I bobbed and weaved and got all my fields in one 2 day shot down with a real heavy crimp, let it sit a day in the hot sun and raked it the next day and bailed it that evening (that was a long night). My customer came with 4 flat bed semi trailers and I loaded everything and away it went and then it rained again before I could run the bat wing shredder on the fields so I had to wait 2 days for that and then right after, I applied 28 Urea liquid and 24D(B) herbicide and called it good and it's been precipitating about every other day since. I was extremely lucky and all the equipment ran flawlessly, well sort of. My open station M9 Kubota developed a leak in the right outboard that needs to be addressed as all the gear oil ran out on the rim and tire and I'm not about to use it for anything until I get it fixed. I have the big radial O ring and the O ring for the end of the hub so that is next on the agenda along with fixing my buggy. It seems to have a bad bearing in the alternator but I won't know until I take it apart. Have a new serpentine belt as well as a new idler tension assembly because I'll have to destroy the original serpentine belt to get it off to surmise what bearing in what is puking. Always something needing fixed here. New rebuilt alternator at Auto Zone is 175 bucks, hate to think what the AC compressor would cost if that is what is growling. After that, I'll get into the tractor hopefully. Last year I did the upper and lower kingpin bushings on it. It has 6700 hours on it. Kubota uses a kingpin front on their FWA tractors btw. I'm done until September now, maybe October depending on what the weather brings. It will be mostly vernal alfalfa and again, it's all pre sold. I relinquished my 2 remote fields I was doing on shares. With my ongoing cancer issues I don't want to wander far from home and have some sort of episode in the field and expire and no one would know. Doing my owned fields around the house, I feel much safer and I'm 75 this year so I have my age against me as well. Besides I carry a high power GMRS business radio in the cab and my wife has the base station in the house so if anything happens, I can get help immediately.
Little backstory on my round bailer. 2 years ago I bought a new Kubota BV series net-twine round bailer, traded in my New Holland for it. I never liked the NH net-twine round baler as it was very inconsistent wrapping over the edge net, plus the pickup wasn't wide enough even with gathering wheels on it.
I had issues with the Kubota bailer right away and had to have the regional rep out here to reset the net stickout because it wasn't picking up the net consistently and I had to resort to twine when it failed and my customer wants everything in net so I got that handled but I was building loose hay on the inner drive roller to the point where the belts were getting tensioned way too much when the chamber was full so I had Dennis (he's the head tech at the dealership I deal with) look at it and he agreed there was something seriously wrong with it plus I could not set the density tension on the fly which I was supposed to be able to do (I like a soft centered bale for ease of spearing but I want the rest of the bale fiddle string tight) so he came out and picked it up this spring and took it back to the dealership and I told him if Kubota could not fix it, I wanted my money back and I'd go buy a John Deere bailer.
Anyway, he had it for a month and my hay was getting rank and I was dead in the water but he brought it back and now I have a Kubota BV Silage Special bailer. Kubota stood the entire bill too. He spent 3 solid days refitting it inside with scraper bars and rotating axles equipped with fan shaped rollers plus a new computer. They didn't make anything on that bailer but I will say it runs perfectly now and now I can dial the density I require on the fly from the tractor seat. Runs perfectly. I can even twine a bale and then over wrap it in net if I want to. I'm a happy camper and it runs over the edge net just fine as well. Speaking of net, the price per roll went up appreciably this year, dang inflation. I like running Bridon net but I've used Tamanet (JD) as well. The twine box on it holds 6 balls but I only have 2 mega balls in the box, just in case I had a net issue. I don't believe that will be the case now. Next year I'll probably purchase a new Kubota center point disc machine with chevron crimp rolls. No new rake however as my Kuhn Masterdrive twin rotor is just peachy. I need to keep those machines newer for that tax write off. Besides, my NH center point is getting old and I like new stuff anyway. My one hay customer was laughing at me, giving up about half of my hay ground but running a 70K round bailer. I really didn't want to but my health issues (cancer) made the decision for me. It's all good and being close to the farm if anything happens is a big plus for me as well as my wife. Been dealing with it for 7 years now and it's taken a toll on me and age is as well but I like doing it and I do everything by myself, no outside help at all. Wasn't the case when I did small squares. that was hard work all the time. Glad I gave that up and sold that 575 NH square bailer and all the hay wagons as well. Got top buck for it on Tractor House btw. I always take good care of my equipment. I ran thousands of square bales through it and a ton of wheat straw bales for the local county road board as well. They would buy complete wheat fields and have the farmer put the windrower attachment on the back of the combine and then I'd come in and square bale it for them I believe they used it for roadsides when doing new bridge construction or whatever. Don't know who does it now, I don't. It was easy too. Just kept the tine box full, the ac on in the tractor and drove, windrow after windrow, was kind of boring too, but it paid really well and I never touched one bale either. Their employees loaded it on their trucks I presume as I was never around to see that part. I just billed them for the total number of bales I ran on the counter and they sent me a check. One good day, I remember running close to 4000 bales. Started at dawn and finished about 10pm and used around 20 balls of twine or so. Cannot remember exactly, been a long time ago. I did stop and ate my lunch however. That NH 575 high capacity was a beast of a square bailer and really ran trouble free though I did stop infrequently and blew off the knotters. I still carry a cordless blower in the tractor cab even today.
Never liked dealing with horsey hay people anyway. IMO, very few of them know what good hay is and they all wanted it cheap as well. Don't have that issue now. My one customer never whines about the price, always provides his own transportation for the rounds (semi trailers), all I do is load them, his crew secures them and off they go and been that way for the last 5 years now. He always pays me before the first of the next year, just like clockwork and he's already lusting for the second cut alfalfa to feed his 'baby' cattle.
Don't know how much longer I'll be able to do it but I'm hoping until I'm 80 or deceased, whichever comes first I guess.
The cancer I have is inoperable so all I can do is keep it at bay with semi weekly infusions. So far so good. I don't have any discomfort or pain but I know it's there inside me. I can see it when they do a PET scan. I deal with 2 medical institutions, Cleveland Clinic and Trinity Health Care in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Trinity is my primary care facility. Cleveland Clinic is my go to for advice. Just got done with an infusion and had an infusion pump on the last 2 days.
Wish I could be rid of it, but not in the cards. Like I said, it's inoperable.
I will say at 74, just turned 75 on the 15th of this month things get a little slower and harder to do but I'm a survivor anyway.
Kind of long post but I felt like posting it.
