[daniel grover]

Posting this image for wally b, what a cool tool!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by daniel grover.

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[daniel grover]

Hey Wally and Jelmer,

Looks like there was an upload error when both of you tried to post some really great content. Let me know if I can help you get this up on the site–if you send it to me via email, I can attempt to post it for you — daniel.b.grover@gmail.com.

–Daniel

• This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by daniel grover.

[daniel grover]

Welcome! I do believe you may be the only Aussie I’ve seen post on the forum.

If you have a minute, please do tell us about the draft animal scene in your part of the world. Is there a growing small, sustainable farming movement in Australia? Are draft animals a part of the scene?

Best of luck with your plans for a team, hope you find what you need through the forums and site!

Daniel

[daniel grover]

We got in 1500 bales, mostly first cut (20 acres worth) but also a few wagons of really nice second cut. Finished last night around 10:00 with still two and a half wagons worth in the field, some in windrows, some untouched. It’s raining tonight so we’ll see when we have a chance to bring in the last of that first cut, may end up being bedding hay.

The early cut we got in May of 1,200 bales has put us in a decent position despite not being able to make any hay in June. If the rain stays consistent, we may get 4 cuts off that ground this year. Feels really good to finally have some sizeable stacks in the barn and the crews recovering before the next window rolls around.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by daniel grover.

[daniel grover]

Jay, what do you mean by register? We are generally happy with our two mowers #7 and #9 but i’d like to learn more about mower tuning and adjustments. Would you recommend the Lynn Miller mower book? Any other resources you’d point to?

Thanks,

Daniel

[daniel grover]

Hey Brad,

What has been your experience of running the open gear mowers? We’re looking at one that has been stored in a barn. It has markings for McCormick Deering, New Idea, and International Harvester on it. It also has some of what looks like original painted lettering on the seat post. Pretty cool.

We’ve only ever run Mc Deering 7s and 9s, though so we’re wary of getting a different kind of machine that we don’t know very well. We have also wondered whether parts are readily available for these mowers.

We’re cutting with two teams on 7′ bars, making hay on around 60 acres this year for horses, dairy cows, and beef cows.

Thanks!

Daniel

[daniel grover]

George and Joel, are you running steel or rubber on your #9’s? What length bar are you running?

Tuesday night the plan was to lay into our next haying target. We have a big 18 acres + 3 a acre piece of dairy pasture that didn’t get grazed so we were hoping to at least get the 3 down. Wednesday morning the forecast looked much more dicey so we decided not to mow. It’s now Thursday afternoon and still not a drop.

We also had both mowers apart. Leaving them outside a couple of rainy days and bad seals left us with rusty, dirty oil. Not as bad as it could have been if we hadn’t spotted it. I flushed both out with diesel this morning, refilled with clean oil, and used some of the squeeze on rubber gasket stuff to seal them up. I think it’ll work on the #7 since it has a fill plug in the top so we shouldn’t have to remove the cover too often (I’m thinking once a year to give a look). On the #9, though, there’s no fill plug so we’d have to redo the gasket every time we need to fill the oil. I also think that we have a bad pitman seal on that mower. Has anyone on here used the squeeze on rubber gasket for their mowers? Do you think it’ll be effective?

We’ll keep looking for another window to get the rest of our first cut in–some of the ground we mowed back in May is looking almost ready to be cut again.

[daniel grover]

This year we’re growing about 10 acres of vegetables, mostly at 36″ spacing, single row. We double up some things like arugula, two rows per bed. In order to cultivate these, we drop an inner shank from either side of our straddle row cultivator. Between the two rows we do by hand or with hoes. With these fast growing greens, it’s usually not too much hand work.

Like Stu, we plant tomatoes and winter squash every other bed, making the spacing 72″. Sometimes we’ll transplant or direct seed greens between these rows, sometimes not, depending on our timing and space needs.

[daniel grover]

We got 23 acres down in late May. Got it in, about 1,200 bales of high quality feed. Got down another 5 or so acres, rained on but still baled it and will use it for horses. Had about 2 acres come in damp– that will be bedding.

Haven’t had a real window yet in June and have a 20 acre field we plan to mow for first cut sitting totally rank. We’ll see how the mowing is once we get in there but I imagine it’ll be rough going. Any mower tune-ups or adjustments anyone makes when mowing lodged or rank hay?

[daniel grover]

I also know, thanks to Lauren, that David at Natural Roots uses aluminum pipe. 5″ that always stays in the hedge row (more of a grassy river bank at his farm), with a tee that goes to 2″ out to the fields. They water 1/2 a field at a time, with a timer on the gas/diesel pump, for four hours. Water is drawn from the river through a crate at the end of the pipe with a screen around it to filter. 2-3 sets/ day.

Pipe is moved via two people and bikes. Five pipes are stacked on shoulders, riders get on bikes, and ride down the field to the next set. Two trips per set of pipe. 250′ fields.

[daniel grover]

I agree with what Donn, Carl, and Will have written above.

As someone who took on about 25,000 in debt (relatively little, comparatively) in order to attend a four year liberal arts college and then became a draft-powered farmer, I have mixed feelings about the value of college in today’s society. My college education was and is incredibly important to me and in many ways shaped the world view that resulted in my seeking farming as a path.

One thing that is abundantly clear to me, though, is that I was not prepared to take on debt when I did. At 17 or 18, and having never taken on debt or paid my own bills, I could not conceptualize the impact that the debt would have or truly understand what it meant.

There are ways to receive a college education without going into debt. My advice is just to carefully question the assumption in our society that in order to go to school, you should take on debt and also the assumption that you should go to school at all. The world is full of amazing opportunities and possibilities to explore–college, whether 2 or 4 year, is just one of those.

[daniel grover]

Hi Wally,

Would you consider open sourcing your design and plans so that others can benefit from this great contribution to modern horse farming. I look forward to seeing what you’re working on. Check out farmhack.org, a place for documenting, sharing, and collaboratively designing tools for resilient agriculture.

Best,

Daniel

• This reply was modified 9 years, 7 months ago by daniel grover.

[daniel grover]

Can you show some pictures of the Swedish style harness–I’m curious what it is like. Also, would like to hear/see what type of American style harness you’re using–there are several popular versions.

–Daniel

[daniel grover]

Both Carl Russell and Jenn Judkins are not far from Rutland. Try Resting Heart Farm for Jenn.

–Daniel

[daniel grover]

Pretty awesome, it’s making me wish I was in France to learn more about these awesome tools. There’s a wealth of information at this site: http://hippotese.free.fr/index1.htm

Do you have any thoughts on a comparison between the Bucher, Kockerling, and Melotte?

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