Just waiting on a few Sunny Days........

[alabama]

It looks like we may be able to cut some by late in the week. This time of year in Alabama you just have to take a chance and cut it so you can get started growing for the next cutting. More hay quality is lost every year from fear of rain and letting it over grow than hay quality lost by rain. I have cut the day just before a rain and let it get rained on while it is still green. This does not hurt it near as much as a rain when ready to roll.
Use a fluffer and be quick.

 

[alabama]

Rod: Have you got that fescue cut yet?
I should have summer grass ready by next week so I will be looking for a few hot days to get it done.

 

[dun]

We've had 2 sunny days and we're still a week away from it being dry enough to drive in the hay fields. Water is still standing in evrey low spot.
We've had more rain in april and may so farthen we had all of november through march.

dun

 

[Nowland Farms]

Well Guys,

I called the fellow who is going to cut my hay and told him that I wanted to get started. He will cut the hay this afternoon.
Since my fescue is so thick, I believe it will take 4 days on the ground to dry.

This is the forcast for my area:
Friday - sunny & clear
Saturday - - sunny & clear w/30% chance of isolted shower late
Sunday - sunny & clear
Monday - sunny & clear
Tuesday - sunny & clear
Wednesday - sunny & clear
Thursday - cloudy & chance of rain

Got my fingers crossed for dry weather.

 

[alabama]

Rod you may want to fluff it tomorrow afternoon if he cuts it this evening.
Good luck

 

[Nowland Farms]

Will do. The fellow I hired is to use his equipment to cut, fluff twice a day, rake and bale. But, I need some tractor time too so I may use my tractor to fluff the hay. This fescue is thick so it itakes it longer to dry this time of the year thus, the need to fluff twice a day, once about 11am and again around 3:30pm.

Fingers crossed.

 

[flaboy-]

No rain down here in months. I planned to cut a field next week end but now they say we are going to get heavy rains for two days. That probably means I won't be able to get the equipment in the field this weekend. Same thing happened to me last year. Good spells with no rain but the fields were still wet to get into. Oh well, we will see what we will see.

 

[alabama]

Well how did it go Rod. We got rain Saturday and Sunday morning. but it looked like it may have gone south of you. The forcast is good for this week. I may start cutting summer grass this evening if the ground has dried out enough.

 

[Nowland Farms]

Alabama,


Yes, most rain went south of us. I bet it was not 5 miles south of us where the rain was. Prayers do work because I watched clouds part and go around us all weekend.

-We cut on Friday afternoon.
-Saturday morning around 8am we rec'd 1/4" of rain in a 10 minute downburst. Didn't really hurt the hay because the wind blowed about 20mph the rest of the day.
-I fluffed the hay Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon.
-Will fluff today and tomorrow since the grass is thick in areas
-Plan to bale Wednesday.

 

[alabama]

Good luck. don't fluff too much and wear the good parts like the grass blades out.

 

[Nowland Farms]

Well Folks,

I just got in from the hay field at 9:15pm after getting everything into the barn. I ended up getting 71 bales of the MAX Q Fescue off the 13.5 acres. The bales are 4.5' x 4.5', about 800-900 pounds each and are packed tight. They are so tight I had trouble at first getting my new hay spear to go into the first few bales.

The guy who I hired charged $10 a bale, and used his equipment, materials and labor. This is what he used:
-To cut he used an 85hp Agro Cab tractor with a new Krone cutter
-To tedder he used an old Ford tractor and New Holland tedder.
-To rake he used the old Ford tractor and a Vermeer rake (is that how you spell it)
-To bale he used a Fiat 110 cab tractor and Vermeer baler.

Another good thing about this deal is that I made to new friends. The guy I hired to cut my hay and his brother.

I am very pleased with the outcome eventhough I worried too much about the rain. God worked out those details so we dodged rain since last Friday. I need to learn to turn over the rain details to God earlier and not worry about it so much.

 

[Cabo]

Rod, Glad you got it in. I think you got a heck of a deal on getting it done. I don't think I can do it for that.

 

[Crowderfarms]

IF we get a few good days in the forecast, we'll start cutting. Been too cool and wet here.I've got a feller here charges 8.00 a roll, cut and rolled, I do all the raking.5 X 6 rolls.Average 1500 lbs.

 

[tom4018]

IF we get a few good days in the forecast, we'll start cutting. Been too cool and wet here.I've got a feller here charges 8.00 a roll, cut and rolled, I do all the raking.5 X 6 rolls.Average 1500 lbs.

Pretty cheap for rolling and cutting, most around here are getting $6 or better just to roll it.

 

[alabama]

Glad you got it up. The weather I am having now is perfect to make hay. I cut some Bermuda last Monday evening and fluffed it Tuesday evening. I started rolling late yesterday and it is some of the prettiest hay I have made in years. It is a little short but it was seeding out so I cut it to get the next cutting started growing. I should have square bailed this but I could not get the square bailer in time. I will put the roles up under cover and hold on to this hay. It was sure windy though. The wend kept scattering out the hay between the time I raked and bailed. I will have to go back over a lot of it this evening and clean up the mess.

 

[Nowland Farms]

Guys,

I was cleaning the pictures off the digital camera and came across a picture of when the hay was being cut 5 or 6 weeks ago.

We have not had rain since. I was hoping to be cutting the costal but it has not grown enough.