The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

   / The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor
  • Thread Starter
#591  
Hey dude! lol, she wasn’t the greatest looker before she passed.

You “took it there” first when you called my hay “bad”. lol

At 2000 squares a year I just assumed you invested in cover. Thats like a quarter million a year in hay alone isn’t it? Tarps? I’d guard good sweet hay, it’s like gold.

I do have cover, but not 2000 large square bales worth of cover. Sheesh.
That would be known as an airplane hanger.

Besides, anyone who makes hay knows quite a bit of what they make is no good.
At least I’m honest and don’t try to pass off bad hay as feed hay. :)
I sell it off to mushroom growers.
The middle outdoor bales go to beef cattle raisers.
Only the best becomes feed. ;)

Sorry bout your wife.
 
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   / The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor #592  
You “took it there” first when you called my hay “bad”. lol



I do have cover, but not 2000large square bales worth of cover. Sheesh.
That would be known as an airplane hanger.

Besides, anyone who makes hay knows quite a bit of what they make is no good.
At least I’m honest and don’t try to pass off bad hay as feed hay.
I sell it off to mushroom growers.
The middle outdoor bales go to beef cattle raisers.
Only the best becomes feed. ;)

Sorry bout your wife.
😂 she was in the shower when I posted that… I didn’t take it anywhere, you said high moisture/weedy hay stays outside. Was just going off what you said and then that some producers buy and feed it. That would be not good.

So good hay boxed in by cover hay…I get it. I could also imagine how bad high moisture squares stacked could get with zero chance to dry. Would look like it on fire when pulling it apart.
I only do a hundred plus rounds a year. I can’t lose a cutting because thats all I got to feed, so I stress big time over a little bit. All my neighbors do 5 to seven times what I do. Yes, some of their stuff gets hit by weather. No outlet to get rid of it though. Hay sucks in our dang climate.

Again, nobody said gay dude makes crap hay…try not to be so optimistic!
 
   / The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor
  • Thread Starter
#593  
😂 she was in the shower when I posted that… I didn’t take it anywhere, you said high moisture/weedy hay stays outside. Was just going off what you said and then that some producers buy and feed it. That would be not good.

So good hay boxed in by cover hay…I get it. I could also imagine how bad high moisture squares stacked could get with zero chance to dry. Would look like it on fire when pulling it apart.
I only do a hundred plus rounds a year. I can’t lose a cutting because thats all I got to feed, so I stress big time over a little bit. All my neighbors do 5 to seven times what I do. Yes, some of their stuff gets hit by weather. No outlet to get rid of it though. Hay sucks in our dang climate.

Again, nobody said gay dude makes crap hay…try not to be so optimistic!
Just take my advice and walk from that old faded Massey and get a Maxxum 5XXX
You’ll have additional high praise for me afterwards, save money, and have the ear to ear Cummins grin. Priceless
 
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   / The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor #594  
Just take my advice and walk from that old faded Massey and get a Maxxum 5XXX
You’ll have additional high praise for me afterwards, save money, and have the ear to ear Cummins grin. Priceless
😆
Cummins are great as long as they don’t have that dodge wrapper. On the contrary, we need to get you into a brand new tractor. That intoxicating new rubber smell, plus you don’t have mouse pee ac blowing in your face. Well, for a wile at least, we all know farmed tractors eventually succumb to the little 4 legged devils.
 
   / The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor #595  
Here in Western Illinois I have no hard numbers but I’d say less than 10% of the hay is stored inside. It’s almost all large rounds and some do wrap them in white plastic but most don’t. I’m surprised when large rounds are broke open that look old the inside will look good.
 
   / The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor #596  
No for sure there is probably 6” of rot which is honestly a good bit of hay. But that’s about it, no bales below it. The shape does repel. Big ole flat bale would soak up I would think, then migrate in wards.
 
   / The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor #597  
Here in Western Illinois I have no hard numbers but I’d say less than 10% of the hay is stored inside. It’s almost all large rounds and some do wrap them in white plastic but most don’t. I’m surprised when large rounds are broke open that look old the inside will look good.

No for sure there is probably 6” of rot which is honestly a good bit of hay. But that’s about it, no bales below it. The shape does repel. Big ole flat bale would soak up I would think, then migrate in wards.
Much of it will depend upon your weather conditions and soil types.
I have been around a lot of Western irrigated hay that is stored outdoors, years ago that would have been small squares now it's large squares. In those arid climates the hay will stay quite good. If stacked on bare ground the bottom tier will be moldy and bad at least halfway up, the top tier will have bad hay for 6"s or so.

However in the NorthEast with it's much wetter and higher humidity numbers year round the amount of loss will be much higher.
Poor quality hay ground or chopped up and mixed with good feed will allow cows to sustain and stay somewhat healthy.
Older brood cows can survive on poor quality hay, if they are still nursing a calve that calve will not do as good as a cow getting higher quality feed. Older brood cows can actually be over fed on high quality hay with good digestibility and high protein (early cut prior to maturity), and get to fat and have troubles calving.
Dairy animals especially producing milk cows will do quite poorly on low quality feed and it can actually taint the taste of the milk, as it can effect the flavor of beef animals.

I calculated the rough amount of feed lose on a round bale previously but here we go again just for sh*ts and grins.
Start out with a big round bale 5' x 5' which would be approximately 98.17 cu. ft..
Reduce the size by 6" all around including the ends so now we are down to a 4 x 4 bale which is about 50.27 cubic feet,
dang almost a 50% loss of feed or twice as much money for the same amount of quality feed.
Many people will say that the waste is much less, OK.
Start out with that same 5x5 round bale, lets only have 2" of waste on the ends and lets say the bottom has 4" of bad feed the top and sides only 3" so lets use 3.25" for average loose.
54" x 53.5" which ends up with 70.25 cu. ft. of good feed or about 3/4's of what we started with.

Just my feelings and opinion from handling a lot bales both small square (mostly 2 twine bales but some 2 and 3 wire bales) and round, and feeding animals for several decades.
 
   / The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor #598  
LouNY, I’d agree with the numbers you have for waste on large rounds, more likely the bigger number for loss. I don’t farm but have in-laws who do and drive by farms almost every day. I’m also surprised how many large rounds are wasted and don’t get used at all. About a half mile from my house there must be 20 to 30 of them that are obviously never going to be used.
 
   / The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor #599  
Here’s the inside of a typical outside stored bale I sell to the growers.
In MY area, this would be considered good cow hay.
I sell these bales to beef cattle guys and feed my own this kind of hay all day long.
This bale sat outside in a stack for months.

View attachment 837921
Looks good to me.
 
   / The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor
  • Thread Starter
#600  
😆
Cummins are great as long as they don’t have that dodge wrapper. On the contrary, we need to get you into a brand new tractor. That intoxicating new rubber smell, plus you don’t have mouse pee ac blowing in your face. Well, for a wile at least, we all know farmed tractors eventually succumb to the little 4 legged devils.
A cummins hasn’t been found in a ”Dodge” for over 13 years.
It’s Ram now.

And just so you know, mine’s been pulling over it’s limit for 4 years and no problems.

No way no new tractors. Not now, not ever.
 

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