[near horse]

Wow -hearing your weather woes I sure feel like a pussy! “It’s too hot and dry to make hay. Boo hoo.” I can’t even imagine hot and foggy? Our dew points are rarely above 50F.

You guys are an inspiration for me when I have hay issues and I tell others around here about how in the f*** you all put up hay that quickly and with that much rain in the summer.

Best to you all. BTW – hay crop in my local area (non-irrigated, one cutting) is really pinched this year so there might be a bit of a scramble.

[near horse]

Not sure . I just passed on the info since those invaluable services rarely show up on google or in the yellow pages.

[near horse]

I’m wondering how long does your hay stay laid out before tedding, tedded before raking and finally raked before baling? In other words, on a relative scale, which stage does it sit the longest? I ask because my last bit of hay was ready faster than I ever recall it being after swathing – even with a conditioner on.

[near horse]

I like Carl’s point that safety is really how much risk you’re willing to accept. Sometimes it’s more and sometimes less. On Monday I was mowing hay and it was pretty hot (upper 90’s for the high). In 21st century fashion, I got a call on the cell while I was resting the horses and a delivery of some parts from Pioneer was headed to my place within the hour. Since the temps were only going to get worse the later it got, I wanted to squeeze in all the mowing I could and sure enough I looked up and there’s a 40′ semi in my drive trying to get turned around. To drive out of the field to any place I could tie off meant squeezing between the front of the semi tractor and my old farm truck. Horses did great with the end of my cutterbar clearing my pickup by 6 or 8 inches and my near horse brushing his shoulder against the fender of the semi. Drove them to the hitching rail and tied them off with halters/lead ropes – still hitched to the mower. Not something I would normally do but I was 40′ away, it was for 5 minutes max and the horses were really sweating and glad to have a blow. So I “gambled” and it was all good.

We’re finally in full on hay season here with Sun – Wed temps near 100 but now dropping back to mid 80’s for the next 8-10 days and ~ 25% humidity. Hay is pretty ripe though. Got to use an 8ft kicker tedder I scored for $100 when I went to Minnesota to pickup a wagon.

I’ve got ~ 25 acres to cut so better get to it. Happy haying.

[near horse]

Dris swears by the heavy duty GD cart from I & J with the PTO mower on the towed cart behind. I don’t think he uses the GD forecart for baling but I do know he’s willing to discuss the pros-cons if you give him a call.

[near horse]

Working on Volume 2 yet?

[near horse]

The problem is anyone using the map can move any marker(s) around, accidently or on purpose.

[near horse]

Might contact Dris Abraham at Historic Prophetstown in Indiana. He’s pretty well-versed with the I & J cart as well as baling. I think he actually has a reconfigured JD baler that is directly ground driven that he rides on (no forecart needed).

[near horse]

Donn – I agree unless they’re getting a deal on sections, bolts and knifeback for volume purchase.

[near horse]

IMHO – some of the reduction in activity here can be related to the increased activity on the facebook page.

[near horse]

Thanks Donn. I ended up buying 2 knives with sections bolted on them (minus heads) from Sickle Service in Nebraska for less than any of my local providers could get me plain knife back for. Should have thought of Master Equip.

[near horse]

Nice video, George.

[near horse]

Nice work, Ed. So I need to ask if the tongue setup shown is ready to hook up to a baler? I’m wanting to bale onto a wagon too but need to rig up a chute and extension to do it —– nearly every small baler out here comes with a quarter turn chute to drop bales on their edge so they can be picked up with a stacker/stackhand ……

So do you have a hitch setup on your baler?

BTW – I noticed Pioneer sells a telescoping tongue they call their tractor tongue.

[near horse]

Hi Ed,

I assume you mean wet like wet on the outside from rain/dew etc. IMHO – there are 2 “types” of water to deal with in curing hay. First is the stuff on the outside (rain, dew etc) which dries off pretty easily and quickly and should have little effect on your hay quality. Second is the internal moisture trapped in the formerly living cells. That stuff is more challenging to remove and is why we condition hay etc. So, as long as you tedd etc that moisture should be of little concern. Just my 2 cents from the west.

BTW – my horses get fat so easily I (and they) might be better off putting up some worse hay : )

Best advice – don’t get too stressed and have fun with Oz.

[near horse]

Every year I “plan” on having my hay equipment serviced up and ready to roll well before it’s close to cutting time — hasn’t happened yet. Yesterday I finally put new seals on the #9 and cleaned off some of the fire damage from last year (melted plastic coated half of it). It was in pretty good shape before the toasting so I’m hoping minimal cleanup was all it needed.

On my recent trip to MN I happened to find an 8ft kicker tedder/fluffer that had been sitting in a shed since it was put away 40+ yrs back. I just need to fab a tongue for that one.

Our weather is moistureless but most here are way too leery of cutting this early even though the grass says otherwise. Later this summer might be a legit fire season for us.

Mitch – I didn’t put in any grains but a drier than normal spring allowed most guys into the field pretty early so spring crops are all in. The lack of moisture and occasional pulses of heat (a couple of 85 degree days here and there) have triggered maturation without as much tillering of the wheat plants as you’d like to see. We’ll see if it “pinches” the test weight of the grain itself (also the dry peas too).

Donn – the NZ guys are masters of the baleage-making. I’ve seen some where they wet bale and make a stack (about a wagon’s load — 100 bales?) and tightly cover it with a plastic tarp. I know guys use individual round bale wrappers for baleage too as well as ag bags.

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