The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Hay Dude]

Haydude you have a picture eating hay out of a small green structure. Is that a deer stand? I’ve seen people around here do the same thing. Do you pick it up somehow and set it over a hay bale?

Hay Hut. One of the best hay feeding inventions I have ever seen.
I almost became a dealer when they first came out. The inventor is a pretty brilliant guy

Hay Hut Horse Feeder | Hay Hut Net Kit | Chapin, SC

Hay Huts protect and preserve hay for feeding horses, saving you money and keeping your horses happy and healthy. The Hay Hut Net Kit increases feeding efficiency with 5 different hole sizes to cover all aspects of slow, regular, clean and training feeding.

www.dogwoodridgesupply.com

 

[scootr]

Hay Hut. One of the best hay feeding inventions I have ever seen.
I almost became a dealer when they first came out. The inventor is a pretty brilliant guy

Hay Hut Horse Feeder | Hay Hut Net Kit | Chapin, SC

Hay Huts protect and preserve hay for feeding horses, saving you money and keeping your horses happy and healthy. The Hay Hut Net Kit increases feeding efficiency with 5 different hole sizes to cover all aspects of slow, regular, clean and training feeding.

www.dogwoodridgesupply.com

I can see that saving a $1000 in wasted feed that gets spread out and trampled into the ground. But it goes against the horse's nature to be on the lookout for danger while grazing by having his head in a bin.

 

[bearthebruce]

@Hay Dude, since you asked for some pics, I just added a few from our September mowing to a google album.

Here is the link: Mowing

You'll see a few pics of our troubles on the trip when I blew one of the steering Hydraulic lines.. And of course, it was the most difficult to get to... tore the whole front of Missy off to get to the fitting! Fun days that!

Oh, and I live in Montgomery County PA, the land is in Floyd County, VA. Jonesville/Pennington Gap is significantly west of Floyd VA. Still gorgeous country.

 

[Hay Dude]

I can see that saving a $1000 in wasted feed that gets spread out and trampled into the ground. But it goes against the horse's nature to be on the lookout for danger while grazing by having his head in a bin.

Well, ok, but all my customers have them and love em.
Extremely popular feeder.

 

[scootr]

Well, ok, but all my customers have them and love em.
Extremely popular feeder.

And that is why the horse became the workhorse because it is so darn domesticated.
Not saying it's wrong, just saying it isn't natural. And hunger is a real motivator.
Maybe they use a buddy system where one horse watches while the other eats?

 

[Hay Dude]

Today was a bit challenging with getting bales out of a field. We had rain over the weekend. Rain does not dry out this time of year in SE PA like it does in the warmer months. Here’s a 12 stack begging to be hauled out. Looks like a nice herd of deer in the distance.

That means even with 4WD, and even on flat ground, the potential is always there of getting the truck & trailer stuck.

Here I am hauling out the heaviest load yet this year. I made it to the asphalt, which is a great relief to me.

The Jeep Rubicon stands by to laugh at the RAMS situation. Those 15 bales were 29,400lbs.

Once to the wharf and unloaded I stopped for fuel on the way home. I love the 2” truck stop nozzle.

 

[Yander]

She's squatin pretty good there!

 

[Hay Dude]

She's squatin pretty good there!

Yeah it’s weird because once I got on the road, the squat kind of went away.

 

[ning]

Front of the truck is closer, wide-angle lens makes it look a lot bigger than the back which distorts the overall picture a little.
Then, the truck's front is higher up on the road than the rear - not by a lot but enough to make it look squat.
Possibly too, if the gooseneck hitch is mounted ahead of the rear axle at all, then if the truck is inclined then there's actually slightly more weight over the rear axle than when the truck is flat.

 

[Hay Dude]

It’s centered over rear axle

 

[mrmikey]

That's a nice looking load you've got there HD, the ole Ram's earning her keep for sure. I would imagine she sounds good under a bit of throttle hauling that.

 

[Hay Dude]

That's a nice looking load you've got there HD, the ole Ram's earning her keep for sure. I would imagine she sounds good under a bit of throttle hauling that.

I like the older Cummins rumble a little better. They’ve quieted -down these trucks about 10 years ago. But yes it still has a great rumbling sound and turbo boost to it the other 2 don’t have
Would really like to have an old 5.9L with a manual just for fun.

 

[mrmikey]

But yes it still has a great rumbling sound and turbo boost to it the other 2 don’t have

That nice whistle as the turbo spools up...that is an awesome sound.

 

[Hay Dude]

Back at it this morning.….
Same place.

260 tons to go.….

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

260 tons is a lot. Is there ever a point that the ground just doesn't support good hay production? Even with fertilizer applied it seems like that much mass leaving an area on a regular basis would have an impact. Real question not trying to be a jerk.

 

[deserteagle71]

Would really like to have an old 5.9L with a manual just for fun.

Sorry...mine ain't for sale!

 

[Hay Dude]

260 tons is a lot. Is there ever a point that the ground just doesn't support good hay production? Even with fertilizer applied it seems like that much mass leaving an area on a regular basis would have an impact.

260 is the last 1/4 of what I have already baled & shipped. Did about 1,000+ tons this year.
I try to use organic fertilizer, like mushroom compost soil, because it replaces the “solid mass” that I take off each year. It lays on top of the dirt and adds a lot of the lost organic material back to what was lost from baling.

So if I make 1,000 tons of hay, ideally I’d like to put close to that back down in spent mushroom compost. I never get there, but I try.

Most guys do nothing but spray liquid N.

If nothing was done, tonnage would trend downward

 

[Hay Dude]

Sorry...mine ain't for sale!

Drive it out to PA and we’ll negotiate a deal????
But You have to bring plenty of the old farm & family pictures!

 

[Hay Dude]

Yesterday began a bit “frosty” as the sun finally got up in the sky in my rural township.
My TBN friend Indy Jay liked this picture I posted on another thread, so I thought I’d share here.
Nice sunrise and not one home in sight in my rural township. There’s so much open space here, they film movies here. One was “The Village” by M. Knight Shamalon. Not a home in sight. Just open space and barns.

As I go to the back of this mile long field, I caught a glimpse of a little buck here

These bales have been sitting a while. That’s 2 tons of hay there.

We have a good soaking rain coming Sunday so my strategy was to bring 30-35 bales out front so I won’t make a mess of the fields.
Once I got those bales out of the field and to the front, they can be loaded faster and without mud everywhere.

Beginning to get ready for logging and snow. I left the bale spear in the field, went back to the farm and got the log grapple. Conveniently, the 8’ high cap bucket can be “pinched” in between the forks and the single arm log grapple. Cruising from the farm back to my place with both.

I’m kind of curious/excited to get started on the logs at my customers site. Still have 250 bales to truck and a LOT of log chunks.

 

[EddieWalker]

How fast does your tractor go on those paved roads? Every time I've driven on paved roads, I'm a lot slower then everyone else, and I'm always nervous about how quickly I can stop of I have to really fast.