Still no hay

[chevytaHOE5674]

Knocked down 35 acres of what looked like late 1st crop brown dead "straw" last night, once I got to cutting the undergrowth of trefoil, timothy, and clover was crazy. What looked like a bunch of garbage may make some of my best hay of the season haha.

I do custom hay work, and one of my customers bought his own wrapper this year. That way I can get his silage cut in a more timely fashion, as I don't have the capacity or time to cut/rake/bale and wrap silage for people with my old single bale wrapper. But with him having his own wrapper it really worked out nice this year.

[boondocks]

Knocked down 35 acres of what looked like late 1st crop brown dead "straw" last night, once I got to cutting the undergrowth of trefoil, timothy, and clover was crazy. What looked like a bunch of garbage may make some of my best hay of the season haha.

I do custom hay work, and one of my customers bought his own wrapper this year. That way I can get his silage cut in a more timely fashion, as I don't have the capacity or time to cut/rake/bale and wrap silage for people with my old single bale wrapper. But with him having his own wrapper it really worked out nice this year.

We are thinking about doing something like that...Our hay guy could then get ours done on days that he can't do his own dry bales

[boondocks]

Do I see a house behind that tree? At least the tree didn't hit that!

It's a small shed. Some of the the larger branches fell on the roof and did some damage but yes, we lucked out (so far*) and the bulk of the tree fell just in front of it. And also lucky that none of the cows got hit.

*there's a smaller tree just to the side of it ready to go--it was half-knocked over by the big tree.

[chevytaHOE5674]

We are thinking about doing something like that...Our hay guy could then get ours done on days that he can't do his own dry bales

That's how I finally convinced this guy, I said when the weather is bad and I can't do anything else I can be at your place putting up your silage. This year his hay got done and wrapped at the perfect time along with some of my silage. I cut/rake/baled all of his silage in a 3 day window and he hauled and wrapped like a mad man, but got it all done before it rained daily for a couple of weeks and nothing got done.

[True Grit Farms]

I hope you cut hay today.

[artesianspringsfarm]

I hope you cut hay today.

Vince, they are a couple hours east of me but I got .75" today. Maybe tomorrow :-)

[Caustic Burno]

Hay was one of my biggest problems and why I never ran more than 37 momma cows. Working and bailing hay and putting up enough when I was off was a challenge.
That is the reason I adopted the philosophy of there is no such thing as too much hay and kept a years worth in reserve.
Health got me hay equipment got sold drought got most of the cows.

[True Grit Farms]

I hope you cut hay today.

Vince, they are a couple hours east of me but I got .75" today. Maybe tomorrow :-)

Cutting hay in the rain or having fresh cut hay rained on isn't a big deal. Whenever you have good hay weather on the horizon I like to cut it down ASAP.
If you wait for rain it'll rain.

[boondocks]

I hope you cut hay today.

Vince, they are a couple hours east of me but I got .75" today. Maybe tomorrow :-)

We got a nice good rain yesterday. Hopefully my guy is coming tomorrow. Every time we've had a 3 day window forecasted, it's changed and we've had rain day 2.

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Hay crew is here fixing the mower - errrr - will be mowing shortly - it's dark right now. Here's hoping with fingers crossed. Only going to mow down another 14 acres. I'm going to graze the other 12 acres in that section. I still have another 16 acres, but no way to get ANY equipment on it. Can't even brush hog it - wayyy too wet.
We are at a show that is close, so we are coming home at night. Show day tomorrow.

[boondocks]

Just finished up 4-5 days of great weather. Is my hay cut? Has it even been touched? NO. No it has not. The hay guy (who gets 2/3 of it) has not even responded to inquiries as to where we are on his list.

Related question: I know cows shouldn't really eat (usually won't eat) growing Canada thistle (can tear up mouths etc). Now that the un-cut fields are being over-run with it, is it ok to bale it up?

We now have weather turning bad again, and no haying window in sight through at least mid-August. This is not sustainable and could spell the end of our adventure with cows. Spouse wants to buy a bigger tractor and haying equipment but I can't justify the costs; not to mention the fact that we have never done it.

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Sorry to hear that. We got 16 acres mowed & dry baled. Got 106 bales that really look good. Will graze some of the rest (already grazed about 4 acres). We have 16 acres that was so wet we might just brush hog it - if it ever dries enough to get equipment on it.
Very difficult to justify equipment for a small farm unless you can get some good condition really old stuff - but, you have to be able to fix your own stuff to keep it going.

[M-5]

Haying is not hard. If your mechanicaly inclined good used equipment can be had fairly cheap

[M-5]

In your situation why not buy all your hay and increase stick rate by grazing hay fields

[ddd75]

you can buy a sickle (hand) on the cheap and dry stack your hay in piles.

I just ran by a big amish community and they had 2 fields like that. Looks like they been at it for a couple weeks and have almost 1/3 of the fields done!!!!!