[near horse]

@clayfoot-sandyman 19635 wrote:

Got interested in this mob-stocking business now…..and have started reading Joel Salatin’s ‘Salad-bar Beef’.
One thing he talks about is there being a herd size where cattle begin to mob which he sets at about 50 head. Before this he says you’re just fencing them tightly but they haven’t fully enterd into the herd psychology where they graze tightly and quickly and efficiently. He says that when in smaller no’s they tend to express their individualities more, are more erratic in their grazing, are noisier when the strip is grazed etc .
Any experience of this?? I have about 25 acres of grass. Don’t think I’d ever get up to 50 head of cattle…..:confused:

The “buzz” now is all about “pounds of animal” stocked per area rather than animal number.

[near horse]

@jac 19596 wrote:

not Ireland…Scotland…
John

I thought Ireland was west of Scotland. But maybe Scotland is west of Scotland – John, you empire builder!

Careful about stirring things up – Uncle Joe over on RH closed down a thread regarding conservative “commentator” Glenn Beck …. you can imagine where it went!

[near horse]

I think my greedy side must be showing – I have a large amount of grass out there but by golly, I’m gonna get every crumb even if it makes things real difficult. What I’m saying is my bar is running low and tilted forward asfar as it will go. Donn, When yousay your leaving 3″ is that by tilting your bar back a notch or two?
Joshua, my knife is free, it’s lifting the bar that is really tough. I did adjust the wear plates so they ran closer to the knifeback reducing a little slop.
Yah, the 3/8″ spacing is top of the knife to top of guard. See how things go tomorrow. Thanks for your help.

[near horse]

To Ireland?

[near horse]

Thanks Donn – I was looking at “Haying w/ Horses” while I de-escalated and they were adamant about 3/8″ minimum between section and guards. Interesting thing is the knife keeps going even after I’m plugged – just not cutting in the plugged areas. Not like the swather that stops the knife if you get plugged. These horses will really try and move out with the mower. If it pulls hard, then they pull harder. I actually have to hold ’em back probably more because we never made enough headway to settle them into a routine. Knife moves pretty easily by hand when not in gear – just turning the flywheel. My cutter bar does seem pretty stiff when lifting it into transport position and won’t lay flat unless you step on it – that’s probably another issue to battle with.

That stinkin’ wiry grass busted up the wobble box on my swather a few years back by plugging things up – not to be messed with.

[near horse]

HELP! I mowed last year but it was late late overripe dry stuff – so not so difficult and everything went honky dory. Today – not so much. Plugged the guards over and over (like every 50 ft or so). Not the same guard each time either. There is some really fine stemmed stuff down near the base of some of the grass plants and this stuff is tall and dense by western standards (obviously 1st and only cut). I’m running the old style guards w/ ledger plates but a serrated knife. Any thoughts? Too much space between the knife sections and guards? I’ll tell you that can ruin a good day trying to use horses – no fun for them or me!!!

[near horse]

BTW – How do you load your wagons? Walking along and toss ’em up one at a time or do you bunch/group your bales before loading? Our crew (when there is one) hates loading more than unloading.

[near horse]

Hey Donn,

Do you really feed that much hay each year? Maybe I’m miscalculating but you have 4 horses/mules and your milking herd of sheep correct? So how much do you figure you feed each day? This year I ended up with at least 4T extra and I don’t put up much.

Also, for you all sweltering back east, we’re gonna break 80F today for the first time this year! Nobody has been able to get any haying done – cool and rainy every day or two for weeks. Last night low 48 – now in 2 days we could be at 90 for a high. Too much too fast but at least we can “saw down” some of this hay now.

Haying season always makes people frantic and irritable around here. Hurry, hurry – oops, that thing broke or didn’t work ….. It’s hay for crying out loud. Let’s enjoy the ride a bit (I need to take my own advice!).

Have at it!!

[near horse]

I thought that you could damage these mowers by running them overspeed – behind a tractor. Not likely to happen with your team but ….. As far as optimum – as Tim says there’s a general number but certainly cutting conditions can change that a lot.

