something besides sudan
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TheBullLady
Well-known member
What kind of "risk" is involved with growing sudan that wouldn't be a risk with another type of crop? :roll:
Earl Thigpen
Well-known member
TheBullLady":11h6f7q2 said:
Time to dry if you cut it with a disc mower and not a crimper. It'll take several days to dry the stems cutting it with a disc mower. Coastal, for example can almost be cut one day and baled the next so the risk is two or three days of good weather compared to four or five days with sudan.
We bought a fluffer (tedder) when we started planting sudan mixed with millet. Cut it with a disk mower and fluffed it the next day to break up the stems. Seems we baled on day 3 but it's been a while so I can't attest to it. I can't remeber any problems from back then. We had some excellant dove shoots on the fields.
cowtrek
Well-known member
plant your haygrazer really thick, like double rates or one and a half rate and then cut it when it gets about waist high. The stems will be really fine and the leaf percentage and quality will be a lot higher too. It will dry down faster than 6 foot stemmy grazer and the quality is much better. Tonnage isn't quite as much as letting it get 6 foot tall but the nutrition is in the leaves not the stems anyway and you can get it baled faster so better hay. Usually you can make another cut and make up the tonnage difference anyway. Good luck! OL JR :)
Earl Thigpen
Well-known member
cowtrek":28qcizq3 said:
Don't mean to steal your thunder but I couldn't agree more. I don't have a crimper - can't afford one - so I have to rely on my disc mower to do all my hay cutting.
How much rain did you get the other day when this front came through? Some folks said that Shiner got about 4". My place is around Ezzell and I only got 0.2"
cowtrek
Well-known member
Hey nice to hear from someone up near Shiner! We didn't get enough to settle the dust at Shiner from this last front. I was just up feeding yesterday and the digital rainguage said .04 inch since the last time I was up there. We're doing pretty well up there though because we did get about 4 inches or so up there a couple months ago and the KR bluestem came on like gangbusters. Stuff looks like ripe wheat now but still nearly belly deep on the cows, they're fat and happy. Fed a couple rounds more because of the cold than anything else. We sure could use a rain up there though to help the winter grass come on in and the burr clover get started. Everything frosted out real good up there.
Here at Needville we got about a quarter inch out of this last front. I had hay on the ground and figured with my luck we'd get 5 inches but then I seeded out some oats, ryegrass, and clover so that canceled out Murphy's Law I guess. I got the hay rolled and another guy's cut but now I have to wait on my oats, ryegrass, and clover to come up. Can't have everything I guess! :) Oh well, with hay short I'd rather get the custom jobs done for these guys to try to help out. Down this close to the coast we'll probably get some rain through here soon enough anyway, and that stuff probably isn't going to do much til late January or February anyway. Just glad I have enough hay for myself (so far).
Saw a lot of cornstalks and field grass baled up around Shiner; in fact not far from us they had just finished baling a cornfield for the SECOND time this year. Guess they had enough volunteer from knocked out nubbins and field grass come back to justify it. Course for what hay is going for up there I can see why.
Anyway, take it easy! OL JR :)
Here at Needville we got about a quarter inch out of this last front. I had hay on the ground and figured with my luck we'd get 5 inches but then I seeded out some oats, ryegrass, and clover so that canceled out Murphy's Law I guess. I got the hay rolled and another guy's cut but now I have to wait on my oats, ryegrass, and clover to come up. Can't have everything I guess! :) Oh well, with hay short I'd rather get the custom jobs done for these guys to try to help out. Down this close to the coast we'll probably get some rain through here soon enough anyway, and that stuff probably isn't going to do much til late January or February anyway. Just glad I have enough hay for myself (so far).
Saw a lot of cornstalks and field grass baled up around Shiner; in fact not far from us they had just finished baling a cornfield for the SECOND time this year. Guess they had enough volunteer from knocked out nubbins and field grass come back to justify it. Course for what hay is going for up there I can see why.
