This year we put up about 320 acres of hay, dd, but I also buy all the hay that my Dad puts up (about another 300 acres worth of hay...might be kind of interesting trying to figure out where the money is going to come from to buy feed this fall what with the current market situation up here).
TxAg, some of it is kind of hilly (I had a real gray hair grower last week when cutting...the tractor powered out and took the haybine and myself for a wild ride backwards down one of the hillsides I was cutting), but most of it is just gently rolling land.
Certherfbeef, I don't think I'd have the nerves to hay your land. I get white knuckled on some of the hills we have here.
Yes, Craig-Tx, it is one of the consolations of living so far out of town. We really do have a million dollar view. The only down part is that the hills across the river are home to some real wild country when it's time to move the cattle. Oh well, take the good with the bad, eh?
Frenchie, yes, we do live in grizzly country. They are pretty shy though, so fortunately don't have much trouble with them, although the black bears can be more of a nuisance. In the picture you can see trees growing along a creek bottom, and there is a big old black bear that's been hanging down there for the last week. Two days ago he popped out of the gulley and spooked the kids and their horses, so I suppose I'll have to dust off the old rifle and do a little thinning in the local bear population one of these days. There are also cougars up here, but like the grizzlies, they are very flighty and have large territories and only one has been seen close to our place. The biggest predator problem we have is with the wolves. Last year I lost a big steer calf in the pasture (600lbs+) to them, and my sweetie lost a young heifer calf at the beginning of turn out. We figure there were about ten head of stock in that area lost to wolves during last summer's grazing season. Contolling them is challenging due to the fact that poisoning them is illegal here and they're awful cagey when it comes to getting a shot at them with a rifle. The first winter we spent here, I lost one of the dogs to a big lone black wolf (he took the dog right out of the yard and the next spring we found his collar way out in the hayfield...not even a bone left of the poor guy). The trouble with getting a shot at them around the ranch (and I've seen two gray ones right outside the kitchen window) is that by the time you get the trigger guard off the rifle, dig the ammo out of it's seperate storage area, and get to the door, the buggars are lone gone. The joy of that darn gun control legislation! What a waste of tax payers dollars. Sometimes it seems that our politicians lose all vestiges of common sense when they set foot on Parliment Hill.
Enough rambling. The last of the hay was wrapped yesterday evening and we're getting some much needed rain tonight (started to get pretty dry here) so all is good in the world. Hope it's all good in everyone's as well.
Take care.
