Hay 2023

[hardheaded]

Seeing this thread makes me glad I quit farming when I did.

I could save entire drought stricken nations!
Just drop me in with a mower and a rake ,the clouds will open up about 2 hours before the hay is dry

 

[ByronF]

Threw a lot of hay. David Brown with New Holland dropped the bales on the ground. The old farmer baled. Rest of us apes came behind with an old Case and flatbed. We'd throw and stack ten high on a wagon 3' off the ground, four walkers, two stackers, taking turns. Then stack in the barn without an elevator. Throw and stack it all again.

We were fed lunch, then dinner at the farmer's table. When we left there was often a case of Old Milwaukee in the cooler in back of my buddy's truck. We'd go to the creek to clean off and work on the beer

 

[TenTea]

I baled on the Keegan farm in Fenton, MI - near the practice studio of Grand Funk Railroad.

We were all a little envious of our classmate, Keith Keegan because his dad had bought him a beautiful, new, white Chevy stepside pickup and he pulled the hay wagons with it.

Maybe a 1982 C-10 ?
Good times.

 

[Pluribus]

I bucked my last bail a good 10 years ago. Take care of your back and wear a brace if you have one cause you’ll be a busted, broken old fart like me. Sure, lots of good memories and all that and, nothing like the fresh smell of cut bluestem, alfalfa and brome. And sweat. Pure pouring off you like a waterfall sweat. 🥹 🫡

 

[GSO]

We just had our hay cut and baled just before 4th of July. For background, I bought the house on a 1-acre lot and 24 acres sprigged with native grass here in Central Texas back in 2005. I since bought an additional 20 acres attached to the north from the same friend that introduced me to the seller of this place. I've had the hay done since then to keep up the agricultural appraisal, and now to also feed our small herd of registered Nubian dairy goats (started in 2017). I had it fertilized and sprayed with herbicides once quite a few years ago but have since learned that nitrogen benefits the invasives more than the native grass and also quit the 2-4-d when I started keeping bees in 2015. Besides all the wild flowers, the other benefit is we get a good bit of Illinois bundleflower, a legume that helps add nitrogen that the natives can use....that and the goats love it. I do have a couple tractors (Kubota M7060 and Branson 2400h) for chores around the 44 acres, but can't justify the expense of serious haying equipment. There is a local cattleman who also does haying, sponsors the Bell County (TX) Youth Fair, and a bunch of other ag stuff. He has a few guys that work for him running their big equipment.

They use a JD W235 Self-Propelled Mower/Conditioner/Windrower for cutting and knock it out pretty quickly. Only did about 22 acres of the south pasture since the other 2 acres are goat pens, barn, and a dry creek with pecan and cottonwoods. I had a guy leasing the north 20 for grazing his cows and it didn't grow enough for cutting.



After 2 days of drying, they were back with the younger driver in a Case/IH 150 pulling a Vermeer R2800 rake and another guy in a Case/IH 220 with a brand new shiny Kubota BV4580. I talked with the operator for a while and he said they could not resist the baler since it was competitively priced and came with a 30,000 bale warranty. He said most balers start having problems around 5,000 to 8,000 bales.







Me and my son do move them with our Kubota.



And pack them in our old pole barn that came with the north 20 pasture.



Did small squares for the goats about 4 years ago (before I got my own tractor) and was having to fetch 5-6 of them a week from the hay barn. Now we only do the round bales since I can move them on my own and unroll what we need to put in the stall hay feeders each morning and evening when we feed grain, water and milk the does that are in milk.



Just cut open a fresh roll today, although it is last season's hay.

Hope you all found this at least mildly interesting.

 

[OhioPlinker]

We just had our hay cut and baled just before 4th of July. For background, I bought the house on a 1-acre lot and 24 acres sprigged with native grass here in Central Texas back in 2005. I since bought an additional 20 acres attached to the north from the same friend that introduced me to the seller of this place. I've had the hay done since then to keep up the agricultural appraisal, and now to also feed our small herd of registered Nubian dairy goats (started in 2017). I had it fertilized and sprayed with herbicides once quite a few years ago but have since learned that nitrogen benefits the invasives more than the native grass and also quit the 2-4-d when I started keeping bees in 2015. Besides all the wild flowers, the other benefit is we get a good bit of Illinois bundleflower, a legume that helps add nitrogen that the natives can use....that and the goats love it. I do have a couple tractors (Kubota M7060 and Branson 2400h) for chores around the 44 acres, but can't justify the expense of serious haying equipment. There is a local cattleman who also does haying, sponsors the Bell County (TX) Youth Fair, and a bunch of other ag stuff. He has a few guys that work for him running their big equipment.

They use a JD W235 Self-Propelled Mower/Conditioner/Windrower for cutting and knock it out pretty quickly. Only did about 22 acres of the south pasture since the other 2 acres are goat pens, barn, and a dry creek with pecan and cottonwoods. I had a guy leasing the north 20 for grazing his cows and it didn't grow enough for cutting.

View attachment 314031

After 2 days of drying, they were back with the younger driver in a Case/IH 150 pulling a Vermeer R2800 rake and another guy in a Case/IH 220 with a brand new shiny Kubota BV4580. I talked with the operator for a while and he said they could not resist the baler since it was competitively priced and came with a 30,000 bale warranty. He said most balers start having problems around 5,000 to 8,000 bales.

View attachment 314032

View attachment 314033

View attachment 314034

Me and my son do move them with our Kubota.

View attachment 314038

And pack them in our old pole barn that came with the north 20 pasture.

View attachment 314043

Did small squares for the goats about 4 years ago (before I got my own tractor) and was having to fetch 5-6 of them a week from the hay barn. Now we only do the round bales since I can move them on my own and unroll what we need to put in the stall hay feeders each morning and evening when we feed grain, water and milk the does that are in milk.

View attachment 314057

Just cut open a fresh roll today, although it is last season's hay.

Hope you all found this at least mildly interesting.

Kevernland makes a pretty tough baler.