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Crazy Red Power in SE-WI 06-12-2009 21:05:05 24.183.138.183 18384 Report to Moderator	I agree, it is fun. I did spend the last three years fussin' & cussin' over my machinery which, at the time, was in various states of disrepair. Which is fine. I rather become closely acquainted with my machines when there's work to be done to them. It pays off. The more you know your machinery the better. It's all been trial & error (oh, the error) but learning is half the fun. The other half is going out to the field, after performing said work, & cutting half of it with no problems what-so-ever. Yep, two hours of joy paid off all the suffering. Easily. I got rain on it's way, too. Lookin' at the radar, it's about three hours off. That's fine by me too. I'll take the good with the bad. I also have a New Holland inverter being delivered tomorrow AM. Hoping to be in the field with it by Sunday. I'm glad to hear from someone else who's a little new to this. How many acres do you have & did you overseed for weed control as well? - Mike [Reply]   [No Email]
Randy-IA 06-13-2009 07:18:19 207.177.83.91 18390 Report to Moderator	Re: I turned into a farmer today in reply to Crazy Red Power in SE-WI, 06-12-2009 21:05:05   Well Mike, My equipment is in a constant state of disrepair too. Hours of fixing to keep it moving for about ten or twelve hours a year. 8:42AM and the sun just came out! As Martha would say - That's a good thing! I may get to salvage some of it. It's a good thing also that the horses are Arabs. They can come pretty close to living on snowballs! Anyway-I've been doing this for about the same amount of time I guess, this'll be the fourth year. So far I've been lucky I guess. I've always gotten it in before the rain came. But it seems that the meteorologists can't get anything even close this year for more than six hours in the future. They changed the forecast three times one day early in the week for the following day. Not the day I cut, that day they just changed it from 20% chance to 60% in the space of about four hours. I didn't hear the updated version till I was done cutting. I got about 2/10th's. Just a slow six hour light rain. I have so far made just enough hay to get through the winter. This year as of last week when I put 150 bales in the barn from the mixed hay side of the field (2 acres) I had about 15 bales left from last years crop. But last year was a dismal year with so much rain and only three cuttings. I guess you've figured out already that I have six acres of hay. No, I didn't overseed for weed control but that has been a welcome side effect. The stand was just thin from the original planting since I didn't have the right equipment for the primary tillage at the time. I borrowed a neighbors disk that was way to big for my tractor and disced the grass under when it was to wet and it made a horrible mess of rock hard root balls rolling around on the top. It was bad! So I had the seed mixed with liquid fertilizer and sprayed on then I ran over it with a spike drag set flat but that covered things to deep so two years later (this year) I found a food plot planter and put down about thirteen lbs to the acre of timothy seed. That was enough for a new planting. There was supposed to be brome down also but it wouldn't feed through the planter so it never got planted. It'll go down this fall maybe. Like you said trial and error! If some is good more is better! I'd pay closer attention if it were on a larger acreage but four acres doesn't cost that much to work. In a couple of years when the 2 acre alfalfa stand has petered out I'll move that to 2 of the 4 acres of this part of the field and let the grass take over in that part of the field. I better get out and look at the hay to see if it's dryed some yet. Got a nica breeze blowing today so it should be OK. Good luck with yours! ...Randy   [Reply]   [No Email]
Larry NE IL 06-12-2009 22:34:23 68.251.46.222 18385 Report to Moderator	Re: I turned into a farmer today in reply to Crazy Red Power in SE-WI, 06-12-2009 21:05:05   Hey Randy. Take your rake out and flip that grass hay. It'll shake a lot of water off and save some "green" to make it look better!   [Reply]   [No Email]
Randy-IA 06-13-2009 07:24:56 207.177.83.91 18391 Report to Moderator	Re: I turned into a farmer today in reply to Larry NE IL, 06-12-2009 22:34:23   Hi Mike, My old Oliver rake isn't much good for that I'm afraid. I've tried to just grab the windrow on the end of the rake to give it a gentle flip but it doesn't want to lift as much as push. I've tried different basket tilts too. But you are right, I need to do what I can to shake some water off. And it'll still fluff it up some. I guess I'd better get to it! Thanks! ...Randy   [Reply]   [No Email]
Larry NE IL 06-13-2009 12:05:45 68.251.46.222 18394 Report to Moderator	Re: I turned into a farmer today in reply to Randy-IA, 06-13-2009 07:24:56   I used to use an Oliver 207 and when raised up as far as it would go it would lift and fluff pretty good. I've also put a long 3/4" bolt through the rake hitch, set the whole thing on the rractor hitch and put a nut on the top and one on the bottom of the tractor hitch. By doing so, you lift the front of the rake even higher.   [Reply]   [No Email]
Randy-IA 06-13-2009 14:25:31 207.177.83.95 18396 Report to Moderator	Re: I turned into a farmer today in reply to Larry NE IL, 06-13-2009 12:05:45   Hi Larry, I use a hitch bar on the three point to pull the rake anyway. That way I can lift it up over windrows- sort of. I set the rake about three-quarters down with the crank and go from there. I have been visiting the field every hour all day (it's now 4:25pm) and the ground between the windrows is just getting dry. I still haven't flipped it and the top is starting to get dry too. I might wait till tomorrow to flip it. It still looks good and smells good. My wife already considers it mulch. Miss Doom and Gloom. She considers rained on hay useless. They're her horses. ...Randy   [Reply]   [No Email]
Larry NE IL 06-14-2009 15:35:58 68.251.46.222 18411 Report to Moderator	Re: I turned into a farmer today in reply to Randy-IA, 06-13-2009 14:25:31   I know, those horse owners are HARD to please....I'm one of them! :)   [Reply]   [No Email]