I have been planning for over a year now to bale my own hay without using fossil fuels. It has finally happened! Although the weather has been most uncooperative, I have successfully cut, tedded, raked, and baled hay with my Haflingers.

Cut - used a team with a #9 regular gear mower with a dolly wheel

Ted - used 4 abreast with my converted AC WD45 ground driven PTO forecart and a Grimm tedder

Rake - used 3 abreast on a Pioneer forecart with a John Deere roll bar rake

Bale - used 4 abreast with the AC WD45 ground driven forecart and a New Holland 66 baler

Due to my learning curve and weather, we only got a few bales done and it was rained on again, so the field was pretty much a loss, but the education and experience was priceless! I am now feverishly looking at the weather forecast to be clear for a few days so that I can start over and refine my process.

Congratulations! That must be very satisfying. As to the amount of hay harvested so far, I can assure you that in our region almost nobody I know has any hay in- and it is raining again today and tomorrow!

Good for you. I mowe all of mine with a i&j ground driven 8 ft mower, rake and fluff with the horses .but I haven't been able to bale with them yet, love to see pictures of your pto cart.

Jay, would love to see that forecart also. A couple of guys up in Vermont have carts built that way and they seem to work well. Nice going.

I would love to see pictures as well Jay. We are using just horses for haying (Haflingers) but putting it up loose instead of bailing it. It really makes one look at the efficiency of horses differently when one can put up hay for almost no cost.
Billy

As requested...

http://jaychase.com/Farm/images/7-6-15%20Baling%20Hay%20with%20Horses.wmv

Thanks for all the support! I agree with Billy and love the sustainability of doing hay from start to finish with true horse power. Now to get our systems down so we can replicate regularly.

Add me to the chorus of supporters. I'm Working on doing the job 100% with the team but not quite there yet. Lots of little things to take care of to make it happen and then running the farm on top of that!

Great to see someone named Chase baling hay with horses. I would love to see more of that big wheeled for cart. I have baled a lot of square hay with a tractor and I have owned a lot of balers. If you don't have your rpm s up on the baler before moving in on the windrow you can get clogged up. I would think this is your biggest obstacle, having enough rpm s. I would love to see this work in person. We rake with 4 abreast Belgain mares pulling twin New Holland roller bar rakes. It is much more efficient than raking with one rake and it makes a much nicer window. But I still bale with a tractor.

Where you able to bale the entire field with the horses? What are your next steps to optimized the process?

Billy,
It started to rain so I wasn't able to do much. I am learning how the baler works and trying to decide which gear on the cart would be best, I am thinking 3rd. I have a local old timer that keeps stoping by and giving me pointers on the baler. Finally, get the horses in better shape!
Thanks,
Jay