Anyway, take it easy! OL JR :)
cowtrek
Well-known member
Oh yeah, and about the original post, we cut ours with a drum mower, which leaves it in little windrows, but I also got a cheap tedder at the auction and bought an old tow-behind NH steel crimper from a guy a long time ago to help if the weather isn't cooperating.
Good luck! OL JR :)
Good luck! OL JR :)
farmerjohn
Well-known member
Earl Thigpen":nxnmx0vl said:
Got 3.75" here. Sure needed it. Two of my ponds are full. The weather did burn the leaves on my ryegrass though.
cowtrek
Well-known member
Glad to hear it! I'm glad somebody's getting some rain! Our last heavy rain was about 4 inches up there back in early October. It filled the pond up real well but it's back down about where it was before. Good thing is it held there all summer before the rains and has held there since it went back down, about 3 feet below full. We really got a good flush of King Ranch Bluestem out of that rain but everything is frosted down and dry now, but the cattle are fat and happy and that's what counts.
Where is Pottsboro?? Sounds vaguely familiar...
Take it easy! OL JR :)
Where is Pottsboro?? Sounds vaguely familiar...
Take it easy! OL JR :)
farmerjohn
Well-known member
cowtrek":2t7212mj said:
Texas/ Oklahoma border. By Lake Texoma. 70 miles north of Dallas
Earl Thigpen
Well-known member
I didn't get a chance to plant a Winter crop. Didn't see any need in throwin' the money away because without a little moisture that's what it would have been like. Except for the rain in October, that's it.
I had a pretty good stand of Gordo Bluestem and a second cut stand of haygrazer from the rain back in October. Hopin' that's going to take me through the Winter.
As mentioned, my cattle also went in fat as butter balls - best I've seen in them for a few years so I'm hoping that their condition going in and the small amount of hay I've got rolled up will carry me. Got rid of a bunch of calves, some older cows and some trouble makers back in July. This probably attributed to the condition of the ones I kept.
Sorry to hear you didn't get any rain out of that front a couple of weeks ago. The radar lies a lot. When I looked, Lavaca County was all yellow and red and I thought to myself "at last"! Not to be though.
I had a pretty good stand of Gordo Bluestem and a second cut stand of haygrazer from the rain back in October. Hopin' that's going to take me through the Winter.
As mentioned, my cattle also went in fat as butter balls - best I've seen in them for a few years so I'm hoping that their condition going in and the small amount of hay I've got rolled up will carry me. Got rid of a bunch of calves, some older cows and some trouble makers back in July. This probably attributed to the condition of the ones I kept.
Sorry to hear you didn't get any rain out of that front a couple of weeks ago. The radar lies a lot. When I looked, Lavaca County was all yellow and red and I thought to myself "at last"! Not to be though.
Earl Thigpen
Well-known member
dun":3p9gxjn0 said:
Yes sir. Been there, dun that (no pun intended) :lol:
Earl Thigpen
Well-known member
cowtrek":qf129zny said:
Is your mower a PZ? My PZ gave up the ghost last year and I had to replace it. It was one of the smaller ones - 5 ft I think but a cuttin' fool never the less. Wish they were still in business. I had no trouble at all cutting Bohia with it but my new 9' 6" mower chokes on Bohia
cowtrek
Well-known member
Yep I've got a PZ Zweegers. I bought it in Shiner in about 88 I think. It's a real good cutter only thing I've had to replace on it has been a U joint and the telescoping foldback rod when the weld on it failed in a rough field. Last year I finally did have to replace the skid saucers underneath it and I had the cluster (input) gears in the case replaced year before. Not bad for nearly 20 years of cutting, including a LOT of roadside hay back in the 90's. Zweegers actually got bought out by Vicon and you can buy a Vicon drum mower that is identical to the late model Zweegers. The main change on them was removing the saucer height adjustment towers off the box. I haven't adjusted the height on mine in several years and I bet most other operators hadn't either so they just did away with them. Mine is a CM 212 which is about 7-6 cut. Sure wish it was 9 foot sometimes! But, I consistently run 6 mph with a 5610 Ford no matter how thick the hay is it just keeps humming along! Boehm only has a 5 footer at Shiner now; he's selling a lot of Kuhns. He used to have Reese but he quit them; when I asked him about it he said that the drum mowers just really never got the acceptance of the disk mowers. I'd love to replace my Zweegers with another drum mower when it finally bites the dust (hopefully a long time from now) but I'll probably have to get a Kuhn.
