Hay Making on a Different Scale

[RayIN]

Another round of 2nd cutting done. Very poor yield even with fertilizer. Just a crappy year all around. Still picking off first cutting. Customer orders are filled. Sales are down again. Making some baleage with it to feed this winter and get some rounds and squares in the barn to sell. We went from wet and no weather to make hay to hot and dry. Then comfortable and dry. We are currently in the middle of a 10 plus day dry spell. Yields are going to suffer.

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Getting tired of all these smoke events. Seems to happen way to often and used to be a fall issue. Now it is late spring and late summer/fall

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Somewhere I read that the first thing a farmer must have is hope. How very true.

 

[Hay Dude]

Somewhere I read that the first thing a farmer must have is hope. How very true.

If you aren't an eternal optimist, you can't last in farming. You also need a good wife and help thats willing to work odd hours along with you.

Buncha money aint bad to have, either

 

[LHF2019]

Some more from past week at picking away 1st cutting.

Finally the last of the first cutting in these fields. Only 50 more acres to go LOL

 

[Hay Dude]

We used to have an Arab and a quarter horse studs. We long ago quit breeding for a variety of reasons. Like dogs and cats, there are too many unwanted horses, people that had no idea what they were getting into, and expenses. Vets coming out of school that want a 9 to 5 schedule, older vets retiring. I just spent $249 for a ten lb container of Throid L, $425 for a 160 day supply of cushing's medication and $106 for Equioxx (arthritis). Add to that 4k to take a horse to a large animal hospital last April only to put him down, another $275. When our last two go, I will miss them but not the work and the bills.

I don't know but cattle operations must be feeling it too?

On a happier note, my area has hit a dry spell, maybe to dry but there is hay making going on everywhere that i go. The farmers are having a "field" day

Yes small cattle guys are closing up and horse ownership seems to be reserved for only the very wealthy

 

[RayIN]

My friend called this afternoon. The baler knotter stopped working, the problem was a plastic gear that drives the knotter. It's covered with thin metal collar, which had a groove worn in it, preventing adequate tension. He discovered he could turn the plastic gear over and it ran in a different spot-Win.
Began baling again and tractor began over-heating and he'd blown out the radiator fins and re-tensioned the belt. He called me because I listen to him vent. I asked if he just removed the 'stat would it harm the tractor, I think I even heard him grin just before he hung up.