Bale weight and hay rake

Ever since making my own large hay bales I wondered what they weighed.  CHS - which I am a member of as I make my living in agriculture - will weigh the bales for free.  A few weeks ago I weighed my pickup.  Today I loaded a bale in my pickup and had it all weighed.

First I had to wait for a semi-truck to unload its grain.  My bale weighs 1180 pounds.  Close to the 1200 pounds I thought.  And maybe even 1200 lbs.  I weighed my pickup empty a few weeks ago.  The only difference is my gas tank is a quarter less full.

Once I bale my second cutting hay I will weigh one of those bales.  I am curious if a newly created bale is a heavier than a six weeks old bale.

This bale is still a little green where the sun hadn't shone on it.

Later in the afternoon I hooked up the hay rake and began to rake my hay.

I had been at it for over an hour and had several windrows raked into a single large windrow.  Then the hay rake broke.  A metal piece holding the shaft in place to allow the belt to drive the rake broke.  Judging from the rust on the break, the piece had been partially broken for a long time.  My first few windrows which I had cut at a faster speed hadn't always cut all of the alfalfa bunches.   This made it harder for the rake to turn when I came upon these living partially cut wiry alfalfa.  I think the extra occasional stress caused the rake piece to completely break.

Oh no.  Now what?

Fortunately I have several neighbors who know how to weld.  Curtis was home as it was now late afternoon and he was able to weld the piece back together for me.  He also welded the rake shaft that the tractor's PTO shaft slips into.  The height difference between my tractor and the old small rake stressed the end of the rake's shaft and the shaft's end started to peel back when I used the rake back during the first hay cutting.

With the pieces welded I was able to get back to raking until dark.  I lost over two hours of work so I am behind schedule.

The welded piece that holds the shaft driven by the PTO.

The welded piece back on the rake.  The welded piece is mostly obscured by the belt.  This photo shows all the pieces I had to take apart on the rake to get this broken piece off the rake.  Part of the reason I lost over two hours of raking time.  Most of the bolts and nuts were different sizes.  Sometimes the nut for a bolt was a difference size than the bolt's head.

My hayfield varies in density.  Sometimes I raked two windrows into one; three windrows into one; four windows into one;, and even in a few cases, five windrows into one.  It is better on the baler to have a constant stream of hay fed into it.

Tomorrow I plan to finish raking and start baling.  Every day the weather forecast moves up the chance of rain.  Now the chances start Wednesday night / Thursday morning.