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Cullom, Illinois | Cut my hay field this week and decide to make a few rounds in the soybeans to see how it would work out before I did a lot of acres. Here's my observations.
1. The leaves dry way before the stems do. If you had a flail conditioner, I think that would work the best. My Hesston conditioner with one metal roller and one rubber is not aggressive enough. Next time I'll tighten them up and see what happens.
2. You will have to rake them at least twice. Tall rank soybeans will rot in the windrow if not turned every day. My inverter worked well for this as the leaves become very brittle.
3. Soybean hay is heavy(not completly dry). My skid steer stuggled to pick the bale up. May have to make them a little smaller.
4. Smells similar to alfalfa hay. Beans dry up and cattle should love that.
I'd say if I have a nice week of warm dry weather the last week in September I'll give this soybean hay a try on the larger scale (10 acres).
P.S. An old timer told me last weekend that soybean hay burned down more barns than lanterns. Leave it outside. | |
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Follow up on soybean hay
