Steve Wilson
Well-known member
Dang, that millet makes a terribly thick mat when it comes out the back of the mower/conditioner. The no-till drilled Tiffleaf3 was up to my waist and not a seedstalk to be found, even down deep. We mowed the first third of the field last Wednesday; only to be rained on Thursday. The top half was dry Saturday so we single windrowed it with a side delivery rake in the afternoon. To get it off the ground and hope to aid the drying. Then we got a deluge late Sunday morning, at least an inch and a half. It rained again today, which killed our plan of flipping it over.
Enough of this struggle; it's time for bigger guns. I just got off the phone with the dealer and bought a new 2 basket tedder. Will tedder what's already down tomorrow and also mow the balance of the field before it has a chance to form seedstalks. Which will also be teddered right after mowing. I'm pulling out all the stops on this game. I can see already that you need to tedder this stuff right from the get go. I knew it would take at least 3 days of good drying weather but Holy Moly I don't know if it would ever have dried properly.
I'm going to bale it with a John Deere 24T square baler, raked in single windrows. There ain't no way in heck the baler could handle two rows of this millet. This is our first experience with baling it; we have always used rotational grazing in the past. We should be able to fit this first cutting in the barns, after they are full, the balance and future cuttings will be rolled up in round bales.
Enough of this struggle; it's time for bigger guns. I just got off the phone with the dealer and bought a new 2 basket tedder. Will tedder what's already down tomorrow and also mow the balance of the field before it has a chance to form seedstalks. Which will also be teddered right after mowing. I'm pulling out all the stops on this game. I can see already that you need to tedder this stuff right from the get go. I knew it would take at least 3 days of good drying weather but Holy Moly I don't know if it would ever have dried properly.
I'm going to bale it with a John Deere 24T square baler, raked in single windrows. There ain't no way in heck the baler could handle two rows of this millet. This is our first experience with baling it; we have always used rotational grazing in the past. We should be able to fit this first cutting in the barns, after they are full, the balance and future cuttings will be rolled up in round bales.