Hay

The 15th of July and I just finished my first cutting of hay. Have mowed, raked and baled steady since last Friday and the end is in sight. Five more acres to rake and bale tomorrow and all will be finished. Running 3 old M Farmalls and other old equipment and NOTHING broke. Ellis

I just finished Friday. Been moving bales off every since. Hauled 105 today,set 114 off yesterday,84 Saturday,have 96 to move tomorrow. Rolled about 775 all together. Thought I'd never get done this year!

RRLund, that's a lot of hay!
Seems like its late all around this year doesn't it?
Think you'll get a third cutting?

I am at around 525 rolled and will be at 1000 if I ever get the first cutting finished...
Mowed some second cutting today, just a small patch around my garden, so I have a better chance of keeping the coons out of my sweet corn.

I've got some that I got up before I planted silage corn that I think I can get three cuttings from,but some of the older seedings will only go two.

Everything has been a month late this year. Planted oats in May,corn in June and put up hay in July. Hope it's a long warm fall and late starting winter.

took us forever to get the first cut in due to the rain. Now the faucet shut off and we need some rain in a big way.

Still not even 1/3 of the way done with first cutting way UP here. Between the rain every 3rd day, our wild swings in temperatures (had frost July 2nd), and breakdowns I'm falling further and further behind by the day.

WOW! No brake downs and hay about finished how lucky can a guy get. I may have to come down barrow your lucky rabbits foot and maybe I'll get some good luck. Glad to hear your doing so good so far and are about done with the hay, I just hope it dries up enough to get my beans sprayed this week kuz there getting kinda hairy if you know what I mean. Good luck with the rest. Bandit

In my neck of the woods we don't have much for cattle anymore and even less hay. A couple of larger cattlemen have their own swathers but everyone else has only a few cows so they don't own a swather and have it custom cut instead.

Trouble is there aren't any custom swathers around except for one young neighbor. The demand for his service is so strong he can't keep up. He cuts until 2 or 3 in the morning, goes home, gets a few winks, gets up, services the machine and does it all over again the next day. My hat goes off to the young man for his willingness to work, but it just shows what the hay situation is like in my neck of the woods. The cattle feeders around here have gone away from hay and are feeding ground corn stalks with wet distillers grain and syrup from the ethanol plants with just a little hay mixed in if any. Jim

A guy over by Muir last weekend was rolling hay and advertising it
as grass hay "past its first cutting prime". Selling it for $25/bale.
Didn't say what size, but that seemed like a far cry from last year.
As they say, can't buy weather.
That two acres I bought this spring, they got that alfalfa/mix off early.
It's pretty high ground. It durn near looks ready to be cut again height-wise.
I let the guy who's been cutting it forever just run with it.
You would have thought I gave him a million dollars.
In return he has his grandkids mow the ditches and keep it looking good.

Only about halfway done with first cutting. Did one small field second cutting, cut it first because of weeds, and they came back with a vengance,so had to cut it again. My problems have been baler knotter failure, cutting problems with sickle bar mower, weather. Also need an on staff teenage boy or two to help handle bales - especially stacking in barn. Loaded 150 bales on wagons this morning. With the heat, almost done me in... Finally got baler worked on Friday, and got a new mower that really puts the sickle to shame. Going yo have to take a break to harvest oats here real quick.

Got about 200 nice bales in the barn, about 300 good bales to pick up and put in the barn, and another 500 or so junk bales to pick up that were past prime when they were cut. I cut the last 10 acres of first cutting today, and raked and tedded another 19 acres field, which has been turned into junk by a week and a half of showers and rain. Hope 2nd cutting is dry and longer than normal with all of the extra rain.

Rolled up around 1200 big bales in the last three weeks. Got none of it wet because it didn't rain. Quality is going down hill fast now. Its just drying up standing there.

Just under 700 out of 5000, small squares. Got another 2-300 to bale today IF it doesn't rain. Way late, Had nearly all of it done by this time last year. Way short on help, both my boys are gone, and it's hard to find good help for short hours. Way too old for this, but too dumb to quit.

The only saving grace is that some of my customers are still young/poor enough to buy it off the wagon instead of delivered.

(quoted from post at 01:45:53 07/16/13) The 15th of July and I just finished my first cutting of hay. Have mowed, raked and baled steady since last Friday and the end is in sight. Five more acres to rake and bale tomorrow and all will be finished. Running 3 old M Farmalls and other old equipment and NOTHING broke. Ellis

Click to expand...

Lost the water pump in my tedding/raking tractor this year, but it happened BEFORE I started haying! Never had it go that way before, lol. Usually the equipment blows up when there's hay down and rain clouds blowing in...

We did 883 of first crop square bales yesterday
still have another 1500 or so of 1st crop hay
to go to make some where close to 8000. So we
are at or near 6500 squares so far. Have made
272 60" round bales so far. Yesterday I was
getting happy when I had only 2 windrow"s to
go, @ temps over 90° sitting on my 620 J/D
with a 336 behind it out in the sun, then a
neighbor showed up say"en he was broke down
& needed a baler ASAP. It looked like rain so
I went when I got done. 5 mile trip to his
fields the trip in high gear helped cool me
off. Like you folks using older equitment &
people tell me the 336 will bale better with a
4 cylinder tractor, they may be correct but
every tractor we have except one is a
2clyinder & they are paid for. The 620 Seems
to get the job done? But my neighbor with his
newer equitment broke, I baled 6 stacked
loads 3 on 9 x 18 kicker wagons & 3 on 8 x 16
kicker wagons & it even sprinkled once. I was
so tired last night I didn"t look at the
counter but I"m guessing another 1000 bales.
I didn"t get back home until 8:35. Thank God
for a Kicker baler...Today I"d like to rest
but have more hay for today...