Curiousfarmer

Mowing Hay

June 28, 2011

Ten acre field of mowed hay. We mow around the outside edge of the field and work our way in, leaving concentric swaths of cut hay.

This is the front view of the haybine which cuts the hay. Its power comes from a tractor which is ahead and to the left of the haybine.

This is the rear view of the haybine where the hay is thrown out in a swath. We can control the width of the swath by moving a sheet of metal up or down.

The sickle goes back and forth quickly, while the tines on the reel pull the hay towards the sickle. The sickle is made of individual blades which can be changed if they are damaged. The large metal points in front of the blades are called rock guards. They can be changed if damaged as well.

This haybine is called a mower/conditioner. The conditioning is performed by these two rolls. The hay is crushed as it passes through the rolls, allowing the stems to lose moisture faster. This helps with alfalfa, but isn’t necessary for grass.

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Square-Foot Saturday 9, June 26, 2011

June 26, 2011

Welcome visitors. This post is a day late. Been laid up with lower back pain. Coming off the Percocet.

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Square-Foot Saturday 8, June 18, 2011

June 18, 2011

The oats are starting to head out. We always plant an early-maturing variety. “Badger” is the variety this year.

It’s interesting that even though we planted a month later than last year, it’s probably going to mature at about the same time.

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Best Laid Plans

June 14, 2011

We built a small corral at the intersection of four pastures. It’s way out back, and we never had a good way to catch a cow that needed help out there.

I checked the cows late one afternoon. A cow was trying to calve, and looked like she had been straining for awhile, but nothing was showing. We gave her an hour and checked her again. Sure enough, one foot was sticking out, but not the other one.

We decided to get her in. We were excited to use our new corral. Two ATVs, a jeep, low-stress stockmanship, and we had her in the corral, barely. She was starting to get hot. She circled the corral a few times, charged at the gate I was standing by, put her nose over the top board, and jumped and pushed. Once the board broke, her body weight broke down the wire panel, and she was over and out.

“Well, she’s on her own now. No sense getting killed over her.”

The next morning, Dad drove back from checking the cows.

“Is she dead?”

“No, and she’s got a live calf, runnin’ around healthy.”

“Do you think we were just too early?”

“No, I think the calf got straightened out when she jumped the fence.”

Dad smiled.

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Square-Foot Saturday 7, June 12, 2011

June 12, 2011

A day late.

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Square-foot Saturday 6, June 4, 2011

June 4, 2011

We had over an inch of rain and cool weather until yesterday, which was in the high 80’s.

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Square-foot Saturday 5, May 28, 2011

May 28, 2011

I don’t know if you’re getting anything out of this series, but I’m shocked at the change. Every week I take a picture I say to myself, “Well this is a waste of time, nothing changed.” And then I download the photos and compare them to the week before and…voila.

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Square-foot Saturday 4, May 21, 2011

May 22, 2011

What’s the scientific concept regarding the changing of a subject because it’s being observed? Whatever it’s called, it’s happening here. Look at the bird poop all around the base of the electric fence post I’m using to mark the spot.

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Square-foot Saturday 3, May 14, 2011

May 15, 2011

This is the third picture of M6, a field planted to oats, alfalfa, and grasses. It was planted on May 3rd. I plan to update every weekend throughout the growing season.

I’m using an electric fence post to mark the spot. And I cut a yard stick into three pieces to frame the square-foot. My boots are also shown.

The top picture is taken looking straight down from a height of about four feet. The bottom picture is taken looking forward from a kneeling position. You can see oats poking out of the ground, and what looks to be alfalfa seedlings.

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Oats and Hay Seeding

May 11, 2011

This is our oat drill with roller behind. It has two compartments for seeds, shown below. The smaller one holds alfalfa and timothy. The larger one holds oats and perennial ryegrass.

The oats and perennial ryegrass is dropped into the small furrow made by the disc blade. The alfalfa and timothy is dribbled onto the ground behind the planter via tubes, not shown.

The roller breaks up more soil clods, and ensures a firm seed bed and good soil to seed contact.

Below is the planted seedbed. This is also the picture I’m using for the May 7th square-foot saturday.

I planted this field, M6, on May 3rd. That’s the latest I’ve ever planted oats, and exactly one month later than I finished planting oats last year. I planned on showing a square-foot in this field, so I’m sticking with the plan, even though I’m not happy with the planting date. Oats grow well in cool weather.

It was a late spring, but the truth is we missed a small planting window in April because we were in the middle of building a new barb-wire fence and didn’t want to stop. We thought we would be able to plant a few days later, but a couple weeks of wet weather ruined that plan.

Farming is about windows. You want to do the right job at the right time. Work the soil and plant too wet, and you face compaction and yield reduction. Plant late, and you miss valuable heat units and yield is reduced.

Check back every weekend and we’ll see how this field progresses.

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