Hay Making on a Different Scale

[LHF2019]

What you call horse nettle we call bull nettle. Same plant, in the same family as potatoes and tomatoes. USDA says eradication is darn near impossible. Best is to control it by frequent mowing. Spraying and manually pulling it are ineffective as it spreads by seed and propagation of roots.

We have a little in the horse paddocks. It grows on bare ground where the horses roll. They leave it alone as it is bitter and they have plenty of hay and grass. Each of the 3 horses has a paddock of 3/4 to 1 acre.

2 different plants. Not the same at all.

Solanum carolinense - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin

www.wildflower.org

 

[LHF2019]

Over 60 acres with 3 days of baling. The 2nd cutting on our 50 acre piece went a whopping 14 bales/acre. That's with fertilizer. Need moisture. Yesterday we got a total of .25 at 3 different timeframes followed by sun. Hard to say how much actually stayed.

 

[EddieWalker]

How many hours a day are you sitting on a tractor to do that much land? I'm in a cab with an air seat, bushogging my land, and 4 hours is the most I can handle. Then I'm half crippled trying to get out of the tractor and walk back to the house. 2-3 hours is about all I want to do at a time!!!

 

[LHF2019]

How many hours a day are you sitting on a tractor to do that much land? I'm in a cab with an air seat, bushogging my land, and 4 hours is the most I can handle. Then I'm half crippled trying to get out of the tractor and walk back to the house. 2-3 hours is about all I want to do at a time!!!

Friday went like this. Last minute decision to mow. At field mowing by 7am. 930am uncle takes over, go to barn load hay for customer. Swap implements on tractor head back to field. Start raking. Sit on raking tractor from 1030-2pm. Back to barn and get square baler hooked up. Grab a granola bar. My first food of the day. Go back to field and bale until 4pm. Finish raking field. Go back to baling. Wife shows up to bale I switch over to grapple tractor. At 730 i am backing wagons into the shed.

Thursday and Saturday not much different except add preload at UPS to my morning schedule

 

[EddieWalker]

WOW!!! That sounds like a very long, very painful day. And you did it three days in a row. I don't think I would be able to move after the first day.

 

[Hay Dude]

Over 60 acres with 3 days of baling. The 2nd cutting on our 50 acre piece went a whopping 14 bales/acre. That's with fertilizer. Need moisture. Yesterday we got a total of .25 at 3 different timeframes followed by sun. Hard to say how much actually stayed.

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Dang that’s some scant yields. That grass looks to be maybe only 18” tall.
I really hate cut/rake/bale low yield fields.
Would it help if you hung on a few more weeks, then go hammer down? Or are you running out of time?
I am going to start 2nd cutting later this week/early next week. I need about 6 weeks to do all mine, so that puts me into 1st week of October.

I’m also a little warmer in my part of PA, so you may have to start earlier in N. PA

Maybe you are trying for 3 cuttings??

 

[LHF2019]

Dang that’s some scant yields. That grass looks to be maybe only 18” tall.
I really hate cut/rake/bale low yield fields.
Would it help if you hung on a few more weeks, then go hammer down? Or are you running out of time?
I am going to start 2nd cutting later this week/early next week. I need about 6 weeks to do all mine, so that puts me into 1st week of October.

I’m also a little warmer in my part of PA, so you may have to start earlier in N. PA

Maybe you are trying for 3 cuttings??

Gets weedier the longer you wait. Also with the heat and no moisture the grasses are for most part dormant. Cutting it will stimulate it. This particular field was 45 days. It’s always a tough call when weather isn’t cooperating. And yes planning on 3rd hopefully. Obviously fertilizer didn’t do much so the 3rd should yield better IF we get moisture. No moisture no hay.

 

[LHF2019]

No not running out of time. Still long way to November lol

 

[Hay Dude]

Last year I was out until November as well. It was a very easy fall to make hay.

Do you have the little hood mounted centering/guiding device? Does it work well for mowing, too?

 

[LHF2019]

Last year I was out until November as well. It was a very easy fall to make hay.

Do you have the little hood mounted centering/guiding device? Does it work well for mowing, too?

