2017 First Cut of Hay with Big Tractor Power

[@amolson8594]

Great video, brings back great memories of being at the farm with my Grandfather when I was a kid and he would cut hay and grain.

[@kerrinbressant302]

Very cool. That JD 8600 machine looks like the world's biggest vacuum cleaner!

[@ShainAndrews]

That is a lot of activity. Imagine that repeating every 20 days. Fuel bill, maintenance cost, labor costs then seeing that dribble of hay going into the chopper. It must be working for them, but man sure seems like there is room for improvement there.

[@soarornorerkskindl8542]

Great camerawork! Narration was excellent too. This was really fascinating.

[@paulm17jd39]

+bigtractorpower - I live on a farm in Western Michigan and we have big and thick windrows too and we make each row for the chopper about 5 rows together. We also use a John Deere 8600, and 2 H&S mergers to make the windrows. I rode in the 8600 last year during hay and corn chopping, and the whole thing vibrated like crazy.

[@farmhandmike]

Great Video. In my opinion this is the way to mow hay if you have big acres to cover. I'll get my video up soon of the Krone Big M 420 mowing wheat.

[@GeorgeSaunders]

Cracking video, I really enjoyed watching that, looks like a very big operation, would be good to see the dairy farm itself some time.

[@bigtractorpower]

+George Saunders thank you. I enjoy watching your videos. The new Claas combine looks nice. I will look at a dairy tour. It is a neat farm. They milk cows, raise wheat, corn, soybeans and tobacco.

[@troyp467]

I suppose Kentucky is a ways down south, but as a Canadian who lives in south western Manitoba, (not far from where Versatile is made) it seems so crazy to me that people can be cutting hay already. Here, the most cuts we ever did was two, if you were lucky, I suppose dairy guys did three or four maybe. We just did hay, no silage or anything, but we don't start cutting until late June probably. People are just starting to plant right now and the tees are all still dead. Great stuff though, always good to see farming from other areas.

[@bigtractorpower]

Thank you for sharing. It's all about the warm climate here in Kentucky. Western Kentucky is where the south meets the mid-west. You have Western sized farms that enjoy the benifits of a warm climate. I enjoy watching farms in Canada on KZbin.

[@troyp467]

Yeah I will say you can definitely get a lot more footage down there since farming starts earlier and ends later. Another thing I notice is it is a lot of corn and soybean crop in a lot of KZbin videos i see form the states, not everywhere obviously, but I notice it a lot. Up here it's mainly wheat and canola. I know my uncle who grain farms has done soybeans in the past, but now I think he basically only does wheat and canola.

[@dieselman8v923]

We have had first cutting off here for a couple of weeks now here in Pennsylvania. Corn and soybean planting is starting as we speak.

[@douglasmacarthur8775]

( retired central Minnesota dairy farmer ) 4 cuttings is the norm. I have raised hay and bought semi loads of alfalfa at the hay auction and most commercial growers say it is very hard to get 1st crop of hay to test prime if cut after June 1.

[@melissakyletominac3508]

Troy Peel c b jj zzbhshhahshzbbzbzzv x. Ut

[@HabermanFarms]

love this kind of videos it's cool to see how other farms run things!!

[@easchit]

I really enjoy learning about all the farm operations. Would love to have my own farm someday

[@bigtractorpower]

Thank you for watching. Farming is a great way of life.

[@MatthewHoag77]

8245R on a mo-co? Why not? Overkill is underrated.

[@LordMuck]

Yep, Always better to be boss of the job !

[@nunya1059]

That is a very interesting way to harvest forage. We don’t do it that way here in Montana. Crazy having all that equipment for harvesting 7 days a year and takes a lot of drivers to do it that way. I know nothing of dairy forage. I have seen some alfalfa put up in wet round bales. Would this work for this ? What about Vermeer hydraulic basket rakes in stead of those tenders? Just asking have no clue if this would work.

[@rightsideofthegrass8114]

You did not say explicitly, but the implication was the alfalfa is cut, windrowed, and processed into feed product the same day - morning, afternoon, evening. This would mean high moisture content, right? Is there a target moisture that makes for best fermentation in the Ag-Bag? Also, how does the bagger work? I've seen photos, but it isn't clear. It seems there are a couple of beaters that "stuff" the material tightly into the bag. How does this process insure reasonable consistent compaction across the face of the bag? Another great video - thank you.

