Would it work on the next bale? Yes it did. And on all the other bales except for the last bale. The last bale was half the size of a normal bale. I'm not sure if the gate failing to completely open was due to the machine or the small bale. I tried driving backward and then slamming on the brakes. After going forward and backward a few times the back gate opened when I used the lever and the bale rolled out.
I did have the twine sucked into another bale today. I was so focused on whether the new bale would roll out of the baler I forgot to stop and tie the twine to the baler's grill.
I forgot to mention that yesterday the baler developed a strange sound when running. I thought some old metal piece was starting to rub. When I stopped and checked I found a small rock was in the baler's hay pickup and each time a tine came around it would strike the rock. I pried the rock out and the sound stopped.
 |
| Where the small rock had gotten stuck. (Photo taken after I removed the rock.) |
After I finished baling the hay I cleaned the baler. I cleaned the hay and dust from when I baled and I also cleaned the old dirt and gunk left by the previous owner. Due to the old dirt and gunk it took along time to clean the baler. I also removed as best as I could some old twine caught when the previous owner ran the machine. He apparently used yellow twine.
Unless I miscounted, it appears I got 35 1/2 bales. Much more than I expected. I would have been happy with 20 bales. I got 34+ bales from my hay field, almost a bale from part of my north pasture, and a half a bale from my neighbor's field.
In the evening I began moving the bales to the north pasture. I worked until dark. It takes some time to move each bale. With the uneven ground I can't drive fast with all that weight on my bale spear. I don't know why but 3/4 of the bales ended up in the south half of the hay field with quite a few bales near the southern end. I shouldn't complain... this is much better than loading and moving small square bales by hand.
I was even able to move the one bale that wasn't completely tied yesterday. I drove slow and the bale mostly held. Only a little bit of hay fell off the bottom when I initially lifted the bale.
Tomorrow I finish moving the last eight or so bales. It will be nice to be done. A week of being bounced around a tractor seat is wearing me out. I almost didn't get this blog post done tonight as I kept falling asleep earlier.
 |
| Typical bales |
 |
| The half bale |
 |
| Pasture and bales from one corner of the hay field. |
 |
| One corner of the hay field. |
 |
| Not all of the grass was cut. |
No comments:
Post a Comment