Not the way Dad did it!

Well I have cut the whole farm, or at least what's left of it. I will come back Tuesday and bale it. Not the way Dad did it . He would open up a field, take maybe 8 rounds with a 7 foot mower. Then go to another field the next day and take 8-10 rounds on that field, and do the same again the next day. Then start to rake and bale the first 8 rounds he had cut . And fret and worry about rain, seemed to take forever. Now I just cut it all, don't have time to fuss and stew. Took the last two pictures from the barn hill, this was my Dads farm. I have to head home now near 30 miles, to my home farm before milking time. Hope the traffic is farmer friendly today, lol . Bruce

Beautiful pictures!! Thanks!

What lake is in the back ground there ?

Thanks Bruce.....beautiful countryside

I've known other farmers that did it like your dad, but my dad always said " you can't put it up until you put it down first"

Sorry, but I do it your fathers way. When you cut the whole crop, you gamble the whole crop. I want perfectly cured horse hay. If it gets rained on, it is no good to me, junk, trash. Therefore, I cut only the amount I can rake, bale and store. Then, if it gets rained on, I lose 5 or 10% of my hay crop, not 100%.

Cow hay folks see it differently.

My Grandpa always said "there's more time wasted waiting for rain than there is on account of rain" when it came to cutting hay.

The lake is called "Lake Scugog ", and the farm is on a island in the middle of the lake . The island is named "Scugog Island ", go figure .I was raised on this farm . There is a causway to cross the lake to get to the Island ,it is about one mile long . I am a very popular guy when I cross the bridge to get to or leave the Island . Everyone waves and honks their horns ,lol.

I agree. Plus out west here half of the crop would burn up piecemealing with the hot dry wind we get in the summertime. I've been on our swather 10 out of the last 12 days and the grass/alfalfa is already going backwards.

There was an old guy out east of town who did that. He'd still be cutting in October. I'm getting so slow,I'm starting to turn in to him. LOL

Bruce, my Dad did the same as yours, if the field had a lot of trees around the fence rows, he would mow about 6 rounds around the outside and let it sit for an extra day. He would then go back to the previous field and finish mowing it. My brother does like you unless the weather is threatening rain then he will only cut the amount he can rake and bale in one day.

JimB

I am always amazed at how quickly you guys bale hay after it is cut. Out hee in Central Washington what they call 5 day hay (cut and baled within 5 days) is unusual unless we get really great curing weather, 7 day hay more common. Our crops are heavier I think. Guys usually cut a field and move to the next. Depending upon weather, 5 or 6 dys later they use a tedder to fluf the windrows and sometimes can bale later in the day or the next one. I read here about guys cutting one day and baleing the next we are never able to do that.

When I was growing up, it was fairly rare for anyone to cut any hay until around this time of year (in MO). Most or our hay was Timothy and Red Top, no one wanted Fescue at the time. We usually started cutting first of July, and we were lucky to get finished in a month, and this was on two farms, about 60 acres total. But at the time we were cutting with a Farmall C with a 7 foot sickle mower and baling with an IH 45 pulled by an 8N Ford (the 8N was the largest tractor dad ever owned). I still own the two tractors, rake, and mower. For the most part, it was just the two of us cutting, raking, baling and hauling the square bales with most going into the loft of two barns, and we never had a elevator, so it was all thrown in from the wagon or pickup. We usually only cut and baled 100 or so bales a day, and a normal day was raking as soon as dew was dry. On a good day we could cut and by the end of the day we could rake and bale, but that was the exception and hay needed to be fairly thin, and humidity low and temps in the 90's. No one spends a month baling 60 acres now, but back then you did what you had to do. BTW, part of the slowness for us was that IH 45 baler, and those who have baled with one know exactly what I am referring to. Dad loved the IH equipment, but hated that baler. I rode many rounds on the left side twine box.

Have been out there in haying season, managed field yields are higher in the east upwards of 3 tons per cutting due to basically unlimited water available. The difference is here its mowed with mower conditioner, tedded that day, tedded the next day, then maybe tedded again, and raked on day 3 as it almost ready to bale. Its then baled right on the edge of keeping or with acid as it will usually be rain forecast that next day.

If I leave hay 7 days without touching it the green grass is pushing up through it and its a slimy mess under the windrow unless we're talking the last 2 weeks of august.

Twice this past week I cut hay one day and baled the next and I'm cutting with a New Holland 456 mower and don't touch it after I cut it,but with low humidity wind blowing about 10 MPH and
about 90 degrees each day it was perfect hay weather. Hay is really turning out this year too.

And some probably even point out that you are number one.

Nice pictures Bruce and good to see the working being done with vintage Case tractor, I seem to remember you have a few different models. I got a 900 diesel end of last year, brought it back from Manitoba but just found its leaking coolant into the oil pan so Im guessing Im going to have to do some work on it. Its a two owner tractor in real nice condition , starts and runs nice. How far is you place from Gorrie Ontario?
Bill

Bruce: I like the pictures. Is there still a tart factory at Port Perry? When we were kids, the gals liked to joke that they worked at the " tart house". I still have a couple of stoneware ginger beer bottles around from Port Perry. Hay isn't so good here in Stavely. My neighbour to the east was going to rig up a foam marker on his haybine, so he could see where he'd cut. :shock: unc

Dad sometimes didn't cut the whole field in one day but he finished cutting that field before he moved to the next. Partly because of slower mowing speeds back in the day with one tractor and sickle bar mower, also the time it took to square bale and get it hauled into the barn.
Now we use two tractors with 8-9ft disc mowers laying down 30-40 acres a day tedding behind the mowers and making 4x5 round bales a day or two later.
Hay season started late this year because of spring rains but we had a couple weeks of good hay drying weather around the first week of June. Hired a young man to help this year to make things easier on the wife, in 12 days on four small farms we cut, tedded, raked and baled 120 acres making 840 rolls of hay. The wife stayed busy bring us food, drinks, fuel and twine along with transporting us back and forth between farms has we moved equipment.
Took another week to move all the bale off the fields and get equipment back home.
Finished second cutting of clover and johnson grass in square bales on the first field we had cut Friday, everything else we'll pasture.