[@tractormanmike1830]

Alfalfa makes the best feed at 55 - 60 percent moisture. The mower conditions the hay and lays the windrow as wide as possible which dries the hay quick, raking it will bring the moisture down even more

[@bigtractorpower]

The weather here in Kentucky allows a firldvto be mowed and chopped in the same day. If you look at the triple mower section you can see him making the last pass. He runs by the headland pass and those windrows are only 2 hours old and you can see they are fairly dry. I filmed the Ag Bag up close and will have s separate video on it. If you look at our Novembet 2016 sorghum chopping video there is an in depth part on the Ag Bag operating.

[@rightsideofthegrass8114]

Thanks. I did not find the Nov 2016 sorghum chopping video. I'm not sure how to do searches with date boundaries. I will look forward to other videos that may discuss in more detail. I've never seen one work. What leaves me wondering is how the rotor that spans the width,near the bottom, is packing the silage fully across the face of the bag, including the top. It looks very simple, too simple to push the silage across the full face.

[@rikoskopas549]

Do you cultivate the alfalfa every year or do you let it on the same field like 3 years? And if you are cultivating every year, can you plant again alfalfa on the same field?

[@RileyRailAviationNTrucks]

Great video! Love that sunset at the end!

[@Excavating320]

Those are good lookin tractors with the mo co!!! 7 cuttings holy crap around here it's good if you get 2-3!!! Wow that's is coo!!

[@57fitter]

Are the flail type conditioners rough on the legumes? I know they're great on grass hay.

[@CYDRDH]

Great video 👍🏼👍🏼 thank you. Can you also record a hay wrapper for silage baling?

[@Theblindfarmer]

What's the grazing rate for a cow calf pair there or like owenton KY

[@fazor2430]

How many 946 mowers does that farm run? Ive seen up to 4 at a time in one field, from your videos?

[@TheFus2]

Do they run tine conditioners in the claas mower? In my opinion you shouldn`t use these conditioners in alfalfa because you lose lots of leaf biomass. They should use roller conditioners like in the Mo-Co in the claas, too. On the claas website they recommend the roller conditioner for alfalfa.

[@fergie35X]

Really great video. Interesting to see Claas kit in the US.

[@bigtractorpower]

+fergie35X thank you for watching.

[@daviddahl4148]

Always enjoy your videos very interesting, and informative.

[@codycarter6961]

was this all in the same day?

[@paulthompson5968]

These are great vids. Thanks to however makes them. Enjoy them much. :-)

[@AgriculturebyHans]

Great video and great machinery!

[@JM-ue7rd]

November 15th 2017 I find the quality of the film like hi-def quite well as well as the nighttime version the film quality was right up there. Make America great again. Hopefully with these reduction in so many laws and rules and regulations for hamster farmer can actually provide nutrition and profit for the farmer and food for the American public.

[@clinthymes5982]

Great video. Man I'd love to try this. If milk had alcohol in it I'd be in serious trouble

[@myronparks3495]

How many acres of hay does this farm have?

[@nickbayer7847]

Excellent video Mike!

[@bigtractorpower]

Thank you. You might be thinking of Mike Less. He had a great KZbin channel.

[@nickbayer7847]

bigtractorpower sorry for the mistake!!

[@paulm17jd39]

+ Lee Franklin - What do you use to cut, windrow, and chop with?

[@BarendvL]

Great video! Kids and I really enjoyed it. How many cows does that dairy milk?

[@maxhallman1036]

2100

[@paulbouwman229]

I'm surprised they don't run oxbo style mergers instead of those claas liners. One merger would more than out run two of those rakes while losing less leaves and picking up less stones and dirt.

[@bigtractorpower]

+Paul Bouwman I have filmed an OXBO 4334. They are impressive. This farm has tried a merger but likes the rakes better for the conditions here. They do run a Frontier Merger in straw.

[@marks_sparks1]

my favourite time of the year - hay and silage being cut.

[@elmcustomharvesting1072]

marksandsparks1 check out The Farming Life we are mowing hay down now in our videos.

[@marks_sparks1]

Elm custom harvesting thanks will do

[@iowadairyboysFarms]

Very nice video

[@dvanstraalen]

You should contact riverview llp and see if you can film one of their harvest or anything from their impressive operation.

