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modirt 
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Joined: 18 Jul 2018
Location: Missouri
Points: 8729
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 Topic: Modern Farming
Posted: 15 Jul 2023 at 10:56am |
A few days back, the BTO finally arrived to cut the 4 acres of hay next door. Mine was done 5 weeks ago and I was a week later than I wanted.
Anyway, they showed up around noon with two, count em two.....big front wheel assist tractors with cabs and AC, both pulling 10 to 12 foot MOCO mowers.........so needed the big150 hp plus tractors. With both cutting, they were done in only 20 to 30 minutes.
The strange thing was.......as they were mowing, forecast showed 80% chance of rain amounting to 1 inch or more........to arrive about 4 or 5 hours after they did. And right on schedule.......it did rain an inch. Then in the night, another inch. So what was iffy, burnt out hay to begin with was now on the ground, wet in the windrow.
Next day.........showed up with square baler.......but didn't teder, rake or bale as more rain forecast for later in the day. And right on schedule, about 6 pm, another inch. So hay now wet twice, as was square baler left out uncovered. In past years, have seen the same baler left out uncover, with full bale chamber.......get over 4 inches of rain over 2 week period. So this will eventually get baled several days late, fried, poached, and now wet hay parboiled in the summer sun. Hopefully the hemp dogbane leaves will drop off when he rakes it. Garden mulch at best, but my guess is somebody is going to buy it and try to feed it to some animal.
This guy is not a full time farmer, but apparently does have resources as he owns over half million in hay equipment that cycles thru each year. Regrettably, he knows practically nothing about making hay. Just owning the equipment doesn't make you a farmer.
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Ray54
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Joined: 22 Nov 2009
Location: Paso Robles, Ca
Points: 4732
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Posted: 15 Jul 2023 at 12:12pm |
 Come on Mo even way over here on the left I know you're in a major drought. (If you listen to the know everything people, that know NOTHING. in my humble option) This could turn into the biggest drought since  who knows when. So no matter how crappy it could save some cows life. 
As always buyer beware.
So good luck on picking the right time to sell your hay. Or is it hoping you have enough that you have some to sell.
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modirt
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Joined: 18 Jul 2018
Location: Missouri
Points: 8729
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Posted: 15 Jul 2023 at 12:37pm |
Mine is all sold and has been for weeks. I start hearing from them late may, wanting to know when to come pick it up. Most have been burned at one time or another with what passes for hay (was once green and growing plant of some type), so when they get the rel deal of mixed grass hay cut at right time, and put up right........they stay with it.
Equipment inventory next door has now swelled to....2 tractors, 2 MOCO's, 4 basket tedder, large wheel rake, round baler and square baler and 3 guys standing around talking about it.
If pressed into it, just me and the D15, 7 foot NH haybine, 7 foot NH rake, NH 315 baler could do the same thing, and would have had it done a month ago.
Edited by modirt - 15 Jul 2023 at 12:38pm
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DanWi
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Joined: 18 Sep 2009
Location: wttn
Points: 1925
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Posted: 15 Jul 2023 at 12:48pm |
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Maybe his goal was to make it rain, which he did . Sometimes someone has to cut hay to make it rain. We were getting pretty dry here but finally got enough to be good for a little while.
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Orangeinwisco
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Joined: 13 Sep 2018
Location: NE Wisconsin
Points: 41
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Posted: 15 Jul 2023 at 4:42pm |
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Dan,
Your welcome. That was me in NE Wisconsin. I cut last night before the storms. Hay never had a chance to start drying so hopefully the next few days will work out. Bad hay is better than no hay. I'm raising beef just for the family so doesn't hurt production much.
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Lars(wi)
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Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Location: Permian Basin
Points: 8067
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Posted: 15 Jul 2023 at 7:11pm |
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Neighbor across the highway where I grew up, was a beef, and chicken farmer. One of the nicest guys would ever want to know. All the years he baled hay(small squares and a couple flat racks), it seemed his mowed hay always brought the rains.
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I tried to follow the science, but it was not there. I then followed the money, and that’s where I found the science.
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dr p
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Joined: 24 Feb 2019
Location: new york
Points: 1404
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Posted: 15 Jul 2023 at 7:32pm |
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There is a guy next to me we call the agri businessman. Knows how to work a government deal and other transactions but can barely drive a tractor. His church down the road was having a festival and they wanted to do a cow pie bingo. I have seen it done before , usually they use some kids 4 h heifer. Not the " lord of the manor" he brings a 1500 lb angus cow and puts her in a paddock made of aluminum gates. His forman tells him" i don't think this is a good idea, a wild cow at a noisy party with portable gates" it will be fine. We figure the cow is half way to canada by now. And of course, he doesn't have the b###s to tell the neighbors a cow is running around loose, he sends his employees door to door. Just because you have money and new equipment doesn't always mean you know what you are doing.
