Reminiscing on things growing up on the farm

[skyhightree1]

Does anyone still cut the corn stalks down out of there garden and stack them upright and tie them then put them in the pasture with the cattle ? I just thought about that after looking and finding my grandpas old cycle he used to cut corn with.

 

[M5farm]

Hot wire and turn the cows in.

 

[HOSS]

I grew up on my granddad's 475 acre hog and cattle farm. He raised herfs and rwf cattle. He would plant the bottom land with corn and harvest it with a two row picker, shell it and use that to feed the hogs. We would turn the cows in on the corn stalks in the winter to clean up the corn on the ground. I don't ever remember him baling or feeding any hay. He would brush hog the overgrown pastures and rotate the cows onto stockpiled grass during the winter along with the corn stalks. He was always well under stocked. I can never remember him having any scrawny cattle. They were always fat. I remember one of my first jobs was to put fly repellent mixed with used motor oil on the backs of the cows as he would run them through the alley. He had a 30 gallon drum of the mix and an old kitchen mop. I would slop it on their backs from my perch over the alley. I was probably 6 years old or so. He would be sent to jail today for allowing a kid to apply a chemical like that around livestock :???:

 

[skyhightree1]

lol I don't plant enough food corn to justify doing that. When I was growing up we only had barbed wire fencing and field fencing so grandpa just cut it and put in the pasture with them. Although if you have alot of corn you could do that.

 

[M5farm]

we were so poor there wasn't any corn left!

 

[skyhightree1]

its funny alot of our grandparents would be in jail today lol We started out raising sim cattle and some charolais herfs no one really had any blk angus in the area. My grandmother had dairy cattle she sold milk and had some of the finest jerseys I have seen to this day. We didn't plant alot of corn then and we did cut and bale alot and I mean alot of hay. I remember getting the total amount of bales anywhere from 10,000 - 14,000 sq bales a year I hated and still do hate square bales to this day stack on the wagon .. unload the wagon stack in the barn.. take some off the stack and drag the hay across the snow in the winter time like its a sled to an area where we could feed the cattle and horses...that was some bs I will never have a square baler ever I will stop farming before I deal with a square bale ever again. 5 generations have passed and I am the only farmer still farming on my mothers side of the family.

 

[101]

Skyhightree1 we had'em too lots and lots em, we had a neighbor stop one time when us kids were rolling them to us ( you know why ) before we picked them up to throw on the trailer he said if we wanted more of them idiot cubes we could put his hay up on shares, Dad asked us what he needed and we told him he stopped just to say hi. Good luck 101

 

[TexasBred]

we were so poor there wasn't any corn left!

We were so poor I walked into school one day (after walking 5 miles) wearing one shoe. Teacher said "Did you lose a shoe"?? I said no ma'am...I found one. :mrgreen:

 

[skyhightree1]

LOL... I honestly wouldnt even use the new square big bales they have now although its the best use of space by being able to stack tightly I just cant fool with those things...

 

[skyhightree1]

we were so poor there wasn't any corn left!

We were so poor I walked into school one day (after walking 5 miles) wearing one shoe. Teacher said "Did you lose a shoe"?? I said no ma'am...I found one. :mrgreen:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[3waycross]

we were so poor there wasn't any corn left!

We were so poor I walked into school one day (after walking 5 miles) wearing one shoe. Teacher said "Did you lose a shoe"?? I said no ma'am...I found one. :mrgreen:

Now that's some funny stuff there. I don't care who ya are! :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :tiphat:

 

[sim.-ang.king]

we were so poor there wasn't any corn left!

We were so poor I walked into school one day (after walking 5 miles) wearing one shoe. Teacher said "Did you lose a shoe"?? I said no ma'am...I found one. :mrgreen:

You 2 must of grow up with a man from around here. Said his mother could slice a ham so thin that it only had one side.

 

[Bigfoot]

My dad put up 14,000 square bales every year when I was a kid. When we weaned calves in the fall he had us pack water in 5 gallon buckets from a well near the barn to them. Dug thistles, no spraying. I cant remember a rainy day stopping us from anything, but hay work. He stays on me all the time about working my kids to hard. I never say a word.

 

[skyhightree1]

while the square bales has came up quite a bit in the post .. I got one question to ask does anyone in here still use a square baler?

 

[3waycross]

while the square bales has came up quite a bit in the post .. I got one question to ask does anyone in here still use a square baler?

Quite a few around here. Lots of folks raising horse hay. Most of them use a bale wagon to pick em up!

 

[skyhightree1]

Gotcha... Yea only horse people here use the square balers as well. I also noticed there is not alot of kids helping with square bales anymore.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

My uncle still uses my Grandpa's square baler, and every time I help I thank God for the invention of the big round baler. Use to do about 12 wagon loads of 50 every year for my grandpa. Me, and the 2 older cousins tossing and stacking, and my youngest cousin driving with grandpa sitting on the trailer yelling commands. :lol: It always seemed that it was always blazing hot, and zero wind when we were doing it...perfect bailing weather for grandpa...not for us. But it was for grandpa, and we would be in more pain if we said we didn't want to do it. :lol:



and there was pepsi waiting for us.

 

[Bigfoot]

I don't know about other parts of the country, but around here small squares are scarce. I bale just enough for my horses every year. If I didn't, no telling where I would find them, and how much I would have to pay. Somebody that had the time, and the inclination could sell all they wanted.

 

[skyhightree1]

yea i was the only grand child in the area and raised on the farm my other cousins lived in the city so they didnt get those wonderful experiences I did. They hated coming there and anything to do with the country life. Gpa got sick died they came out the wood works to see what gpa had left them but my great gma and my gma that lives with me now said umm as grandpa would say you didnt sew anything so you reaped nothing hense I am the one that got the farm and all the equip land and everything.when came time to pick stuff from garden or his orchard if u didnt help pick you didnt help eat.

 

[skyhightree1]

for me a square bale is more expensive than a round bale. because I would have to pay people to pick that S... UP...