[@HUSTONFARMSest]

Is this a Custom harvesting operation moving farm to farm or does the farm itself own this equipment? If they are chopping alfalfa one day every 20 days there's a lot of dollars in shiny green paint sitting around for 19 days

[@bigtractorpower]

+HUSTON FARMS est 1842 this is all one farms equipment.

[@Agriculturespotter]

Nice video!

[@kentuckyfarmer1129]

How many cows does this Diary here.

[@maxhallman1036]

If it's the farm I'm thinking of 2500

[@johntoothman4888]

John Deere makes some great equipment!!

[@TmaxRadio1]

Hell of a way to mow your lawn!

[@bigtractorpower]

They sound allot like a lawn mower.

[@Gunners_Mate_Guns]

They sure have come a very long way from conventional sickle-bar mowers, but you really need a major operation to be able to afford the roughly $250K that just one of these tractors and mower combos will set you back.

[@jessegreen1891]

Is there a difference between Silage and Haylage?

[@bigtractorpower]

+Jesse Green I think silage is a term mainly used for chopping corn. Haylage is the term used for chopping hay/alfalfa.

[@SebastianWarth]

Awesome Video Many Thanks!! I Loved the New John Deere 8600i!!!

[@JCLawn51]

I am surprised they don't replace all the mowers and windrowers with 1 Krone big M.

[@prylosecorsomething3194]

even the little farms up here in maine run big ms and big xs

[@CaptCamel]

never seen a big M in maine....where are you seeing them, i wouldnt mind watching one work

[@FreshEggs]

Great Video and great talk over to explain everything :)

[@elmcustomharvesting1072]

seems like this operation takes a lot of employees to. they do have big self-propelled mergers here in Elizabethtown Pennsylvania thanks for the video have a great afternoon

[@lucasmakk9279]

Hi Jason

[@Rattrafarm]

How many cuts will they get over the year

[@bigtractorpower]

7 cuts

[@elmcustomharvesting1072]

Rattra farm we get six here in Elizabethtown Pennsylvania alfalfa

[@scottstallwood5473]

is this robey farms in western KY?

[@maxhallman1036]

@@scottstallwood5473 pretty sure

[@londellstrite3481]

Why not use carts instead of wagons? That window is very small for that big of a chopper?

[@bigtractorpower]

They like wagons. Hay is cut here 7 times a year. It never gets very thick. The red clay soil is not the best for alfalfa as the field only lasts about 3 seasons.

[@billnboo4u]

great vid thank you love to watch em

[@THETROLLINGTRAIN1]

Why is the head so wide on the harvester very unnecessary for the size of the rows

[@hillfarming-fw7jq]

I have a question for big tractor power how do you film the equipment do you stand by it or do you use a drone

[@bigtractorpower]

+hill farming 2017 I just stand in the field and hold the camera. No tri pod or drone.

[@hillfarming-fw7jq]

bigtractorpower thank you I wondered​ I bet it is neat to stand by that big equipment

[@slawekwielogorski7916]

bardzo ładny i wydajny sprzęt poprostu super

[@barrettgpeck]

600 horse on a forage chopper seems a bit extreme, but I guess for what speed they are running those hydraulics take their toll.

[@bigtractorpower]

600 hp is mid sized. Some choppers are at 1,100 hp now. In hay you are collecting up 60 ft of crop and pushing it into to a small cutting area and into a spout to move 10 tones of crop in 2 minutes. In corn you are collecting 22 to 30 ft of corn that is 14 or more feet tall. It takes power to process all that material.

[@drewlindsay3553]

Why use several 250 horsepower john deeres for 4.6 meter mowers when you could use two on tripples

[@paulm17jd39]

I seriously think they should get a smaller chopper if they make that small of windrows, but then at the same time, the hay and corn could grow in yield, making it a bigger crop to chop. :)

[@bigtractorpower]

+Paul M17JD this farm runs two 8600s in corn and one in hay. Despite the smaller looking windrow when your in the cab of the 8600 you can feel the hay the moving through it. I would say it is the right sized machine for the job.

[@chriscardoza9714]

I'm back in California just can't see how you can chop wet hay in Liberia Kansas and Texas but what do l know they do it a lot different than we do it here in California l just wanted to see how they did it in those other states...

