The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Hay Dude]

How do you deal with sitting for that long? If I'm in my tractor for just a few hours, I can barely walk when I try to get out of it.

I usually have to get out on the hour to blow all the chaff off the hood or it’ll overheat. Or take a whiz, fix something, etc. I have cut 16 hours in a stretch a few times ending with the lights on.

 

[Hay Dude]

It rained last night, so I took some time to mow a few small places and then stack about 75 bales.

Here’s a nice hilltop view of the valley below and farm across the street. Seems like I baled it a month ago, but it was last week.

 

[Hay Dude]

I was patrolling field edges before wrapping up for the day. We had some pretty strong winds and lost a couple more ash trees.
Always something to do and fix.

 

[BackRoad]

Are you just mowing "The Big Tuna" or haying it?

It looks like a very nice property. I sure enjoy the rolling hills...not too steep...beautiful all freshly cut.

That's a lot of work!

 

[Hay Dude]

Are you just mowing "The Big Tuna" or haying it?

It looks like a very nice property. I sure enjoy the rolling hills...not too steep...beautiful all freshly cut.

That's a lot of work!

Haying it. Last year it made 120 4x4x8’s. This year will be less. Very dry.

 

[Hay Dude]

Some scenes from today. It is so dry here, it’s actually challenging to make 4x4x8 bales. The tops of the bales are not filling up as much as I’d like them to.

This is a beautiful property. It is owned by a very rich man. It’s so dry you want to follow the rake hoping to get some lingering moisture. Awesome 80-85* and a light breeze.

Broke a 6” long heavy duty spring. Bummer. Had to stop and run to tractor shop and find a pretty comparable spring.

Here we are at another field just getting started. It’s very light crop as you can see. I cut this on Wednesday and it was baked by Friday morning.

Knocked off at about 7:30

Another long day

 

[Semper Paratus]

How is or did your special water works project (going)?

 

[Coffee drinker]

Could you bale with a round baler when the hay is so dry?

 

[Hay Dude]

How is or did your special water works project (going)?

Ummm, not part of this thread, but I guess we can talk about that????
It’s still in the works, but on hold.

 

[Hay Dude]

Could you bale with a round baler when the hay is so dry?

I don’t have one any more. I changed my operation to square bales.