The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Hay Dude]

Fire extinguisher needed for a farm environment a really good idea. I live in a farming area and have seen more than one piece of farm equipment sitting in a field burned up. It seems hat balers and combines are the most common.

They definitely are. Round balers are susceptible, combines are notorious. Most guys will let the combines burn as they are worth more as an insurance claim lol

 

[Hay Dude]

Back at it between the deluges of rain. We got 5.1” of rain in last 36 hours. It’s like a flood zone here. Hay been sitting for 6 days now. Buddy of mine dropped 85 acres of straw. All ruined.

We were able to cut one customers barnyard area yesterday. Gotta keep some money moving, even if it means cutting in between rains.

 

[Hay Dude]

Tried to tedder some hay today. It’s been drenched for about 6 days now with off/on heavy downpours. Really need some sun & wind for a few days.

Today was the first day without rain since last Thursday. Broke out the tedder and brought the matted-down ruined hay up onto the surface.

Just couldn’t get enough sun. Mostly cloudy all day today.

Weatherman says we have tomorrow and Friday and then the rain returns.

 

[groundcover]

One extreme to another !

 

[Hay Dude]

One extreme to another !

yup!
Problem is, in May when we had the drought, I couldn’t start mowing hay until about May 21. Now all we have is rain, exactly when we are wanting to finish up 1st cutting

 

[groundcover]

Be a farmer they said, it will be fun they said !

 

[Hay Dude]

Got a short window of dry weather yesterday & today. Yesterday still too wet from the week of soaking rains.
Today was marginal weather. Rain in the forecast for Friday (but that got changed by the time we got raked up today). This hay got rained on badly and sat for a while until we could dig it out, tedder and finally rake and bale.

We were able to make 65 1600-1750lb bales of mushroom hay. All brown. Just the way they like it! lol

We will make 10 more tomorrow if the weather holds.

 

[deserteagle71]

Back in 1972 if mowed hay got wet not much you could do except dry it as best you could and then use it for bedding. Had to be really careful because hay with too much moisture in it would self-combust and burn the barn down. Here my Dad on the Farmall H is raking the hay to get it up off the ground; my Mom on the Ford 861 Powermaster was fluffing it even higher with the "tedder".

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Got a short window of dry weather yesterday & today. Yesterday still too wet from the week of soaking rains.
Today was marginal weather. Rain in the forecast for Friday (but that got changed by the time we got raked up today). This hay got rained on badly and sat for a while until we could dig it out, tedder and finally rake and bale.

We were able to make 65 1600-1750lb bales of mushroom hay. All brown. Just the way they like it! lol

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We will make 10 more tomorrow if the weather holds.

You are in a unique situation to have a market for hay that gets rained on over and over, it's really a blessing instead of having to take a total loss on it.

 

[Hay Dude]

You are in a unique situation to have a market for hay that gets rained on over and over, it's really a blessing instead of having to take a total loss on it.

It’s the only way I’d be making 1000+ tons/year.

Otherwise I’d make 50-100 tons of feed hay and call it good.