Haying Part 3......Time to Bale

Another installment of the haying process brought to you by a farm wife with a head cold.........please excuse me if this doesn't make sense.............. my brain is muddled.
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After the raking process is completed, the windrows are left to cure for a few days. Depending on the time of year and what cutting we are in, the curing process can take anywhere from a couple of days to four or more.........it just depends on the weather conditions. Our fourth crop is taking longer on the curing process as we have had some odd weather in the past week..........rain and cold day time temperatures do not help the curing process along. Usually the baling process here takes place in the early morning hours when the dew starts to come in.............you want a bit of dew to help with the baling process.........you don't want to grind up bone dry hay. Our fourth crop though is being baled as conditions allow..........Hayman and Mr. B. baled from 9 p.m. last night until around 1 a.m. this morning. They grabbed a bit of shut-eye, then went back out around 9 a.m. this morning to bale another field. As I type this, I can hear the tractors and balers running in the field..........

The guys run two Heston balers here on the farm.............they are 3 x 4 balers, which means they put out a 3/4 ton bale that will average around 1400 lbs. The bales are 3 feet high, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long..........I just like to call the balers, "Big" balers.............................Below they are heading into the field.
Mr. B. turning into the field with his tractor and baler.........................
Hayman right behind with his "big green" tractor and baler...................
And they're off..................it will usually take around four hours of baling with two tractors to complete a field.....................The balers pick up the hay from the windrow, run it through a chamber and into the center of the baler, where it is then compressed to form a bale of hay. ( I know there are more technical terms for that process, but Hayman isn't here to provide that info and my thought process is muddled from the head cold..........if I get something wrong info wise, I'm sure the guys will let me know about it..................)
Here they come back towards me.................they will drop bales throughout the field as they move around the pivot circle.
The bale is complete as it moves out of the back of the chamber and onto the ground. The bales will be picked up later using the American Eagle bale-wagon.................stay tuned for the fourth installment where I will show you how we pick up the bales from the field.....................
If you have any questions about the process, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to supply the answers................with some help from Hayman.