Hay Season 2013

[Stocker Steve]

I want to hold back and wait for a grant or something.

Feds had a "watershed" program for a while. Huge payment is you delayed cutting...

 

[Stocker Steve]

I have been making too much money on cattle so I am putting most of my ground into a lay farming rotation. This allows me to spend on several other complicated categories of equipment and inputs! The paper plan is:

1) No till sorgum sudan into old pasture in June
2) Conventional tillage corn (and bale stover)
3) No till soy beans
4) Under seeded oats (and bale straw)
5) Pasture
6) Pasture

You may want to consider this Jogeephus if the grant does not come thru.

 

[skyhightree1]

I will not be cutting hay anytime soon forcast for next mon - thur is rain my hay will be taller than the hood of the tractor before I get to cut it

 

[johndeerefarmer]

Still too cold here in north Texas. These mornings in the 30's and 40's have the coastal barely doing anything at all. Add only 3" of rain in April to that and am lucky to even have any winter grasses for the cows to graze. Had to feed hay until April 1 and usually quit feeding by March 1.

If it warms up for a week or so will get the weeds sprayed and some fertilizer put out.

Looks like it's going to be three bad years in a row for us. I have been at this since the mid 70's and don't remember it being this bad for so long at once. My dad used to talk about the drought in the 50's but back then he bought most of the grain and hay for his dairy cattle so it didn't affect him as much- except in the pocketbook. Now with beef cattle my goal is to not buy any hay or cubes. With adequate rain and fertilizer I can usually meet that goal but it's not looking good.

 

[Greenwood Forest]

Seeing there are some other Okies here, this has been yet another odd year. Had lots of moisture, but now here we are in May, and its been in the 40s-50s, and too cold for the bermuda to take off. Trying to get this first year hay pasture growing. I got it fertilized the day before the latest rainy spell, so I'm anxious to see what grows.

Its always something.

 

[AndyL]

Cut hay today and more tomorrow. Now if the weather hold out, like was told. It'll be a good week.

 

[skyhightree1]

Cut hay today and more tomorrow. Now if the weather hold out, like was told. It'll be a good week.

Andy are you trying to rub it in that you have good weather lol?

 

[AndyL]

Cut hay today and more tomorrow. Now if the weather hold out, like was told. It'll be a good week.

Andy are you trying to rub it in that you have good weather lol?

LOL, Noooo. :roll: Just thought I'd mention there might be hope. It's not in the barn yet.

 

[skyhightree1]

LOL funny. My hay fields are 2 feet tall and headed out and we are getting 4 days of rain so its not looking like I will be able to cut for another few weeks

 

[AndyL]

Guess we just got blessed to get 7 days of sun.
The worst part about cutting hay is hooking to the disc cutter. Would love to get a caddy, and see how that works.

 

[skyhightree1]

lol I generally leave my stuff hooked up to whatever tractor i use. unhooking and hooking up sux

 

[1982vett]

lol I generally leave my stuff hooked up to whatever tractor i use. unhooking and hooking up sux

:lol: Poor ole dirt farmer.....

I don't know why hooking and unhooking seems such a chore, but it sure is nice during hay season to have a tractor for each piece of equipment. :nod:

 

[skyhightree1]

LOL.. I am not sure why its a pain but i dont like doing it . Yes sir it sure is nice to leave it hooked up. I havent hooked the haybine up yet its supposed to rain another week or until next monday.

 

[a7 livestock]

Guess we just got blessed to get 7 days of sun.
The worst part about cutting hay is hooking to the disc cutter. Would love to get a caddy, and see how that works.

Trailed mowers are the only way to go, imo

 

[dun]

Guess we just got blessed to get 7 days of sun.
The worst part about cutting hay is hooking to the disc cutter. Would love to get a caddy, and see how that works.

Trailed mowers are the only way to go, imo

You obviously have more uniform shaped hay fields then we do. Ours are almost impossible to rake with a wheel rake but an old side delivery works pretty slick. Neighbor tried using a haybine last year, went back to a disk mower so he could manuever it around easier.

 

[AndyL]

Hay Season 2013 off to a good start. Make hay while the sun shines, but ya gotta fix the break downs while you should be baling. Hyd coupling came loose some how and hit the fan, bent the blades, and the fan blades tore up the radiator. That was at the start of baling. Hooked up the 504 baler to another tractor, then a roller bearing goes out on the 535. And then on the next bale, roller bearing goes out on the 504. It was a great day. We did manage to work 147 cow/calf pairs with out a hitch this morning. Put in new bearings in the morning, and go at it again.

And how was your day?

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Quit messing with those pull behind "trailer" mowers and get yourself a self propelled unit. Field size and shape is never an issue as you can just cut back and forth from one side to the other, it never needs to be "hooked" up, and best of all it can cut your mowing time down drastically.

 

[bigbull338]

baler breakdowns at the start of hay season can be avoided if you put the baler in the shop an have them go through it an get it field ready.

 

[Angus Cowman]

baler breakdowns at the start of hay season can be avoided if you put the baler in the shop an have them go through it an get it field ready.

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: now that's funny

 

[bigbull338]

you can laugh all you want.but thats what a smart man does.an yes it cost a chunk of money todo.but it sure beats having breakdowns.