Recent content by TdJ

Fair point and you hit the nail on the head. There's a lot to consider. I'm going to see how things play out, focus on what I can control and hope that I bought in the one place far enough away from the city that only country folks like me want to live!

This might be one of my top 10 threads I've read on the forum, great discussion. I'm a number of years from having to figure the hobby/mid-size/pro question, should start dropping claves mid year with a goal to limit my ranch to 3 acres per cow. Great summary of how to differentiate btw! As for...

@Georg, welkom pel. Ek het america toe getrek (van suid afrika/UK) so 12 jaar terug en bly nou in Texas. Moer groot plaas wat jy daar het maar die reen is maar skaars! We get about double the amount here in central Texas. I've always said that the only way to price land is by carrying capacity...

I know they’re designed for the temps but I felt so bad for my herd a few mornings back that I let them into the bale storage pasture and let them hunker down between them. Icicles hanging from ears replaced by easy eating and a warm place for two days while the wind and snow died down. They...

Holy smokes, 29mph sustained and cold was no joke! I ended up wearing ski goggles so could work outside and then only in short bursts. Neighbor had a shelter roll over but no animals hurt. Not looking forward to drop in templates this week…

Turns out the gauge works but the density was so low that it didn’t register. I cranked it up a full turn at a time and got about 2/3 up and boy did it put strain on my tractor. I’m guessing there’s probably more maintenance than belt grease and grease points I need to do. But I’ll tell you...

No rain through the rest of the week, glorious day baling yesterday,

Weird thing is that my gauge is 2/3 full, guessing it’s failed but I’ll find out soon. I’ve set my rake wider and I’ll measure and tune on Friday to get the windrows the right dimension. Going to need to rake twice I think, get all the grass off the ground and then profile. The bales I get well...

@Mat Man @simme I did not know that. Checked last night and it certainly didn’t look like hydraulic fluid nor water. Thick and gloopy. If I recall from my last baling session that gauge didn’t seem to move but I’ll be honest, I was super focused on trying to mitigate the barrels. I have a lot...

Yep, it should be except this weekend it rained! I can’t get to it this week unfortunately, so Friday it is.

Btw, my bale density gauge is full of water and doesn’t move.. so I might need to do some repair because without that gauge I’m worried I’ll break something!

Yeah, timing is not ideal here in central Texas. I bought the property recently and have fields that haven’t been baled in two years. So really doing two things. First I want to stress the pastures and clean the mesquite/weeds and second I want to save the grass I can in case next year is a dry...

I’m with you, good to know how it works and read the machine. I ended up narrowing the windrows to increase volume and move side to side every 10 seconds. That did improve the barrels a ton but I think you’re right though and I’ll widen the windrows this next time as a test. I’m going 2nd low...

You have a paper manual. I am jealous! I ordered two manuals for my 1983 Ford 6700 and one is a scan of a manual with services completed and greasy fingerprints. That reprint cost me $20, but better than not having one. Thanks for the page, I have saved an will give it a whirl on Friday bale...

Adjusting tension is my next mystery to solve. I know it’s possible, but haven’t had the time to figure it out. Getting the user manual from JD website gave me some of what I needed but the rest is trial by error, I think. My bales are getting better (not as poofy) but still look like barrels...