Sold Tractor

[gwpoky]

Sold the tractor yesterday and don’t plan on buying another one, it wasn’t getting much use anyway, hoping our four Belgians can make it work. We still need to organize on our haying method for next year, baling is the only thing we used the tractor for. Yew haw. I hope Fall is finding everyone well.

Cheers

P.S. anyone in WI going to the field days in Menomonie on Oct. 2

[jac]

Hey its great youre at that stage. I have thought along those lines too but have it narrowed down to shifting round bales and driving the hay chopper… oh and snowboading in winter!! but am going to try the horses in that role as well. good luck…
John

[Donn Hewes]

Congratulations on selling the tractor. While I don’t suggest whether someone should or shouldn’t have one, (I have an old David Brown that is so dilapidated it is it’s own defense against too much use); I know how hard it is for the horses to compete when big John or Massey is around. I try to limit my tractor to bucket work and keep it out of the field. With out the tractor you will find new ways to solve problems based on the tools at hand – namely horses!

[dlskidmore]

@gwpoky 20918 wrote:

We still need to organize on our haying method for next year, baling is the only thing we used the tractor for.

I’m under the impression that old fashioned hay mows are so huge because the hay was put up loose? I’m thinking of going that route if I end up doing any haying. I won’t do enough to make it worth getting a baler.

[Donn Hewes]

It is relatively easy to figure out the space you need for loose hay. Figure the number of bales you would use. A small square bale is about 6 cubic feet. A thousand bales is 6000 cubic feet. Figure three times the space for loose hay. Interestingly, my new Amish neighbors are all making loose hay. Different Amish communities have different ways of making hay. When I was looking for a method for myself, I watched the Amish pull a motorized baler and a wagon, and decided that was for me.

[dlskidmore]

I was looking at the numbers in one of my books, and a moderate loft above a shelter would easily store 3 months of loose hay for the sheep in the shelter, which is about the non-grazeable period here.

[Donn Hewes]

Skidmore, Not that it has any thing to do with selling a tractor, but I was wondering what you thought the 3 non graze able months are. We don’t really have sufficient land to use a stock piled forage on our farm. We usually graze most of November, and some times a little into December. We usually start back out on grass about the beginning of May. I figure on about 160 days. Even more for horses as they will come off pasture any time it is too wet, in the spring, or late fall.

[dlskidmore]

@Donn Hewes 20948 wrote:

Skidmore, Not that it has any thing to do with selling a tractor, but I was wondering what you thought the 3 non graze able months are.

I’m no expert, so don’t rely on my data. I’m more familiar with the land itself than the requirements/impact of the livestock. I was hoping to use some stockpiled forage in winter, but some years the snow here can be too deep December-Feburary. It seems wise to stockpile feed for that period in case it’s a bad year. At the least supplemental feed needs to be available to make up for the increased effort of having to paw through the deep snow. March-April is very wet and care would have to be taken to not damage the fields with too much grazing, which could extend the non-grazable season, but that can only be judged when I have actual land with actual drainage & growth patterns to study. Usually here the grass is growing under the snow before the snow is gone, so there is at least light grazing available in early spring.

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