It’s only on the tractor because not done spraying. Only used for spraying fertilizing and some tillage

 

[LHF2019]

WOW!!! That sounds like a very long, very painful day. And you did it three days in a row. I don't think I would be able to move after the first day

It is the getting off the tractor that is the worst. I'll be stiff barely able to walk but fine once loosened up. Same at UPS take break in the car then have a hard time getting back out. Can't imagine what it will be like when I'm old. Not to mention this has been a long hot summer. No cabs. So just sitting in the sun cooking for 10-14 hours sometimes.

 

[Hay Dude]

It is the getting off the tractor that is the worst. I'll be stiff barely able to walk but fine once loosened up. Same at UPS take break in the car then have a hard time getting back out. Can't imagine what it will be like when I'm old. Not to mention this has been a long hot summer. No cabs. So just sitting in the sun cooking for 10-14 hours sometimes.

Do you have any opportunities to do any field mowing or snowplowing or other off farm work utilizing your equipment? You get a crap-ton of snow in NW PA, right?
I have done this with good success.

Maybe UPS gives you bennies.

 

[ultrarunner]

It is the getting off the tractor that is the worst. I'll be stiff barely able to walk but fine once loosened up. Same at UPS take break in the car then have a hard time getting back out. Can't imagine what it will be like when I'm old. Not to mention this has been a long hot summer. No cabs. So just sitting in the sun cooking for 10-14 hours sometimes.

A lot of the open station field tractors growing up had attached shade umbrellas.

Now conditioned cabs the norm.

We also have increasing cases of Valley Fever extending outside the Central Valley causing concern.

Several old farmers had this become a real issue late in life…

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/valley-fever/symptoms-causes/syc-20378761

 

[LHF2019]

Do you have any opportunities to do any field mowing or snowplowing or other off farm work utilizing your equipment? You get a crap-ton of snow in NW PA, right?
I have done this with good success.

Maybe UPS gives you bennies.

Never had an interest in snowplowing except my own driveway. I would not consider snowplowing a good investment anymore. Last winter was the first time in I don't know how long we had a somewhat real winter. Non stop snow. Otherwise the number of time I have plowed snow would be in the single digits. I do like the steady paycheck of UPS and if I were to use it the no cost health insurance. If anything I am hoping I can hold out long enough to lock in the pension from there.

 

[LHF2019]

Another round of first and 2nd/3rd done.

Wife started early in the morning before work opening up the field for my driver.

2nd/3rd yield is just pitiful. Can't break 20 bales/acre this year. Still hopeful we will be able to fill customers orders but it will be close. These fields I did this weekend will get a shot of urea.......if confident in rain amount this week. We are still VERY dry with no end in sight.

 

[Hay Dude]

Wow, I didn’t know your wife was part of your operation!
I hope you get some rain. We’re dryer than a popcorn fart here, too.

 

[LHF2019]

It has been a really discouraging year. No year is easy but middle of the road sure is helpful. Locally we have corn tasselling at 4-5 ft. high. The last of my neighbors corn he put in is about waist high. He didn't even start planting until beginning of July. Knee high by 4th of July this year did not exist. More like knee high by Aug. Here are the stats for this years growing season.

May/June wet. From my rain gauge the total was 11.63

To dry July/Aug. Not to mention the heat that also shut the grass down.
2.66 received in July in 3 separate events. 2weeks ago finally received our first measurable rain. 2 days with approx. 0.22 each day and almost half inch last couple days of Aug.

Total for July/Aug. 4.46. Just over half of 8.19 that is the normal rain fall for this area. My rain gauge measured a bit less at 3.9

 

[EddieWalker]

Seemed like you were never going to get dry weather, and when the rain finally ended, it really ended!!!!

 

[Hay Dude]

Im not quite as bad on the southeast part of "coastal" PA, but still pretty bad here....

Have you ever tried "pre-raking"?
You rake night before and get a little dew on top of rows, then bale.
Makes bales real nice if you time it right

 

[LHF2019]

Im not quite as bad on the southeast part of "coastal" PA, but still pretty bad here....

Have you ever tried "pre-raking"?
You rake night before and get a little dew on top of rows, then bale.
Makes bales real nice if you time it right

Never. Dews are heavy. Most of the time we will tedd some in the morning so we can rake earlier. Otherwise to much moisture in the hay.