[Billy Foster]

We will be there Saturday. Looking forward to it.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

I finally got around to reading this tread.
I thought I was the only one. The last field I cut, which I would not have cut if hay was not so scarce, looked like, as Earl said, I pulled it out by hand. It was so thick that the understory was almost white. I finally just let the hoses go as fast as they wanted since it seemed to be the only way I could prevent a plug every 30 feet. As Donn said, “very frustrating”. Not the best hay but I was excited to put it in the barn. Years like this make me think about our fore fathers and what some winters must have been like.
This event prompted me to put new sections and guards on the mower, thanks Donn for the advice on the haybine gaurds, they work like a dream.

[Billy Foster]

My tanks are empty so most likely I will have to wait on bending the tops up. I would think it would be easy to bend them on the bar as well, just take the knife out first? Are those cast iron or cast steel? They look cast iron.
I have been thinking about the stub guards but have not gotten to ordering one. I keep thinking if I could see what one looks like I may be able to make one. Any chance you could snap a picture of one of yours?
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Donn thanks for the info, I will let you know how it goes. Just picked up some new 218 haybine guards and over serrated sections, should be mowing 2nd cut this weekend….weather permitting.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Jim
The mower is more than 8 years old (Swisher brand). It has been used almost weekly in the growing season for those 8 years. It was a briggs engine but I think it held up well considering the treatment it has gotten. Yesterday I finished replacing the 10hp engine that went with a 18hp 2 cylinder that I had. I was surprised it pretty much bolted up. Still need to hook up the starter, throttle excreta but I think I will be back in business soon . I don’t know much about DR’s mower but I think the stuff they make is pretty good, so I have heard. I think a small rotary mower is one of the most important pieces of equipment a “grazer” can have, however I still think I am going to do some clipping with the cycle bar, I like that it does not require gas.

[Billy Foster]

Besides looking though old posts I was looking in the old JD manual I have. George the JD doesn’t have an adjustment on it, too bad that would be the easiest solution. It looks like just a wheel on the outer shoe on the JD is all that was used, I assume one raises the inner shoe to the first “notch” on the lift lever. I am thinking it would be better to have something on the inner shoe as well to take the weight of the bar off the horses. I may make a skid for the inner shoe as well. I intended to give clipping a try this weekend but I spent most of it replacing the motor on my rotary mower.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Well I definitely need to work on tuning my mower. This last field did not mow evenly at all and looking at the mower after I can see were some of the rock guard ledger plates are not contacting the knife sections. I will be putting the work into the “tuning” before putting 3 on it, maybe I will find 3 are not needed for now.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Yea hard to find bigger ones but really worth searching them out. I am finding them to be a pretty efficient horse but they do work a little harder than I would like at times because they are smaller than a full size horse. My bar is about 4.5’, I cut a 5 footer down a little however I am not sure how much drag it reduced. I am suspicious the few cutting teeth I lost did not proportionately reduce the load. Still tinkering with set-up a little. I actually was just reading some of your old posts about mower set up they were informative, thank you.
I have thought about the dolly wheel idea but am reluctant, one because some of the native grass pastures I have are really bumpy and two right now am not mowing more than a couple hours at a time, including rests I wonder if the weight on their necks is a factor.
I have not thought about the hook up for 3 too much but I would think I would have to move the evener attachment over and keep the pole where it is so the right side horse could stay in the cleared swath. I am sure someone has done it, I just need to do a little digging.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Putting up loose hay with 3 Haflingers seems to be a pretty good idea this year. They will stay fit on some really crappy hay and don’t need a lot of it either. There size is working perfect for doing ½ -1 acre at a time. I have been knocking down no more than an acre, tedding it and if it is not dry I still load it on a wagon and into the barn. I spread the hay out on the floor of the loft, I turn it every day for a few days and then onto the mow. Definitely more work than drying on the ground but because of this I am happily running out of room in the barn. The red clover is in full bloom in the fields again, as soon as I can put new sections and grass board on my mower I will start again.

I have been mowing with 2, has anyone here used 3? My ponies are good size (1100-1200# ish) but they are working hard, I they life would be easier with 3. Any thoughts?
Billy

[Billy Foster]

I have noticed the turns go smoother if the horse that is better at this is on the inside. For example if I am mowing I will put the better horse on the right. Just an observation. Billy

[Billy Foster]

We are scheduling our sheep rotations to leave the pastures by the farm with good re-growth before frost. The sheep will be fed on the stockpiled grass until the snow is too deep here in Maine (about mid December, hopefully), then the horses will be set stocked on the rest. We have always grazed the horses behind the sheep during the grazing season but this will be the first year we have intentionally stockpiled forage to try and feed into the winter. I guess my response is not much of an answer but I just thought I would put my 2 cents in.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Last year we got an order of predators per the companies instruction ( enough to deal with 4 horses, 50 chickens and 20 sheep). Fly populations though the summer were very tolerable. I did spray the horses now and again when we were working but the stock was not experiencing stress from fly’s. This year I, like a fool, said “let’s not get the predators since the fly’s were really not that bad last year”. Well come the summer heat the fly’s were terrible, we had to get a double dose of predators shipped to us to get the population of fly’s back down. Now, a month later, the fly’s are around but definitely not a big problem. We still have plenty of horse and moose fly’s but the biting house fly’s are not an issue. I am not sure how many you would have to get to deal with 200 head of cattle. We used Spalding laboratories if you are curious. https://www.spalding-labs.com/

Where did you get the body fly nets?

Billy

[Billy Foster]

Erica
I use turnout fly masks over my bridles quite often and have found it helps my guys as well. I have wanted to get a fly sheet like you are showing but have not gotten around to it yet. Do you find it effective? One thing we have done the last couple years was get fly predators, they only work for the house fly looking fly’s but reducing their population has helped.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

About Horse safety and parking horses.
I had a situation last week that could have been REALLY bad if luck wasn’t on my, or a couple of my horses side. I routinely drive my team into the barn and clip them to the wall to rest or while I do other things like take lunch. If they have one on I leave the yoke and butt rope, I always felt it helped keep them organized and out of trouble. This past Friday I put them inside like I have done so many times, after an hour or so I saw the head of one of the horses loose and going after some hay in front of the other horse. Before I could get there the loose horse got down in front of the tied one and ultimately pulled that horse over on the floor as it lost its footing. The one on the floor got stepped on a couple time, I tried to get the nose of the loose hose but was not able to. I found myself in the barn between the horses and a wall while trying to stop this. When I finally got the loose horses head, the other one had his foot wrapped in the trace of the loose horse and everything was pulled tight. Thank goodness that horse on its back with one foot wrapped in the others trace was not flailing, he just stayed still. I finally got the foot loose and he got up, both horses still had one leg over the yoke, I got that off and they were still. I was shaking like a leaf! When I got my composure back I got everything reorganized checked them out and drove them for about a half hour. In the end only the one horse on the bottom got a couple cuts, It could have been so much worse, obviously. I feel bad since I think I didn’t clip the tie all the way to the barn wall on that one horse. The lesson I took from this is I will be taking the yoke and butt rope off the horses before leaving them for any extended period of time. Like a lot of people I was trying to get hay in and I was tired and working as fast as I could to beat the weather, I let myself be complacent. Crippling myself or a horse would be way worse than some wet hay.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Sean
I use a Timothy and red clover mix in our hay able fields. I try to cut whatever I can for hay in the spring even if it gets rank, the Haflingers will still get fat on it. This year was perfect I was able to get some cut and dry between thunderstorms. I really don’t feel like I ever have the grass under control in the spring, I always feel like I am playing catch-up.

[Author]

Posts