[near horse]

This GMO bulls**t is also a rigged game. It seems that while there’s solid evidence that GMO corn and soybeans have left us with “super weeds” (resistant to roundup or what have you), stupid USDA is in the process of approving Monsanto’s RR alfalfa seed. The superweed complaints are coming from farmers who actually bought into the original plan and are now asking, “what the hell do we do now?”
It shows the power of Monsanto and other big corps over policy here in the US. It didn’t take a genius to predict that some weeds would survive and pass on the resistance to their progeny – DOH! That’s selection and genetics 101 which doesn’t give a hoot about economics 101!
As far as dairying goes, with processors so far and few between, it’s hard to imagine how big the transportation component of their carbon footprint is. Also, those freakin’ mega dairies haul in huge amounts of commodity feeds everyday – just seems to me you can bend the numbers in which ever direction you’re already leaning towards. Don’t despair – you’re doing the right thing.

[near horse]

Wow. After your horses go through don’t you have a lot of trampled down grass that no one wants to touch? We see that and are really restrictive on how much ground we open up for the horses each day or two. Must be nice to get summer moisture, just not when you’re cutting hay!

[near horse]

I thought that one would graze horses first through a pasture then ruminants (cows etc). I think that’s if your grass is starting to “head out” – horses will be eating the lower quality parts of the plant (stems and seed heads) and potentially stimulate new regrowth (none for us drylanders in the west). Unfortunately, the horses do trample the crud of the stand as well. But, I know you guys back east never let your grass get to the “heading out” stage!

[near horse]

I’ve got one of those too, Donn!! Both my horses do well on straight grass pasture. They eat all day (on limited size area) and then back into their dry paddock overnight – maybe a flake of grasss hay to give them something to stay busy for a minute or two. One of these guys is ready for Jenny Craig diet plan – wow. He’s an eater. Wish some of the cows would eat/grow like that!! Good thing is he’s the one that tolerates the work better as well. Still, it’s pretty amazing when you have to start letting out buckles on your harness.

[near horse]

@Russel 19231 wrote:

Thanks for the help everyone! I finally got it off by getting Mike(one of our workers) to hold the flywheel while I tapped in the pinion gear with a hammer and chisel. I just wanted to know from everyone how the spring in the gearbox used for disengaging the gears is removed because its attached to the bearing. Or even how to remove that entire gearshaft that holds the large pinion gear and the spring?

Thanks a lot
Russel

I thought the spring was “free” on the shaft but I’m just going from memory.

I also thought there was a “nut” on the end of that gearshaft (do they call that the countershaft?) – the end towards your seat. Thread that off and the shaft pulled out the other end. The nut also held some ball bearings – sort of a bearing cup and nut all-in -one. I have to admit that this was on a #6 mower but some things might be the same. I’ll try and get a couple of pictures of the #9 uploaded tomorrow.

[near horse]

Hi John – I’ve got a couple of measurements from some books I’ve got:

From Farming w/ Horses by Steve Bowers
“to maintain lateral alignment , the bit centers, neck yoke snap and doubletree widths need to be the same”

From Lynn Miller ” Workhorse Handbook”
“singletree standard dimensions are 26, 28,30,36 and 38 inches”
” wagon doubletree lengths are 42 an 46 inches while plow-type doubletrees are 36 and 40 inches wide”

From Draft Horse Primer by Maurice Telleen drawing on pg 263 Fig 7-52

doubletree = 48 inches wide w/ hooks for traces in 2″ from each end. Wood appears to be 1 3/4 to 2 ” thick and 4 inches deep (So 48 by 4 inches of 2 inch lumber)

Singletrees = 36 ” by 2 1/4″ by 2″ lumber

Neck yoke = 38 ” by 3″ by 2″ lumber

The last measures don’t follow the rule I listed at the top but …. ? Also this mentions that these drawings are available in Autuumn 1973 Draft Horse Journal.

Good luck.
“

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