2016 Hay season started for me.

cat fever · May 22, 2016

wmonroe said:
Hay! I meant to type hay.

I think we all knew that. But, it was funny. G and H being right next to each other on the key board----easy mistake.

wmonroe · May 22, 2016

I was hoping everyone knew but wanted to make it official. That will teach me to do a quick proofread before I hit send.

foreman Etexas · May 23, 2016

wmonroe said:
I was hoping everyone knew but wanted to make it official. That will teach me to do a quick proofread before I hit send.

Yeah I knew was hay but still got a laugh out of it.

powerscol · May 25, 2016

Well walked out in the field this morning and noticed the stocks seeding out and realized if I waited to the middle of June to cut after our vacation it was going to be very stemy.

So I hooked up my new to me PZ 170 and went to cutting. OMG does this unit do I nice job. I have to re-learn my pattern as the tractor tire prints dont get cut sometimes and it takes two passes for me to be able to drive the tractor over the cut windrows. I also need to mark the top for the cut limits so I dont need to fix mohawks. But unlike the sickle mower, I can just back up . Its a bit slower than the sickle mower (I have a 9' bar), but gives a better cut. After cutting I ran my GF222T tedder through it. Sweet.

cat fever · May 27, 2016

Looks great powerscol,
I think I'll be cutting in the next two weeks. The oats are just starting to seed out. The rain we have been getting combined with fertilizer has made my field look better than it has for the last 20 years. I'm looking forward to cutting.

Not the best picture to see the field growth, but it's very green and still growing up. The average depth is close to 30".

farmer2009 · May 28, 2016

Need to move one more tractor today. Then we'll start cutting. Have 30-40 acres to cut. About 5 I'm still debating on if I should graze or cut. With 2 cutters running this year I'm hoping to get done cutting today.

powerscol · May 28, 2016

Got 25 75# bales off of the 1.5 acre I cut. I am happy with the quality and it appear the tedding cut at least 1 day off and gave a better uniform drying. I tedded twice and only raked once. I did get a bit of rain on it, but still looks and smells good. Second and third cutting should be good too from what I can tell from this cutting.

foreman Etexas · Jun 1, 2016

Well everything went pretty quick to three different homes. It will be a change this summer for sure.

farmer2009 · Jun 1, 2016

Well the first 20 acres are rolled up. 63 bales. Which sucks. Should have been closer to 100. Think I'll fire my manure applicator. Still have about 15 acres to cut. But will have to wait till after this next round of rain.

Btown · Jun 2, 2016

powerscol said:
<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=469856"/><img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=469857"/> Well walked out in the field this morning and noticed the stocks seeding out and realized if I waited to the middle of June to cut after our vacation it was going to be very stemy. So I hooked up my new to me PZ 170 and went to cutting. OMG does this unit do I nice job. I have to re-learn my pattern as the tractor tire prints dont get cut sometimes and it takes two passes for me to be able to drive the tractor over the cut windrows. I also need to mark the top for the cut limits so I dont need to fix mohawks. But unlike the sickle mower, I can just back up . Its a bit slower than the sickle mower (I have a 9' bar), but gives a better cut. After cutting I ran my GF222T tedder through it. Sweet.

Your first pass should be with the cutter to the outmost edge of the field. Then you turn the tractor around and the cutter after the first pass in this direction will be in grass that has not been driven over.