[@scottstallwood5473]

Is this Robey Farms in western KY

[@maxhallman1036]

Yes they are the only ones that run any type of Claas mowers in the area

[@paulm17jd39]

+ Bigtractorpower - Here in Western Michigan, we get about 4 cuttings a year, 5 if we're lucky. :)

[@leefranklin1415]

15 to 20 Days we will be chopping hay, here in southwest Michigan

[@elmcustomharvesting1072]

Lee Franklin we started mowing hay here in Pennsylvania on the 4th May

[@leefranklin1415]

Cold weather and rain has pushed everything back a week or so.

[@bigtractorpower]

Very cool. This footage was taken on April 27. Last year they were chopping on the 17th of April. Wet weather held chopping up about a week this year.

[@kanlife5768]

We would have been about 14 days out but had 20 inches of snow here in western kansas last week which laid it flat.

[@leefranklin1415]

Fri st chopping today, 60 acres .

[@oldfarmer3001]

But there is a 6140 R working, not 6125 rakes

[@brentmcmillen8829]

A merger would be much faster than those rotary rakes. Pick up a lot less stones also

[@bigtractorpower]

They like the takes because the crop is light and it moves the alfalfa well. They tried a merger and did not like the results.

[@gatorarp3054]

another great video.

[@bigtractorpower]

Thank you for watching.

[@petermills80]

why not run more triple mowers? and liner 3000 or 4000 rakes? then cut back on tractors and men.

[@thomashitchcock8553]

p mills hard to get front 3 point tractors In America you gotta special order them and it's not cheap

[@bigtractorpower]

Kentucky is the 5th largest beef cattle state in the country and the largest east of the Missippi. There is a good used market for 946 MoCos. The cattle farms are small and spread out. The MoCo fits their needs well. A triple mower, windrower or big mower do not. The farm just added a triple mower this year so time will tell if that's the way to go in the area.

[@zfilmmaker]

Price most likely. I sold my aging John Deere W150 windrower for a triple high speed system from Krone and the cost to get into that was head and shoulders above a disc conditioner. I kept my JD 735 mower as a backup. I'd love to own 3 triple mowers but I can't afford it.

[@rachaelriddell5912]

bigtractorpower as..

[@juliedeath7844]

p mills P

[@zachholt3157]

Whose dairy is this anyone know

[@maxhallman1036]

Robey

[@familiebechtel6092]

They would even have better quality, if cut, raked and picked up a bit higher than they do. Too much dirt pollutes the crop indicated by all the dust. Overall a very intersting video especially for people may not so familiar with the H&F production. Keep up the good work!

[@bigtractorpower]

+Familie Bechtel the red soil here in Western Kentucky does not seem to produce thick alfalfa. The stands are thinner than other areas leaving the dirt exposed a bit. I think a stand is good for about 3 years before it goes back to corn. I New York where I grew up alfalfa lasted 5 to 7 years and was much thicker and heavier.

[@mataiterapreha]

Wouldn't catch me standing that close to a running mower, I have seen where mower blades can end up.

[@dhansel4835]

He needs to clean off the grill of the tractor. You need good air flow over the radiator and air conditioner unit. We can't raise alfafa here in South Texas. Just Johnson Grass and Coastal Bermuda.

[@bigtractorpower]

They clean the radiator off between fields.

[@dhansel4835]

OK I feel much better...... I get a brush and air compressor and back-blow mine out when I mow weeds. :-)

[@HayMap]

Awesome video

[@bigtractorpower]

Thank you.

[@kyblackdog]

Windrows are small for such a big chopper

[@agronovenafarmingvideos6090]

wow! excelent equipment! Good video!

[@kyleshores432]

doesn't really seem time efficient to cut that far across the field to run the next windrow through the chopper, instead of doing a wide loop and coming to the next one over

[@bigtractorpower]

+Kyle Shores that is the standard John Deere header.

[@kyleshores432]

wasn't asking about the header.... WINDROW not windrower lol so when finishing the windrow they were on, the driver then cut halfway across the field to run the next windrow through, why not just hit the one right next to you and work back and forth across the field?

[@jankotze1959]

Very good, they must have a lot of cows

[@bigtractorpower]

+Jan Kotze it is a good sized dairy heard.

