Haying 2013

[Carl Russell]

It really doesn’t look like drying conditions have improved all that much over last weekend….. I hope you folks get some good hay out of this.

I just want to express my appreciation for the attitudes that we all have been sharing here. Even though we all use hay in our livelihoods to one degree or another, we have all also factored in some resiliencies and back-up plans…. Selling mulch, bedding hay, mixed power, off-farm incomes, other important farm work, grazing alternatives….. The list goes on, and the humor and good spirits remain in tact regardless of the obscured challenges that our environment has been hurling at us this summer.

Thank you, and keep up he good work, Carl

[mink]

glad i changed my mind about mowing yesterday ,its looking like rain again.i was wondering with this late cut hay how many people here feel you need to supplement extra grain this winter.

[mitchmaine]

well said carl. regionally we are all up against the same hay gods and we each win and lose some of the battles. its easy to put wonderful hay in the barn when the sun is shining and weather is in our favor. its much harder, but more important I think, in a poor year to put up as much hay regardless of quality as possible. cause all the neighbors are in the same boat, and in mid winter, there is always something that can be done with any kind of hay. we all have sold some pretty iffy hay to others trying to get through the winter, and its good for all concerned. beats feeding them snowballs. clean out the barn in the spring and wait for beautiful june hay to come in but take what you get and try not to take it personal cause everyone lives under the same cloud.

[near horse]

Hi Mitch,

We’re not really the high plains but are on the eastern edge of the Palouse. Rainfall here is USUALLY 2″ to 4″ per month in April, May and some of June then it’s done. July, August and part of Sept are dry <1″ of rain in each month and sometimes the sum total of all 3 months barely breaks an inch. The weather pattern here is why/how the Palouse farmers make a living farming dryland wheat. Wet quits about when they need it to so the grain can dry down for harvest.

Irrigation (wheel line) is only seen along the river where they can pump out of there.

Winter snowpack is what recharges our aquifer as well as our river flows.

I’ll see if I can post any pics of my hay from this year (pre and post harvest).

[Jeroen]

Over here in France we usually hay in may or beginning of june. It rained until the first of july and then it was over: hot and windy since. Now everything is drying so fast, we cut, rake and bale within 48 hrs. It was too steep for my horse and mower and I wanted it in fast so we used tractors, but went out to get some of the bales with the horse.
Here are pics (watch the castle in the middle..):

[Does’ Leap]

Geoff, I searched some images of the Palouse out of curiosity – beautiful. I am big fan of the Cascades and western Washington but have never been to the eastern part of the state. I would be interested to see some of your pictures.

We baled around 400 yesterday. It was very hot and the hay was nice and dry. We have another 100 or so to bale today. The drive chain kept coming off of my hay elevator which necessitated removing the sprocket, resetting, and reassembling. Does anyone have a tensioner for the drive chain on their elevator?

George

[mitchmaine]

George, doesn’t your elevator have a sprocket at the top that expands into the chain with bolts? when the chain starts to wear, you pull out a link and start again.

thanks Geoff, like George, I have been to eastern Oregon out to the coast and up to b.c. but never got out your way, sounds great.

[Ed Thayer]

Baled 200 yesterday and the hay was good quality, I had help from the neighbors and friends and I was grateful to have them throw hay into the barn for us.

I am a rookie hay maker and had a little trouble yesterday. I tedded the hay twice and then raked it at 3:00 to prepare for baling. I got the baler running and made a couple passes around the field and the baler miss tied every 10 bales or so. This perplexed me as I had done over 200 bales in the previous fields a couple weeks ago and it only missed one ties in 200. I knew I was low on twine so I changed it out with new and went back at it. Same problem kept occurring.

It finally occurred to me after my wife said the bales were loose and light I had neglected to place any tension on the bale chute. I had backed off the screws when I was done a couple weeks ago when I cleaned it out.

Needless to say, I baled the rest of the day after tightening the chute and never missed another bale. This hay making thing makes me humble.

Glad to hear you are all doing well with yours.

Ed

[Eli]

My father was a mechanic and worked on balers all the time. Tight bales sharp knives and don’t run the baler slow. Good luck. Eli

[Eli]

O yea I baled 20 bales of swamp grass today. Eli

[Michel Boulay]

Weather was very favorable from last saturday to wednesday, specialy very hot on monday with records broken in many areas. Did our mowing, tedding, raking and baling sat. to mon. picked up 350 bales on tuesday my wife and I with pick-up and trailer about 80 each trip. Some of the bales weren’t tight enough so on the third trip lost 6 bales and had to tighten up the load and continue to the barn. Last load 20 bales and somebody picked up my 6 that I lost so I’m out 6 bales, oh well its a job well done. Trips were about 7 miles. Don’t have the machinery but used a friends equipment, baled with my tractor. In all we made 650 squares bales and 80 round bales. Everybody were in fields making hay. Hope everybody has the weather to make good hay.

Mike

[Does’ Leap]

I started my second cut yesterday. I mowed 4 acres in a flannel shirt – 62 degrees and partly cloudy! Horses got a little sweaty under the collar and that’s it. No bugs either. I could get used to this. Plan on tedding twice today and hope to bale tomorrow. If not, we should have good weather through Saturday.

George

[Livewater Farm]

fell for the 4day forecast once again and have 10acres of hay being rained on

[Does’ Leap]

How is the haying going? We took a gamble and mowed a 5 acre field. It has been cool and partly cloudy, but we managed to bale it on day 3 (Monday). There were some heavy bales on the edge of the field, but the rest was dry. There is a good stretch of weather coming and we plan on mowing another 5 acres.

George

[Ed Thayer]

I am mowing our second cut tomorrow after work, I hope to bale on Sunday if the weather forecast holds up. Our second cut looks awesome.

George, do you feed 2nd cut to your horses or the goats?

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