Lucerne is a fodder crop grown primarily for hay production & also for silage & grazing purposes. It is thought to have come from Iran or Turkey.
The lucerne is mown or cut using a trailing mower conditioner with disc cutters & plastic rollers. Raking is done with the more traditional “finger -wheel” side delivery linkage rake. When optimum the lucerne is baled into either small square bales or round bales. When baling small square bales, an accumulator is used behind the baler to collect “packs” of 15 bales. These are then tipped onto the ground where they are collected by the tractor fitted with a 15 bale hay grab. The pack size is 3bales by 5bales, providing a square “pack”.
These packs are then loaded onto a trailer & stored in the hay shed or either collected “off the farm” by the customer. This method is very easy & beats the old days of hand loading with a paddock loader. Firstly, you save your back & secondly this is a one-man or woman task. It also reduces risk of personal injury, eliminates you being on top of a moving load of hay.
Round baling is very similar, except the bales are left individually in the paddock & collected with a round bale silage grab (not hay spikes). I prefer the round bale silage grab as it is easier & quicker to use & bale placement on a truck or in the shed can be done with precision. I also use it to handle silage, so it saves on having two implements.