That kinda surprises me that your disk mower is plugging up in the bahia. I've run a 9 foot Kuhn on a 5610 Ford for a fellow bus driver's husband on occassion. He's a pretty big custom operator and needs an extra operator from time to time. His was stalling out (belts slipping) in heavy grass but when I took a look at it I found the belt tightener was WAY too loose. They have a tubular sleeve over the belt tightener spring and it has to be tightened down so the spring cap is flush with the tube to get the belts tight enough. After I tightened it down we sailed through some tough smutgrass with no problem, and its just about as hard to cut as thick bahia. Other than that keeping sharp blades on it is the main thing to watch for. He always wanted me to cut at 5 mph so I did, since it's his equipment and I get paid by the hour but it will run just fine at 6 mph since I've accidentally run for awhile in 6th gear from force of habit since that is what I always run my tractor in.
Looking and hoping for some rain myself. I baled all Thanksgiving week since I was off the schoolbus and had customers ringing the phone off the hook needing hay baled, and thankfully the weather was beautiful nearly the whole week, if a bit cold at times. I overseeded some oats, ryegrass, and berseem clover on 20 acres in the back and some 'winter mix' I got at the feed store with wheat, oats, winter peas, and rapeseed on 20 acres I've been trying to get established in Jiggs. I figured with hay on the ground and 70 percent chance of rain one day, that the two would cancel out. If the hay got soaked at least I could be glad the seed was sprouting, and if it stayed dry my hay would come along nicely. Well, hay's all done (just finished yesterday afternoon) and now it can rain.
Course having seed on the ground puts a hex on it! Oh well...
Yall have a good one and take it easy! OL JR :)
That kinda surprises me that your disk mower is plugging up in the bahia. I've run a 9 foot Kuhn on a 5610 Ford for a fellow bus driver's husband on occassion. He's a pretty big custom operator and needs an extra operator from time to time. His was stalling out (belts slipping) in heavy grass but when I took a look at it I found the belt tightener was WAY too loose. They have a tubular sleeve over the belt tightener spring and it has to be tightened down so the spring cap is flush with the tube to get the belts tight enough. After I tightened it down we sailed through some tough smutgrass with no problem, and its just about as hard to cut as thick bahia. Other than that keeping sharp blades on it is the main thing to watch for. He always wanted me to cut at 5 mph so I did, since it's his equipment and I get paid by the hour but it will run just fine at 6 mph since I've accidentally run for awhile in 6th gear from force of habit since that is what I always run my tractor in.
Looking and hoping for some rain myself. I baled all Thanksgiving week since I was off the schoolbus and had customers ringing the phone off the hook needing hay baled, and thankfully the weather was beautiful nearly the whole week, if a bit cold at times. I overseeded some oats, ryegrass, and berseem clover on 20 acres in the back and some 'winter mix' I got at the feed store with wheat, oats, winter peas, and rapeseed on 20 acres I've been trying to get established in Jiggs. I figured with hay on the ground and 70 percent chance of rain one day, that the two would cancel out. If the hay got soaked at least I could be glad the seed was sprouting, and if it stayed dry my hay would come along nicely. Well, hay's all done (just finished yesterday afternoon) and now it can rain.
Course having seed on the ground puts a hex on it! Oh well...
Yall have a good one and take it easy! OL JR :)
