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Hay
May 18, 2016 8:18:29 GMT -6
Post by dexterfarm on May 18, 2016 8:18:29 GMT -6
I seen someone here already cutting hay. with the cold nights we have had I dont know how they are going to get it dry enough. I still have to tear the engine apart in one of my tractors before hay time. It smokes at times under a heavy load. Planning on just a ring job and rods. Sure dont want to throw a rod. Had it happen before and that gets real expensive real fast better prevent it before it happens. When hay gets into full swing I will run them 14 or more hours a day non stop and a break down leaves me scrambling.
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Hay
May 18, 2016 10:37:27 GMT -6
Post by genebo on May 18, 2016 10:37:27 GMT -6
Mike,
My neighbor is cutting hay today, with cloud cover and a chance of rain for the next few days. He wraps his hay with a high moisture content so it should probably be called haylage. He doesn't have spoilage, but it can't be carried over to the next season. Some of his hay is only good for a few months.
By waiting for dry weather and curing the hay before baling, my hay is good for at least 2 years. If it doesn't get wet in storage.
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Hay
May 18, 2016 11:01:02 GMT -6
Post by rilie1 on May 18, 2016 11:01:02 GMT -6
The Ag extension guy has talked me into trying to stockpile grass this year. So in theory I won't need as much hay. Right now I have about 25% of my pasture locked away (over seeded it in early spring with pasture mix). Starting late July I put them on the pasture I saved and strip graze it. The other 75% gets from late July until grass stops growing to recover. Then I rotationally graze as far as I can into the winter.
I'm hedging my bets and bringing in enough bales to hold me over for a month. I'm hoping this system works, for small cattle Dexters seem pretty handy at plowing under snow looking for forage.
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Hay
May 18, 2016 11:39:54 GMT -6
Post by dexterfarm on May 18, 2016 11:39:54 GMT -6
If he is doing hayladge then it should not matter. I have a dairy farm near me that cuts a whole field and then loads it all into big dump trucks and piles it and covers it with plastic. it must work for them cause I have seen them do it for several years. They do second cutting as hay.
rilie, I do something similar. We only take one cutting of hay. I do not fertilize and taking more than that just reduces my yield for next year. after the hay fields have had time to regrow they get added into the rotations. I aim for weekly rotations all summer. We have plenty of land for the number we have now. I graze until December usually. By then if their is a lot of snow cover or it is cold enough that I am fighting keeping their water open and I load them all up and move them back to my house for the winter. Doing it this way rotating the animals on the hay fields has given me increased hay yield every year.
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Hay
May 18, 2016 12:31:38 GMT -6
Post by dexterfarm on May 18, 2016 12:31:38 GMT -6
this is also the first year we will be using a tedder. As the hay has gotten thicker it has become a necessity to ted in order to get it dry. Very few people ted around here.
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Hay
May 18, 2016 16:10:23 GMT -6
Post by wvdexters on May 18, 2016 16:10:23 GMT -6
Early spring was extremely dry, but with weeks of steady rain the grass is growing now. Hoping we have a good hay yr.
The pasture I reseeded is coming in. YES!
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Hay
May 23, 2016 10:30:07 GMT -6
Post by dexterfarm on May 23, 2016 10:30:07 GMT -6
well tractor not going so well. Small job turned into pulling the engine and going through the whole thing. I found it had a broken ring looks like it had been broke a long time probably before I owned it. Some scratching on the cylinder but not to bad considering. Also found same cylinder has a cracked piston.
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Hay
May 23, 2016 12:43:36 GMT -6
Post by wvdexters on May 23, 2016 12:43:36 GMT -6
Sorry to hear the tractor job isn't going easily.
Our blue Ford is finally back and running now. Dad couldn't repair the part and it was down for months until they could find a replacement. Lucky to find one in England.
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Post by genebo on May 23, 2016 12:57:15 GMT -6
My version of haying is:
Cut, repair, rake, repair, bale some, repair, bale some more, repair.
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Hay
May 23, 2016 14:28:52 GMT -6
Post by dexterfarm on May 23, 2016 14:28:52 GMT -6
Kerrie, what ford do you have and what broke that you had to get it out of the country? I get a lot of stuff from here www.tractorpartsasap.com/ They are about an hour away from me. They get me parts in about a day. I would caution if you look the parts up on your own look real close to make sure you get the right parts. Example there are multiple engine kits for mine so you have to look into the details to see what exactly the right one. Gene, we do plenty of that to but I try to be proactive if I know there is an issue. I should have started this earlier but I have to put hay out with my back hoe loader and need solid ground for moving hay on a loader with 2 wheel drive.
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Hay
May 23, 2016 17:46:35 GMT -6
Post by genebo on May 23, 2016 17:46:35 GMT -6
I try to plan. I stock the things I expect to break and do a preseason inspection. Yet the old equipment manages to outsmart me, and break in a novel way.
My problem is that all my equioment is way too old. It has already served a long and useful life. The price of new stuff precludes me ever buying that to cut the small amount of hay I cut. It would run my cost per bale from $1 per bale to over $10 per bale. That doesn't include a new tractor. My 15 y.o. Kubota is very reliable. It has only needed repair twice in 15 years. Cross my fingers!
Dave, I admire wwhat you accomplish every haying season. You really do a job!
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Hay
May 23, 2016 20:31:52 GMT -6
Post by wvdexters on May 23, 2016 20:31:52 GMT -6
Mike, I'll have to check with Dad. It's an old one, some would call "vintage". LOL
I think they called the part a governor. It was beyond repair, and apparently pretty rare.
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Hay
May 24, 2016 2:10:05 GMT -6
Post by Blessings Farms on May 24, 2016 2:10:05 GMT -6
Nancy helped bring a small load home last night . The critters loved it . We will not be helping much this year with the new job (50 - 60 hr. ) and in the last few weeks been to Doctors too much again on most Fridays .
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Hay
May 27, 2016 8:08:54 GMT -6
Post by dexterfarm on May 27, 2016 8:08:54 GMT -6
spent all day working on the tractor. Only to get to the point of putting the pistons back in and found one of the pistons they sent did not have rings with it. They are suppose to be overnighting me rings. So hopefully they will show up today and I can work on it this weekend. right now looking like everyday will have rain. Next possible hay window could be in about a week. Hope to get everything ready this weekend in case that happens.
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Hay
May 27, 2016 12:42:42 GMT -6
Post by genebo on May 27, 2016 12:42:42 GMT -6
Cutting went flawlessly. So did raking. I was flushed with success and couldn't wait to begin baling.
I rushed to the field with the baler. It's always a little iffy getting the first bale tied correctly, so I went slowly and stopped as soon as I heard the knotter work.
It was a disaster! The knotter had failed, but worse was that the shear pins had broken and the hay had jammed tightly in the chamber. It took the rest of the day to clear the jam. Finally I put in new shear pins and turned it over by hand to check it out. Turns out the packer and jam bar are way out of time with each other. Spent all morning re-timing them, only to discover that the cause of the problem is a chain that has stretched so far there isn't enough range of adjustment to tighten it. That's why it jumped time yesterday and why it will do it again. I can't find a new chain in town and the rain is coming, so I'm building an offset mount block to give me more range of adjustment. Hopefully that will put me back to baling.
I have 3 people standing by, waiting for hay. Two are rescue farms and the third is the goat farmer who trimmed my goat's hooves until he broke his ankle. Now he has trouble getting around and can't bale his own hay. There is a lot riding on me getting the baler working again.
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