showcrop
Well-known Member
No not really, but it is challenging. We started hay season in a bad drought situation. In late June just after I finished my my first cutting and spread my fertilizer we started getting a LOT of rain. Since early August I have been watching for a good forecast for getting my second cut in but they have been very few and never really as good as you want. The problem is the wetness of the ground. I have some ground that is fairly dry so I got that done when I had a half decent forecast. Even so I was baling part of it one day, then getting back on the rake tractor and moving the windrows in from the edges towards the middle, then next morning tedding half of it out again. That worked but it was a lot of extra time and then I was out of dry ground. We are now in the middle of the best forecast that we have had all year. Lots of sun, a breeze, and low humidity. The hay is drying OK but the sun is not as high and the ground is so wet! Parts of each field are relatively dry but parts are wet. I didn't dare mow all of it. I cut yesterday afternoon after the sun had dried the moisture in the standing grass, then we got a shower last night. I went out around 10:00 and tedded what was out of the shade, then went back at around 1:00 and tedded the rest and re-tedded the heavy areas. In a little while I will go out and rake most of it to protect it from the dew. In the morning I go out and tedd it out again. Tedding is much slower than usual because the mowing tractor presses the grass down so much. Baling has to be done within an hour of raking or moisture comes up out of the wet ground. If the windrow gets into the shade it gets too wet to bale in ten minutes. The tires are wet when raking and baling. It wouldn't be worth it except that I get over $8.00/bale and my customers want it very badly. And yes it would be so much easier to make baleage but horses don't eat it. So here I am mudding out the hay.