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Orangeinwisco
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Joined: 13 Sep 2018
Location: NE Wisconsin
Points: 41
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Posted: 15 Jul 2023 at 8:13pm |
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Well I gambled and lost. Another rain and more on the way tonight. Guess it's fertilizer for 3rd crop. Quality of the field is more important than a couple bucks for steer stuffer. Less fuel too.
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Tbone95
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Joined: 31 Aug 2012
Location: Michigan
Points: 12185
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Posted: 16 Jul 2023 at 5:15am |
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Well, it can get frustrating to watch stuff like that. But two comments. First, if it gets rained on right after being cut, before it was dry enough to rake, it really isn’t that bad. There’s a limit to that of course. And…..you have a weather app you can schedule making hay with?! Do tell!!’
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klinemar
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Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Location: Michigan
Points: 8054
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Posted: 16 Jul 2023 at 7:32am |
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I really don't care the way other people farm as long as they leave me alone! I just had a guy give me some hay because he couldn't find anyone to mow it and as dry as it is here he was afraid of fire burning his house down. Was it much hay no. I baled 18 -4×5 bales. Was it pure alfalfa or clover no. Mostly quack grass. As my father told me in the drought of 1988 when we were baling swamps and CRP ground" The Cattle will eat this hay before they will snowballs"! I don't like to see bad luck fall on anyone! We all make choices and some choose poorly and some wisely!
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AllisFreak MN
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Joined: 07 Dec 2009
Location: Minnesota
Points: 1586
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Posted: 16 Jul 2023 at 7:38am |
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And sometimes we make choices based on what the weather man says, and then the weather man changes his mind.
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'49 A-C WD, '51 A-C WD, '63 A-C D17 Series III, 1968 A-C One-Seventy, '82 A-C 6060, '75 A-C 7040, A-C #3 sickle mower, 2 A-C 701 wagons, '78 Gleaner M2
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Ted J
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Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Location: La Crosse, WI
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Posted: 18 Jul 2023 at 12:18am |
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WAY back before we had all this weather equipment, my great uncle could tell you when it was going to rain. There was something about the chirps of the crickets, the way the animals were out in the pasture, the way the sunflowers lay, all kinds of other 'stuff' I didn't understand (But wish I had listened more to) and it almost always worked. Amazing how they seemed to do it in the 'Ole' days.
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"Allis-Express"
19?? WC / 1941 C / 1952 CA / 1956 WD45 / 1957 WD45 / 1958 D-17
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Darwin W. Kurtz
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Joined: 06 Apr 2010
Location: Westphalia, KS
Points: 4873
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Posted: 18 Jul 2023 at 7:39am |
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Turtles crossing the road after a dry spell has been a good sign of rain over the years in our area.
I remember probably 25 years ago, a lady that had worked in a
Wichita bank came to our rural bank to work. Didn't know much if anything about farming or anything rural or the people It was hot and dry August. I was on my way to the bank when I had seen a turtle cross the road about 3 or 4 miles up from town. Well, I went in the bank and they were saying how they all wish it would rain......and I said I think it will rain in a couple days (based on me seeing the turtle. Well, it did rain......next time I went to bank, the city lady asks me how I knew it was going to rain, I told her about the turtles, she thought I was a nut
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Lars(wi)
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Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Location: Permian Basin
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Posted: 18 Jul 2023 at 3:07pm |
 Orangeinwisco wrote:
Well I gambled and lost. Another rain and more on the way tonight. Guess it's fertilizer for 3rd crop. Quality of the field is more important than a couple bucks for steer stuffer. Less fuel too. |
I can only think of 1 time we left a crop in the field, no matter how bad it was, altho we didn’t exactly ‘leave it lay there’, we chopped it with the Gehl 800 and blew into the air, the windrows would have smothered the alfalfa underneath otherwise.
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I tried to follow the science, but it was not there. I then followed the money, and that’s where I found the science.
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Orangeinwisco
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Joined: 13 Sep 2018
Location: NE Wisconsin
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Posted: 25 Jul 2023 at 5:24pm |
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I ran the brush mower over the windrows after it dried out some. Chopper would have been better, but use what I got. Didn't smother and growing green for next crop. First time, but probably not the last. Hobby farm after full time job, you do what you can.
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dr p
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Joined: 24 Feb 2019
Location: new york
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Posted: 25 Jul 2023 at 7:31pm |
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Tell me about it. Wanted to bale a couple hundred bales of second cut monday. Office mamager wanted to know how many thousand of dollars of dentistry did she i want her to cancel so i could bale hundreds of dollars of hay. Dentistry got done and hay got washed clean.
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jaybmiller
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Greensville,Ont
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Posted: 25 Jul 2023 at 8:19pm |
Eventually you'll figure out sittin on a tractor seat is better than being in the other 'office'. Well, hopefully.
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3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112
Kubota BX23S lil' TOOT( The Other Orange Tractor)
Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water
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dr p
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Posted: 26 Jul 2023 at 8:54pm |
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Figured that out. Got a friend who is farm manager of 2000 cow dairy. I spend more time with cows and tractors than he does. He gets to spend his day on computer and managing employees.
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