Lee and Chambers County Extension Hold Fourth Annual Hay Equipment Demonstration

Auburn, June 16, 2003 --- Cutting and harvesting hay with little more than a sickle and pitchfork in blistering summer heat was an all-too-common practice in Alabama a century ago. 

Mechanization changed all of that. 

Today, all a producer has to do is steer while the machinery does all the work.

“It is a lot easier today than it was even a few decades ago,” recalled Lee County Extension Agent Bobby G. “Smokey” Spears.  “It’s gotten now where you don’t even have to get out of your air-conditioned cab to adjust a belt or clear something that’s gotten clogged.  All of it typically can be cleared up with the push of the button.”

Still, like their forebears a century ago, if there is one thing modern cattle and hay producers lack, it is time -- time to stop long enough to think about ways they can improve their operations.

“So many of our producers just don’t have the time to make it to the local Ford or John Deere dealership to look at new products,” said Chambers County Extension Agent Kim Wilkins.

It is a problem made even worse this year, since many producers, because of unusually heavy rains, are spending all their waking hours harvesting a bumper hay crop.

Accommodating the typical producer’s chronic time constraints is what inspired Spears to organize the first Hay Cutting and Equipment Demonstration more than 4 years ago.  It was a way to give producers a convenient glimpse not only into the ways technology is changing but how they can profit from these changes.

The year’s event, held June 13 at the Lawler Angus Farm on Highway 51 South near Beauregard, attracted more than 150 pastureland owners from four counties – Chambers, Lee, Russell and Macon.

As usual, the demonstration featured cutting-edge advances in hay cutting and baling technology. 

Most of the area’s equipment dealers were on hand to discuss this new technology.  The demonstration also featured Dr. Donald Ball, an Extension agronomist and nationally renowned forage grass expert, and Larry Alexander, the nation’s principal supplier of Russell Bermudagrass, a promising forage grass that has been planted in 13 states since its accidental discovery in Russell County more than 2 decades ago.

Spears said producers are increasingly looking at hay cutting and baling technology as a way to offset the rising costs associated with running hay and cattle operations.

Only 25 years ago, Spears said, producers were still using square bales instead of the round bales you commonly see on pasturelands today.  The problem was that it cost too much to pay laborers get these bales out of the field and into the barn loft.

Improvements in hay balers changed all of that – and for the better.  The round bales produced by these new machines not only increased the speed with which hay could be baled and stored but also saved thousands of dollars in labor costs.

Spears and Wilkins said they hope knowledge gained from these annual hay equipment demonstrations will enable producers to make further savings in operating costs.

“It’s a good thing for farmers to be able to look at everything in one spot without taking more than a half day or so of their time,” Wilkins said.  “Their time is so valuable, and the advantage of this demonstration is that it packs in a lot of information in a very short time.”

(Source: Bobby G. "Smokey" Spears, Lee County Extension Agent, 334-749-3353; and Kimberly J. Wilkins, Chambers County Extension Agent, 334-864-9373.)

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