Page 24 - The Farming Years proof

FARMInG WITH HAY In MInD
ence than me. All through my farming years he was a valued and willing contributor and we really understood one another. So we have all the bales in piles and we initially used a tractor and trailer to load into the barn but later we had a truck with a tail lift.
We did put fertilizer on the hay areas to get a second cut but it was not a success as we only managed 360 bales from the total acres. We sold the total 1,910 bales for £45 a ton which gave us £2,800 for a rst year. This was in 1976. Clearly we needed some mechan- ical assistance with bale transport and bought a Perry bale loader which is xed to a tractor fore-end loader and lifts the stack of 8 bales onto a trailer or truck in one action. This matched up with a bale sledge we also bought which was towed behind the baler and collected up bales and was released by pulling a string from the tractor when full. An even better system was to get someone to ride in the bale sledge and pile the bales up to about 4 high – a great help when collecting and person riding could have better control for releasing the bales.
For 1976 we were able to use the 15 acre factory eld for hay hav- ing given the farmer his notice. In the spring of 1976 we chain-har- rowed all the elds having bought a new set of chain harrows. The chain harrowing helps growth and the application of 21⁄2 cwt of fertilizer per acre after to get a good crop.
In 1976 we made 3,340 bales and in 1977 3,591 bales. Both years came out at around £5,000 sales. This gave us hay for the horses but no straw for bedding but John Billows had planted barley on the other 3 acre eld next to the one he sold the top-soil . After he combined it was agreed that we would bale the straw for the hors- es which lasted for several years from 1975. In 1978 we started growing barley in the 13 acre top eld at Loddington Farm. It was spring barley under-sown with grass thinking it could be used for grazing in the autumn. The grass under-sowing was a big mistake but we carried on haymaking on the rest of the land. Ultimately, I
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