What a Haying Season!

[WTA]

Well, I ended up with 452 bales of bermuda off my 7 acre field. It's a little short of the 500 I was hoping for but still more than ever before. It just started raining and my wife still isn't back with the fertilizer. Hopefully it will keep up most of the day and I won't have to pull out the sprinkler to get it watered in. The nice thing about that bermuda field is I can go out and work in it with the tractor in the rain and it won't hurt the grass. I might have to go back later and fill in the ruts with the rear blade but it still won't hurt anything, it grows back so fast.

The weather here is really unpredictable. Normally we don't get our first freeze till November but I've seen 12 inches of snow before Halloween and 90 degrees in December before too. Being so unpredictable our pecan trees get frosted about 2 out of 3 years but when we do get a crop it's a HUGE one off of them.

I just hope I can get at least one more cutting off my alfalfa and bermuda fields so I can put up hay for myself for the winter. So far we've been selling it all just to stay on top of the equipment payments and twice I had to hire someone else to do it because my new tractor was in the shop. It's been a crappy year in that respect.

 

[AKfish]

8" of rain in one day!!! (Sounds like a good rice year - not hay..)

Drive on the field when it's wet and raining... I'd have ruts that would be there 10 years from now - and pretty poor grass down in 'em, too!

AKfish

 

[mark.r]

8" of rain in one day!!! (Sounds like a good rice year - not hay..)

Drive on the field when it's wet and raining... I'd have ruts that would be there 10 years from now - and pretty poor grass down in 'em, too!

AKfish

You can thank tropical depression Hanna for that one. We actually needed it though. Believe it or not, it's pretty much all dried up now.

 

[AKfish]

WTA - are those 452 big round bales - as in 1,000lber's?? And how many cutting's did you get this season?

Mark.r - with that late rain did folk's in your area ever get any "decent" hay?

Article here in the local paper yesterday interviewing one of the 2 biggest hay producers in the area (135 acres) and he stated that this season was the worst season that he's ever had in 33 years!

There's 2,600 hay growers on the Kenai Peninsula (didn't even know that there were 2,600 tractors.. let alone that many farmers) but only 2 farmers with more than 100 acres into hay production.

With the crappy season; almost any hay is at a premium and folk's are already concerned that as winter sets in - they'll be horses and other livestock that won't be gettin' enough to eat.

(The dog teams will likely have a very meaty diet this winter..)

AKfish

 

[czechsonofagun]

We are waiting for the local farmer (NoVa) to cut and bail square bails. Hopefully it will happen this weekend, he was waiting for little bit more rain to get the grass some boost. Pastures are completely exploited this year.

 

[mark.r]

Mark.r - with that late rain did folk's in your area ever get any "decent" hay?

AKfish

Most people cut earlier when we had lots of rain. Last 90 days has been dry so most cuttings has been low quality cow type stuff. I think people will get another cutting of higher quality stuff in another month or so with the rain we've had recently.

 

[matt21]

This year has been one of the best haying years yet for me. I just finished my 3rd cutting of 2 fields, fixin to start on the 3rd field. I'll get 4 cuttings off of one field. So far all of my custom jobs haven't got wet. Most of my personal hay has got rained on. Still have about 55 acres to bale this year then i should be done for this year.

 

[Briana03]

I moved your thread to the new Haying forum!