Equipment Needed to Harvest Hay

Mower

• A mower, sometimes called a windrower, is the first piece of equipment needed in hay harvesting. The mower cuts the standing plants and lays them down in narrow rows, called windrows. The mower can be self-propelled or pulled by a tractor. Self-propelled mowers or windrowers have a mowing head attached to the front of a wheeled machine. The driver sits behind the mowing head and steers the mower across the field. Tractor-pulled mowers can be more challenging to operate because the operator has to pay attention to where the tractor is going and to the mower to make sure it is operating correctly. Mowers usually travel at less than 10 miles per hour, but can go faster. The speed is limited by the effectiveness of the mowing. If the machine goes too fast the mowing head may not be able to cut the plants quickly enough, resulting in clogged cutting bars or missed patches of hay.

  Some mowers rupture the stems of the plants to help them dry faster. Since the leaves are usually thinner than the stems they dry faster. The plants need to be completely dry before the hay is baled. This helps ensure the hay will not mold.

  It is important to make the windrows as straight as possible to make it easier to do the next step, which is raking the hay.

Rake

• Rakes are designed to move the windrows across the stubble or soil, helping them dry faster by rolling them over and exposing the bottom of the windrows to the air. Some rakes also combine two or more windrows into one, which reduces the amount of time and distance required for baling the hay.

  Rakes can be towed behind the tractor, mounted on a three-point hitch or attached to the front hitch of a tractor.

  Raking hay, especially legume hay such as alfalfa, should be done before the moisture content is below 40 percent. This is to prevent leaf loss, since the dryer the plants the easier the leaves fall off. The leaves are the most nutritious part of the alfalfa, so retaining them is important.

Balers

• The final step in harvesting hay is baling it. Big round bales are probably the most common, but small "square" bales (which are actually rectangles) and hay stacks are also used for putting up hay. Balers and stackers are pulled behind tractors. The balers use a belt to pick the hay up off the ground and wrap it into a tight cylinder and tie it with twine, wire or wrap it in large plastic sheets or netting. The purpose of this is to make the hay into a compact object to shed water, handle easily and feed easily. Small square balers use the same principle, but make the hay into rectangular prism-shaped packages and tie them with twine or wire. Hay stackers don't compress the hay, but stack layer upon layer to create a loaf-shaped stack of hay. The top is rounded to shed water, and nothing but gravity holds the stacks together.