Cutting hay

[Ed Thayer]

Is anyone else going to cut today. It looks like a promising forecast for the next few days. These forecasts scare me when they go out 4 or 5 days with no precipitation. I’m a little gun shy from last years fiasco.

Ed

[Rick Alger]

Not going to here in Milan. Cloudy and mid 40’s.

[Ed Thayer]

Glad I watched the news at noon. Pretty good chance of showers at night and early Sunday now. Guess I will have to wait a bit. L

[Mark Cowdrey]

I mowed a small piece yesterday late AM (1.5 ac.?), counting on the v. low dewpoint and high winds today to do the job the sun didn’t show up for. Even w the 2″ downpour we had Sun. night the ground was not particularly wet or soft in the low spots. It got showered on yesterday which didn’t hurt it any and gave it an extra 24 hrs to wilt (since i didn’t wait til today when rain showers were done) which will help as it is so green. Orchard grass is headed out and timothy in the boot. Bed straw just starting to bloom on the ends. planning to bale it Saturday before the showers and then, if the forecast holds and all the equipment works, get right after it early next week.
After much dicking around and finding missing pieces online I got the A-22 mower attached and setup up on my “new” Farmall 100. It worked well enough tho I am tweaking it a bit before I mow again. The A-22 is not as nice a mower as the #9, in my opinion. You can neither adjust the attack angle on the fly nor is there a way to control the “weight” of the inner shoe and bar. The whole rig is more loosey goosey which doesn’t appeal to me. But it works.
I must admit to feeling a bit treasonous out there.
Good luck to all w their haying.
Mark

[LongViewFarm]

I’m once again just going to read and learn from you all. Trying to figure out the timing of haymaking and learn the species involved. I made some after cutting back pasture on Memorial day, just to see if the equipment would work. I think I had beginners’ luck- it’s good hay. made for long days, teaching and haying after 3pm.

[Does’ Leap]

Hi Ed:

Even though it might not be 100%, you can’t get better than 4-5 days of no precip. I would cut! We don’t have that weather, but it is coming next week and I plan to mow. We put up 100 bales the week before last of some nice first cut hay (dandelions and all!). It dried up pretty well as there we very little moisture in the grass and in the ground.

Happy Mowing.

George

[Mark Cowdrey]

Busted!

[Ed Thayer]

Sorry the weather didn’t cooperate for you Mark. I waited until Saturday to mow and knocked down about 3 acres. I was very impressed with the crop this year. Lots of nice clover intermixed with the orchard grass and timothy. Ground was dry and it laid down super. Going to ted this afternoon and let the wind help.

The compost spreading on the hay field has begun to show its value. This field had been commercially mowed by the local dairy farmer and fertilizer was used for years. We have only been spreading composted manure now for 6 years and it is amazing the moisture that is retained where it is spread. And we only mow twice a year now as opposed to the 3 times when they were green chopping it.

Going to be a busy week.Good luck to you all.

Ed

[dominiquer60]

We would have made more hay earlier, but were caught up with 20 acres of rye straw. Mowed several acres this morning, the wind will have it dry in no time even though the temp is not that high.

Erika

[Donn Hewes]

we mowed about 5 acres yesterday. I am hoping I can ted it today and bale it tomorrow, but the high today is only 70! We shall see. Threat of rain on Thur. I am working with Jay Fisher’s horse, Zeek, here on a loan; one young mule, Lee; my Percheron mare, Lady; and two of Bill West’s Suffolk Geldings, Aldo and Sam. Combined with two young teamsters it makes for fun mixing and matching.

[Donn Hewes]

Good thing I had two people to ted the hay today. One could drive the team of three while the other picked up the wheels and washers that kept falling off! Just the other day i changed out all the wheel for solid plastic wheels, but I had to fab up some special washer to make then fit. One of the washers that I welded completely disintegrated, like turned to soft fiber. Very weird. it is tedded and drying now. I need a little nap and then I will go out an grease the rakes and get the baler ready! D

[Does’ Leap]

We cut 11 acres over the past couple of days. Beautiful drying weather here – sunny, dry, and breezy. Hoping to start baling this afternoon.

George

[dominiquer60]

Drying almost too well. Hay cut Tuesday morning was brittle and chaffy baling up wednesday afternoon. We would have baled the remainder this morning with a little dew, but we had to unload wagons instead. A nice new seeding with Timothy caught in boot, it should keep the mares going well in their last trimester this winter.

Erika

[Ed Thayer]

Baled the first 3 acres yesterday. Great hay with that sweet smell you get from nothing else in life.

Cut another two fields yesterday and today and hope to be ready to bale on Saturday. Happy to have good luck this year. Last year was one to forget.

Ed

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