[@maxhallman1036]

2500 if this is farm I'm thinking of

[@con_joe5526]

Really good video man👍. Nice equipment but jaysus that was nearly 20mins of me cringing....those owners must have ALOT of money

[@maxhallman1036]

Yep robey makes a lot of money something like 3.23 million a year i wanna say

[@waynechristopher1135]

Nice video!! Thank you sir.

[@elmcustomharvesting1072]

I thought it would be a lot bigger Winrow going in John Deere 8600

[@mooseknucklegarage8439]

There 5 rows don't make much of a windrow....

[@bigtractorpower]

I think the red clay Soil here does not yield like other areas. I grew up in New York and a first cut windrow is huge. Despite the light look to the cut you can feel that merged windrow moving through the chopper up in the cab.

[@skoalring83]

Great videos

[@timothymiller4217]

seems like way to much chopper for the little windrows

[@themoose9226]

Just Subbed! Great videos!

[@bigtractorpower]

+The Moose thank you for watching.

[@jamesdavies542]

The sileage is stored so differently to Europe

[@bigtractorpower]

+James Davies how is it stored in s Europe?

[@jamesdavies542]

In the UK at least, it's stored in silos.

[@popeyen7550]

the best milk? u mean the MOST milk.

[@piperdoug428]

Obvious there's money in milk, white gold, Michigan 'T'. When that owner pulls into the Deere dealership it's a big deal.

[@FarmerBoy-zy7sj]

Nice video

[@uggahh430]

Betcha they don't haul bales like i use to.

[@bigtractorpower]

They do not bake this alfalfa this field is chopped 7 times per season. The farm round bales grass hay.

[@deepdiver4369]

You don't cut HAY!! you cut grass 🙈

[@reganweatherly7580]

Loosing quite a bit of material when their almost full

[@douglaslaramie9245]

This is a big operation. Would this be called a corporate farm. Some of the other channels I watch used to be in dairy years ago but had to get out because there was no profit. Would this be the future of dairy in the USA. Get big or get out. Great for the consumer with cheaper dairy products. Can a young fella build a future with financial security working at one of these big farms. Do all the players win in this scenario.

[@bigtractorpower]

This is a family farm with several generations involved in the operation.

[@omarcortes9992]

good video

[@ReolSPro]

wtf - i can smell hay now

[@evancorbett5827]

7 cuts?? Why not let it grow a little more and take maybe 4 cuts rather than running over the field every 20 days

[@buckhorncortez]

You have to cut alfalfa before it blooms. If the alfalfa flowers, then the plant energy goes into making the flowers instead of leaves. This cuts down on the nutrients available in the leaves. Sometimes these people actually know what they're doing....

[@douglasmacarthur8775]

If you want milk production, quality trumps quantity.The RFV test on alfalfa drops rapidly at half bloom stage.

[@francoisroussel4107]

P

[@ScotWalt858]

Thanks!

[@paulm17jd39]

+Evan Corbett - Totally true. :)

[@joelenfesty3034]

waaaaayy more power here than necessary (cutters and rakes) just about cringe worthy imo. we run two wheel rakes moving way more material on about half the horsepower and have no problems. and I have a hard time believing any pull type cutter is more maneuverable than a self propelled. they turn on the spot like a zero turn lawnmower.

[@kbcson]

he didnt say a self propelled windrower is not as maneuverable he basically said there is lots of smaller hay growers around and it is easier to get a better return on the investment with mo-co than spw's because the smaller guys can afford the big toys

[@alexthomson719]

what can I say great thanks

[@tractoranarac]

i have done heaps of raking and you can drive faster than that

[@con_joe5526]

James Cunningham - yeah....i was thinking wtf.....the only good thing about raking is that its fast....these guys are sending out 4 tractors to do the work of one or two at most

[@stewartritchie2516]

Thats no hay its silage

[@LaHaSi4208]

👍

[@danachappell3861]

Loved the video, but it had me cringing to see all the sloppiness by the alfalfa "combine". There was a lot of lost alfalfa, falling off the wagon and poor co-ordination of the driver for moving the augur. Wow.. money gone there.

[@cypressrage8823]

Dana Chappell We collect silage like this also and it's never neat.

[@maxhallman1036]

You'll never get it neat you'll always lose some alfalfa or chopped material