Making hay, rain or shine - Graham Godward looks at the various options available for cutting your grass

The majority of grass cutting in the United Kingdom is done for good management or just to keep things tidy. When cutting for disposal or compost we have already looked at the best methods of cutting to minimise the amount left in the field. On the other hand, when cutting to harvest, hay for instance, the opposite applies. A clean cut and everything removed is what is required, this is certainly the best solution for the wild flower meadow. Whatever your purpose, whatever your tractor, it is the removal that is the problem. It all comes down to three choices; cut and collect, cut and cart, cut and bale.

The first, cut and collect, is simple, particularly for disposal or for compost; it is a one-pass operation using the tractor and a flail collector, or rotary mower with a blower and hopper. Our company and others supply machines with a capacity of half a cubic metre to six cubic metres, the limitation will always be the carrying capacity.

For haymaking we have to look at the other two options.

The question is "to bale or not to bale?" The decision depends on simple things like acreage, the availability of a reliable contractor, or a baler, the quality and value of the hay and the time available to do the operation.

The cut and cart (not to bale option) is of course no longer a one-pass operation, it is the traditional way of making hay or silage. Using a cutter bar mower for the gentlest cutting action, or a disc or drum mower will allow a hay rake to follow the windrows. The simple wheeled rake is inexpensive and requires no pto drive, used on a tractor three point linkage, or with an implement carrier, behind a quad bike or 4 x 4 it will turn hay and also rake it into larger rows for collection or baling. Using your tractor at this stage for collection can save a great deal of hard work. The hay sweep is a very old traditional way of moving large amounts of grass or hay, a section of a row is gathered and pushed to the stack or barn using the sweep and dumped ready for stacking by withdrawing the sweep from under the hay, a sweep can be bought or made at home and although not perfect it will move hay. The buckrake is a more modern smaller version of a sweep which is mounted on the tractor lift system and as such can carry the hay, or, if fitted to a loader it can be used as a large fork to load a trailer for the transport of the hay over a greater distance. The hay will then need to be stacked in a building or a haystack and covered for protection against the weather. A wire cage stacking system will allow a secure stack to be erected where a building is not available and there is no doubt that very good hay can be made in this way with only a minimal investment in haymaking equipment for your tractor.

Whichever method of storage and stacking you choose do remember that all machinery is potentially extremely dangerous and that bales are heavy and hay stacks present the dual danger of having a hay bale strike a person which will hurt and could even be fatal, or having someone fall from the top of the stack or from a tractor trailer.

The hay field is no place for children unless they are strictly supervised and strict safety rules are observed. They should not be in machinery, sitting on top of trailers especially whilst moving nor throwing hay bales around. This may seem a bit spoil sport but there have been some truly horrendous accidents with machinery and in hay fields. It is a big pressure to get the hay in on time, in good condition and the more you do, the tireder you get.

You cannot expect people working in a hay field to supervise children or animals as well - the same criteria applies to dogs. So keep children away from working machinery, away from hay stacks and keep them safe.

Obviously if an older child wants to help responsibly under supervision then this is acceptable but he or she must be kept safe at all times. And remember too, adults are equally capable of having accidents and this is a tiring and quite pressurised time of year for smallholders and farmers.

For those with more ground or less time, there is no substitute for a baler.

Using a baler after the hayrake is by far the easiest way to gather hay, the choice between a round and the conventional square baler is important. Large round bales are better if handled mechanically on a large scale and the hay is to be left outside, conventional bales are much easier to handle, stack and to store inside smaller buildings. The mini round baler is a compromise which gained popularity as something newer on the market with the practice of wrapping bales in plastic. However, as many round balers have to stop each time to eject a bale and conventional balers do not, for this reason there can be quite a considerable difference in output, in addition carting and stacking small round bales can be more difficult.

Nowadays both conventional and round bales can be wrapped mechanically to create something closer to silage in terms of feed value, but on a smaller scale it is expensive and does take time. The cost of small conventional and round balers is very similar at around six to seven thousand pounds each. The main disadvantage for those looking for a good second hand conventional baler is that good small square balers are almost impossible to find and tend to be very expensive or very old and not serviceable. A new baler can last twenty to thirty years and will need to be seen as a good long term investment which will save money for many years to come.

n For those at the RWAS Smallholding and Garden Festival, we shall be in our usual spot in the South Glam Hall. We very much look forward to meeting you and will be very happy to answer questions or help in any way that we can. Or you can send your questions by email to Smallholder at liz.wright1@btconnect.com