He does slow down a little more each year, but I think he has earned it. I try to tell him to just sit back, and I can take care of it. So far he doesn't take me up on it.
Hay Season 2023
- Thread starter cjet69
- Start date
The issue I see with Tedding up here is we have a lot of alfalfa/ grass for hay and some straight alfalfa. Once it is cut the less you move it the more leaves is kept on the hay.
The preservative I used was a granular. Hopper on top of the bail packing chamber operated by electric motor. Was a bit of delay between when the sensor picked up the moisture and that hay being compacted in the bale chamber but didn't seem to bother much.
Two thumbs up for Mr. 94 !! He has 11 years on me and not sure I could do that anymore, especially not in the heat.
The preservative I used was a granular. Hopper on top of the bail packing chamber operated by electric motor. Was a bit of delay between when the sensor picked up the moisture and that hay being compacted in the bale chamber but didn't seem to bother much.
Two thumbs up for Mr. 94 !! He has 11 years on me and not sure I could do that anymore, especially not in the heat.
I don't know if we could even grow alfalfa here. I have heard that its easy to knock the leaves off. I see videos where they like to bale in the morning before all of the dew evaporates so the leaves don't fall.
We looked at the liquid spray system which was kinda pricey.
Our heat isn't like your heat so that helps. If it does get too hot, we just shut down and wait for the evening to cool things off or work the morning until the heat comes up. I guess that's a benefit of having a small operation where we can be flexible.
My neighbor grinds most of his hay so don't pay much attention to the leaves as he has a lot of grass in with it. When he bales in a field with alfalfa you can walk the field and tell right where the baler went by the alfalfa leaves. Like to bale DRY hay as grass don't matter.
Seen grass hay up here offered for sale at $8 a bale - small squares. Have not seen any alfalfa listed but the second cutting is just mowed in most cases. Now if it was down it got rained one. I will get 2 big round from the neighbor when he cuts the hay next to me. Put on a pellet, net wrapped and cover with a trap till feeding.
Raked and baled the last field today, I hope. Dad is now talking about the neighbor's place across the road that we usually take hay off of but it's getting to be a lot of weeds. With things drying out so much already maybe it would make good pasture supplement hay to feed out over the summer and fall. The total at this point is 1009 bales with the 104 left in the field that I will haul tomorrow.
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Do you have any tub grinder down that way? Bail that weedy ground up, cut it a bit high so it can come back easier. Keep it separate, grind it up and feed it through the summer as pasture suplement. I don't think you make any corn silage down there but would be good filler with that also. Neighjbor grind a lot of big bales every week. Lot of it is not good quality and has a lot of weeds in it. Cattle will sort though it and eat the good stuff and leave the junk behind for burning later.
A company not far from her specializes in the farmer type tub grinders and the feeder boxes. My neighbor had one grinder, acouple boxes on 2 wheel frames and one big box on an old 6 x 6 Army truck. 2 or 3 guys in the area have thew big truck mounted tub grinders. They will grind up about anything including bath tubs.
After hauling the last bales today, I found there were 114 bales in the field which make the total 1019 in the barn now.
