once we have some made and stored. I’m hoping to put by a bunch of tree hay as well as grass hay this year. Lots of experiments in trying to reduce our off-farm inputs.

We bought the used bush hog last night. So if all goes well there may be some hay cut soon, after what I expect will be a certain amount of futzing about to get this properly fitted to the pto on the tractor. It’s a 48 inch model so about the same width as the tractor and able to fit through narrow gates, which is a plus.

To start with, we will dry, rake by hand, and stack as loose hay in the shipping container, tromping it down to compress it.

Try putting a tarp on the hay before you try tromping it down. It spreads out the force of your foot. Maybe like a snowshoe. Works very well when piling up leaves.

Let us know how it goes with the bush hog!

I suggest you make sure your hay is triple-dead-dry before packing. Any appreciable moisture breeds mold.

John Indaburgh wrote:Try putting a tarp on the hay before you try tromping it down. It spreads out the force of your foot. Maybe like a snowshoe. Works very well when piling up leaves.

Great suggestion. It might make the tromping less poky and itchy too. Although after moving the loose hay by pitchfork I imagine we will be plenty scratched and itchy anyway.

[quote=Douglas Alpenstock
I suggest you make sure your hay is triple-dead-dry before packing. Any appreciable moisture breeds mold.

Agreed. It can go without rain here for weeks or months in summer so there should be no problem achieving adequate drying. Which is good because this year at least, since it has been years since the field was last grazed, we will have lots of brush stems and leaves, weeds, etc mixed in with grasses and it could be slow to dry. I’m thinking this could be a far better winter feed for the goats than the grass hay we’ve been buying. It will be quite similar to what they eat when they are clearing brush in summer.