First cutting is done!

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We finished up last Friday. Yahoo! Put up 732 baleage. I run the skid steer & load the wrapper.
Last year, we put the same amount & kind of fertilizer down (about the same timing also). We got 578 last year.

 

[redcowsrule33]

Boy am I jealous. We haven't even started yet - the last 13 of 15 days had measurable rain, the other two were cold and cloudy. But at least we have hay to cut once the weather turns around, last few years our first crop was the only decent one we got. Might not be worth a lot by the time we get it down but it'll make good dry cow feed with supplement early this winter.

 

[bigbull338]

congrats on being done haying.we to havent started baling yet.waiting on the custom baler to get his equipment wired back togather.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Yeah, can't beat putting up baleage in New York - especially first cutting :banana: Because of all the rainy days & because I was gone for 2 days to a Junior Spring Preview Show, it took longer than usual. Generally, we're done in 3-4 days. There are 3 of us in the "hay crew", and we can put up 150 - 200 bales in a day. Ben (college student) starts mowing around 8am and Ronnie (equipment owner/dairyman) starts baling after lunch. Ben runs the bale-picker wagon & we get everything wrapped as it's baled (in-line wrap). I'm going to post pics in the Beginners Board.
I am sooooo lucky to have such a good friend/neighbor that does our hay - lives about 2 miles away. Been doing our hay for at least 20 years. Luckily he's a great mechanic, because he's always "fixing" too!
Just came back from our Thursday "lunch with the guys" (neighbors/friends try to get together every Thursday for lunch - which includes the "hay crew") I'm generally the only female.

 

[Suzie Q]

I am female too and make hay. We don't usually do silage unless it is just too wet to do anything else. But that is only every 4 or 5 years.

What I have down now is really just frosted grass. Due to our bore going bung for several months. We are getting it fixed now, so we are just cleaning up the cultivations to start again.

8 hours in the tractor on Tuesday. 4 and a half hours Wednesday as hubby raked at the same time, so saved me 4 and a half hours. He is on Holiday at the moment, so that is a luxury I don't usually have.

3 and a half hours yesterday. Mainly spent fixing what hubby raked!!! :lol:

Hopefully I will rake and then round bale today.

They are lucerne (alfalfa) cultivations. We do not get the blister beetle that I have heard can harm horses in America. Also in Summer we can cut every 3 weeks. Not only once or twice a year that I have heard of if you are where it snows.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Yes, we only "take" two cuttings & graze the 3rd cutting. Our hay is mostly grass for first cutting, and has a lot more clover in the 2nd cutting. Last year, we had some dry days, so we planned on putting 2nd cut up dry. We had soooo much clover, we didn't think we would ever get it to dry. I think it was down 4 days - and luckily didn't get rained on. We rarely get 3 full days of sunshine here in New York. NY has mostly dairy farms & they usually put 1st cutting up as haylage in bunkers or silos. Unless you wait for late June or more likely July, it's hard to put up 1st cut dry.
We had a bumper crop this year. Put up 732 bales vs 578 last year - same time - same fertilizer - same acres.
I can't imaging having to face haying every 3 weeks :shock:

 

[Suzie Q]

It is the reason that I can not take on a full time job.

I cut and rake during the day and bale at night to preserve the leaf. Then I am a walking zombie for a week to recover. :lol:

I find the temperature makes a big difference so if you had a warmer season you would get a better crop.

The most we have done at once is over 1000 small square bales and over 100 round bales in the same week. That is not usual, and we had to get it up before it started raining again as we flood and the bales would be washed away.

Which meant that we had to cancel Christmas. Hubby started bringing up round bales 5am Christmas morning. He did not stop for lunch and finished at 10pm at night and started again 5am Boxing Day morning.

But what a Christmas present for us. We actually bought this farm cheap because it has too much water. Add all those round bales, since then we have done 200 at a time after waiting for the cultivation to dry out. Sure in those times a lot of grass and not much Lucerne, but talk about drought proofing the farm.

I LOVE that I can feed out how many round bales I want whenever I want. Not eek it out to one every 3 days like in the first year.

Next door said that the record for them for having Lucerne down in winter is 14 days. In summer we can make hay after 3 days, which is the shortest record. That is for hay not for silage. Silage I cut and rake one day and bale the next and start wrapping as soon as I can. It means getting in the David Brown to put the bale on the wrapper. Getting in the Case to operate the leavers. Getting out of the Case to cut the plastic and of course it is usually very very hot days.

We have not made silage for years. We still have some left that we made and they said you had to feed them out within 12 months, so I don't really know what to do with them now.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We have 120 bales left over from this past winter. I have kept them over before with no problem. You lose the end bales.
We can't put up dry bales in the evening. We get a heavy dew in the evenings & that would make the bales get moldie.
The wrapper we use operates by itself. I just put the bales on.

 

[Suzie Q]

The dew changes constantly here. If it comes down too heavy and too early I stop baling as the bales will be too heavy.

Other times we have no dew whatsoever. If this happens day after day with the raking and the baling we make what I call chay!!!! Good hay and the horses and the cattle love it, but it will fall apart in your hands.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

For anyone not familiar with baleage (wet hay) - I posted some pics on the Beginners Board.

 

[bigbull338]

jeanne you have me wondering how meny bales do you feed a year.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I like to have about 800 bales if all wet ones. Or 600 wet & 100 dry. I feed an average of 4.9 bales/day.

 

[bigbull338]

our cows ate on the ave 7 bales in 6 days last year.an as every1 knows it was a cold wet year.so our cows ate more hay than normal.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

our cows ate on the ave 7 bales in 6 days last year.an as every1 knows it was a cold wet year.so our cows ate more hay than normal.

and poor you had to go out in the blistering cold and feed ALLLL those bales :banana:
Trust me - I am sooooo happy I have a cab tractor!!!

 

[bigbull338]

no i dont put hay out for the cows.my bro hays them.an we do have a cab tractor.we was 1 of the 1st to get a cab tractor 32yrs ago.but i did have to get out in the cold.