Overly Mature Hay to Bale or Not to Bale

[Jabes0623]

Ended up with 696 square bales & that was only baling roughly 60% of the field. Tuesday went smooth as could be, Wed. was a Murphy's law kind of day & it rained on the hay early Thu. morning so I decided to shut it down & call it a year.

I didn't have my usual hay crew, just my Wife, my brother in law who has half a leg & myself. So the going was a little slow but all in all I'm fairly pleased with what we accomplished. The hay actually turned out better than I expected, there was more green under there than I thought. I'm going to go back out next week with the brushog & chop up what's left on the field & around the edges & that'll be it.

Next year I'm doing all my own baling, tired beyond belief of being let down by others.

Best of all I don't have worry about running out of hay this year!

 

[ClinchValley]

To do it right we usually have to do it ourselves! Finding this out more and more.

 

[farmerjan]

To do it right we usually have to do it ourselves! Finding this out more and more.

And it gets more and more true everyday. My son had 2 guys lined up to help w/ square bales yesterday and today. Real nice late 2nd cutting orchard grass and one showed up yesterday, none today. So he kicks 20+ bales in the wagon, stops and stacks, then goes again. I cannot stand on my ankle on uneven ground or like a moving bed, so cannot ride the wagon like I used to and I will not run that tractor with the sq baler. I value my life and he is not very patient with others running certain pieces of equipment so I refuse and we get along fine. Luckily he has vacation days that he has to use from his job before Jan. 1st, so can take some time. I also tested cows thurs. eve and didn't get home til 10p.m. and left at 3 a.m. to go to another farm this morning, so he knew I wouldn't be available til this aft. I went and did some feeding and let him do the hay, but I expected he would have help. It is getting that no one wants to work. I hope they all start to get real hungry cuz I will sit back and watch them go without for awhile. He has a friend who comes and helps whenever he can, and Mike went over one night when he was chopping and helped him til 3 a.m. and then went to work at 7a.m. It's always the ones that have too much of their own to do that will help, and won't take anything, so we help them back however we can too. But the ones that we pay cash under the table just don't want to do anything. It's not even like it's that hot out, days in the 60's and 70's.... it's a losing battle. :deadhorse: :deadhorse: :deadhorse: We sell alot of this 2nd cutting bladey orchard grass and with calf prices so bad, cannot afford to not sq bale it to sell. At least we also have plenty of hay to go through the winter too. Even if we keep most of the heifer calves. Luckily we still have grass and will be in good shape for awhile, with several places still having sections to rotate to. Gonna have to sell some stuff to make a couple of payments though....