Seriously? Not a single reply yet. Preppers, Preppers, Preppers......Don't make me get back on my soap box......or re write this post under the heading "The ultimate bug out bag gun". My muscles are busting from helping a neighbour that raises goats and farrow dear, get his supply of hay in. The work will be returned in firewood stacking latter. Rain swept in and 1 quarter of the harvest was abandoned in our race to get it all under shelter. Its enough. The animals wont starve. That done, light rain sprinkling with heavy rain on the way, Us three in two trucks raced out to another field because we knew the older couple down the highway were behind. I didn't even get introduced before throwing on bails in the race to get them in a barn. No hay means Ethiopian looking horses buy spring. In an economic collapse or worse, don't expect cheese ever again ...if you are not interested in hay.

Later with a beer in hand, we discussed the old methods of hay storage in the context of a world where you could not afford diesel, if any was to be had. What if you don't even have a barn?

Too busy this year but next, I think I am going to try this traditional method

http://www.leafpile.com/TravelLog/Romania/Farming/MakingaHaystack/MakingHaystack.htm

I promise to write as a reward on my break on my hay stuff.. back soon!

C5 - this is a great topic and one that at the moment I have no personal solution for. Someone else cuts our field for us and we rely on them and their equipment. I guess before I worry about a sickle mower I better buy a tractor or get a horse. I look forward to the rest of this conversation!

More hay today. More pain. More mind mush.

Just a quick thought. I think a larger quad or a 4 cylinder car might be able to handle pulling a sickle mower. You still need someone riding it because it clogs and jams a lot and you need someone to blow a whistle to stop the tractor, hop off and unclog it...without losing a finger if the blades move. It would help to put a ball hitch on the far right corner of a pick up truck as it would improve efficiency. A heads up though in that you want the bar attachment at 32 inches at full pulling bar length for proper lubrication. A short cutting bar will need less power if you attach it to an animal that is less than a draft horse or 2. We were lucky ( Thanks Lee Enfield) in finding a near local guy that reconditions a couple a year to sell equipment to the Amish an Mennonites.

OK. I can collapse and be stupid now..... More latter 😯

It would help to put a ball hitch on the far right corner of a pick up truck as it would improve efficiency. A heads up though in that you want the bar attachment at 32 inches at full pulling bar length for proper lubrication.

In retrospect....that explanation sounds like crap and an alien engineer wrote it so earthlings wouldn't understand. Ill try to do better when my brain is ready for human speech again. Haying is rough. Farmgal, you don't need to explain further.

Duh, I should have realised that anyone that knew what I was talking about...wouldn't have time to respond to my post. LOL

Good looking mower, Cern. I hope it cuts as good as it looks. The only sickle bar advice I have to offer, you have probably already heard: have replacement teeth and a spare pitman on hand, the grass board IS important, keep the ball well lubricated, and, of course, always mow the back cut last.

I, too, worry about making hay post SHTF. Having spent last week sweating and cursing or sweating and smiling to get our hay in, I am always amazed at how many diesel/gas powered, rubber tired machines are used in modern hay making. Four tractors, rotary mower, tedder, side-delivery rake, baler, trucks, trailers, escalator. Then there’s the AMOUNT of hay. 200 bales per cow equals a LOT of loose hay. We, as a people, will be forced to severely limit our over-wintering livestock. Most small farms of a hundred years ago kept three draft animals (a pair and a spare), one or two bred cows, and maybe a couple of ewes. I believe that is where the sustainable level will be.

I’m thinking I’d like to have on hand a horse-drawn mower and a steel-wheeled side delivery rake. Drags and/or hay-doodles could be easily made and substitute for hay wagons. Year one/two would be rough until draft animals are raised and trained. Post SHTF, there should be MANY more folks willing to fork hay and sweat in the sun.

I wondered what you meant by hay doodles so I looked it up and laughed because my field has many doodles in it at the moment. That's because I have no special equipment other than the cutter and a utility trailer to move the hay, pulled behind the car last year and truck this year. Very funny looking but, hay, That's improvisational survivalism. I had hand raked the hay into doddles to be forked onto the trailer later.

In looking this up, I stumbled on this article ...and a great way to move the doodle if you don't even have the trailer and a limited work crew. I have to try this. I might even be able to move the doodles with my motorcycle. Now that will be some funny looking improvisational haying. Just picture it after you read the article
http://www.angelfire.com/journal/prehistoricarch/jsk.html

Don't have time to read it but will before bed, but is it going to get funnier looks then I do when I haul it in like this??

And the learning curve on how to roll and get those two rolls on the calf, the cow can do five bundles at a time now but now we have the draft horse as well and a wagon to load and haul with but I still like rolling and hauling it this way just to keep the skill on it..

Very important topic, thankyou C5 for bringing it up. So, the final result is that you will have a huge pile of hay? Will you cover it to keep it from getting wet/moldy?

Let's say if an arse-hole were cutting your hay & splitting the bales with you, then you wanted to get rid of the arse-hole just cause he's an arse-hole, but didn't have money for haying equipment, could ya just leave the hay growin or would it become a fire hazard? Do ya need to keep the arse-hole in the picture if ya can't swing the harvest of your own accord?

Another thing, when you take that huge amount of hay off your land, how do you replenish the fertility of the soil?

How many acres of hay are ya doin this here hard way that you deescribe??

Here is the bad news. If you don't cut your fields, It will eventually get take over by alders. 2 fields on our property are lost already due to this. We are fighting to reclaim fields that were left to sit too long. You may be stuck with the Ahole.

I, personally, would cover....probably with a recycled walmart pool that a mouse chewed threw. Im recycling a lot of this material lately... but traditionally, the hay stacks were "Combed" basically creating a straw roof that repels water.

The old fashion way of fertilising was a hoarse drawn muck spreader disposing of what you cleaned out of your animal stalls.

thanks. What kind of hay do you have? Any weed issues? Use any chemicals?

Hi, what about making silage or 'haylage" in a pit(s) instead of baling/dry storage?...as an option and work/space-saver?
Not out of firsthand experience, but my understanding is that, being fermented, it may also be more nutritious?
A friend of mine, while homesteading in Georgia , did this with good results.

thanks. What kind of hay do you have? Any weed issues? Use any chemicals?

We are chemical free for at least a decade if not more. The weed problem is mainly golden rod, alder and something that looks like chokecherry but supposedly isn't.

villager. I know silage but have zero experience around it and I don't give my opinion on things I have zero experience with. Hopefully some one here has experience with the subject

I love the picture of the calf carrying the hay in. I think for me it will evolve into something like having a lot fewer and smaller grazers than the horses I have right now so that I can handle growing and harvesting bundled hay like that and maybe alternatives like amaranth ? I simply don't have the aptitude to fix mechanical things nor the acreage size for machine scaled hay production.