Hay Making on a Different Scale

LHF2019 · Jul 24, 2024

EddieWalker said:
You have an impressive operation!!! Is this your full time job? Most of the people that I've met have to work to afford their farms.

It is. In addition to the hay sales there is the beef side to. 2015 I left JEP, Cummins local engine manufacturing plant after being there for 8 years. When I auctioned off the farm the first time in 2006 I told myself I was done and went to the plant. 4 months later I was buying equipment again and never missed a season doing custom work. 2000 I took over the farm after dad passed. At that time it was a 60 cow dairy. 3 years later due to health, labor , and the all important money issues I restructured and tried the custom work while leasing out the cows and raising the heifers. Needed more time to grow and money was tight so instead of constantly fighting family said *&^% it and auctioned off the cows and equipment. 2015 is when I started the hay portion of the business when I started to take back the farm ground as it became available again. By 2020I only had a couple custom customers left that I still do to this day and have 280 acres that we farm. all hay or forage related crop.

Last year several issues came to head and November 2023 after having to many to drink and job searching got myself hired at UPS as a preloader for peak. I'm still there after getting officially hired in Feb. and while losing 5 hours in the morning is really hurting me it is nice to have a steady paycheck and full benefits that cost me $0.....When I have enough hours.

To answer your question yes it is a fulltime job that I managed to cram a part time job into. Going from Cummins to UPS and continued building the business around a part time job would have been a better way of doing it. But you don't know what you don't know.

EddieWalker · Jul 24, 2024

That's quite an adventure!!!! I drove for UPS back in the late 80's and it was all hustle, all the time!!!! A good loader sure did make a difference.

Hay Dude · Jul 24, 2024

What did you think about Cummins? Good quality?

LHF2019 · Jul 25, 2024

EddieWalker said:
That's quite an adventure!!!! I drove for UPS back in the late 80's and it was all hustle, all the time!!!! A good loader sure did make a difference.

These are just from this week. Told my wife that loosing 95% of your floor space in the first hour half is not good and had me concerned about the rest of the day. That black case on right, not unusual to have as few as 5 and most I've seen is 22 one day. Floor space is valuable. Not bragging but they have ranked me number 2 for loading behind the guy that been there for almost 20 years. Covering vacations the drivers ask the supervisor if they can keep me loading their trucks. One driver of over 30 years ranked me top 5. Must be stacking all those square bales had a benefit. I hate having to go in and fix somebody's truck at the end of the day. All the gaps and wasted space. I've unloaded trucks before and started over when time just to make it all fit.

EddieWalker · Jul 25, 2024

I feel sorry for the drivers today. When I was driving, computer monitors where the heaviest things we had to deal with. A bad day would be delivering two 17 inch monitors!!!! Now, just to my place, we get cases of dog food delivered, plus all sorts of bulk canned food!!! I can't imagine how many heavy boxes they have to deliver in a day.

LHF2019 · Jul 25, 2024

During peak I was taking the max amount of pills for my back. I took more in a month period than I have my entire life. It’s nothing to load 150 lbs package. There are items strapped to skids that should be freight. I hate unloading the trailers. A bad day loading 3 trucks is better than any day in the trailer. By yourself handling every package for over 20 delivery trucks. It is not fun. Makes farming a walk in the park. 10 hours of labor intensive work doing it in 5 hours.

EddieWalker said:
I feel sorry for the drivers today. When I was driving, computer monitors where the heaviest things we had to deal with. A bad day would be delivering two 17 inch monitors!!!! Now, just to my place, we get cases of dog food delivered, plus all sorts of bulk canned food!!! I can't imagine how many heavy boxes they have to deliver in a day.

LHF2019 · Jul 25, 2024

Starting 2nd cutting poor yield. Hoping this will jump start the growth.

LittleBittyBigJohn · Jul 25, 2024

Wow, my yard is growing that much in a week right now!

Lastkidpicked · Jul 25, 2024

EddieWalker said:
Do you have any pictures of you unloading them, how they are stacked? I'm mostly curious in how you store them. I need to build a hay barn at my place. The entire process of getting hay to the farm where it can be used, and how it's stored is something new to me.

Eddie's post shows why I enjoy reading you all on here. Just a nice, friendly exchange of information. And people like above, not trying to be a know-it-all but instead asking genuine questions. It's one of the reason's that this thread and @Hay Dude 's thread are things I look forward to each day.

LHF2019 said:
Going from Cummins to UPS and continued building the business around a part time job would have been a better way of doing it. But you don't know what you don't know.

And here is is again. ^^^ @LHF2019 sharing his experience and admitting that there were better ways of doing it.

I don't know how to properly thank all of you who contribute and make this a nice place to be, other than simply say "Thank You."