tractor – countrygirl-lifeonthefarm

Hay Season 2015

It will take me weeks to catch up on all of my blog posts that I want to complete from the summer and this fall. Thought I would start with the wonderful hay season we had this summer. I don’t help much with the hay production but I do make sure there’s plenty of refreshment for my two hard workers, my hubby, Eddie and our daughter, Heather.

Eddie decides what fields are cut down first and does the cutting with the haybine and the baling with a round baler. Sometimes, we do square bales but later in the summer as a second cutting of the crop. Our hayfields have orchard grass, red clover and timothy. This summer we had bumper crops and more hay was baled than ever before due to the wonderful spring and summer rains.

We have a large Massey Ferguson tractor and by looking at the back wheels you can tell how high the grass was.

The season left us with over 800 bales this year. I just hope we won't need to use it all because that will mean a "winter monster"! — The season left us with over 800 bales this year. I just hope we won’t need to use it all because that will mean a “winter monster”!

I did get to drive the big truck when it was time to move it all off the fields and that took quite a few trips in several days.

I ove this old girl. — I love this old girl.

Eddie stacks six bales on the truck and carried two on the tractor each trip to the haylot.

Eddie would have moved all of it by himself if I had not been retired and home to help! I’m starting to feel useful again on the farm.

Hay harvest slow but moving along

I wanted to share some photos my daughter took last week while helping her Dad harvest some more hay! I think they’re beautiful!

Everyone was enjoying the day on the farm!

It was such a beautiful day to be on the farm!

2013 Hay season has begun

It’s official-the first hay is down and rolled. It’s so pretty and the bales are so perfect. First he cut and baled some pasture that had some beautiful grass on it and even though it got wet , it dried really good and he got 27 rolls off one small area you’ll see here:

First 27 hay rolls for June 2013. Baled and stored in the house orchard.

This was completed week before last and now look how pretty and green the pasture is where it was mowed. You can see how tall the grass was along the edges of the pasture.

Thursday another part of the same pasture was mowed and Friday & Saturday hubby and Heather tetted, raked and rolled it. Today hubby hauled it off the pasture and I hitched and unhitched the wagon on the pasture and at the haylot. He’s trying to get it moved and stacked before the rain rolls in and so he can move the big herd of cattle to this pasture. There’s a back field connected to this pasture that we can’t get the equipment in this year because of downed trees in the roadway through the woods. The cattle will definitely be fat and sassy when they get in it for about a week. We’ve got three months to get the calves fat for fall sales. I’ve included a up close picture of the grass to make my point.

Pasture grass taller and thicker than whats in the hayfields.

More fencing done

Hubby just completed this years batch of fencing and it looks so good. Our daughter got to help one day while she was off and they make a really good team. She’s almost got to the point that she knows what he needs before he does. This batch started at the south entrance of the bull lot and down to the end of the pond. It also included replacing some more locust post that had probably been in the ground for thirty years because they were rotted off at the top of the ground and top of the post was still in good shape. We’ll use the good part for firewood next winter. Here’s the first section he completed:

New fence at the bull lot

This fencing is in front of the bull lot. You have to have good strong fence when you’re dealing with bulls. When this was completed we had four bulls in the lot. He used four strands of high tinsel wire and the posts are about 10-12 feet apart.

The next section was built about two weeks ago. Hubby tore out all of the fence on the backside of the hay lot and our garden. He did most of it by himself but our daughter was able to help one or two days. It looks really good and it helped getting our wild asparagus cleaned off. Here’s that work as it progressed:

Of course, Gyp goes wherever hubby goes and inspects every hole, every fence and was fascinated with the chainsaw. This will be the last fence we replace or repair this spring as there is so much other stuff to complete before hay season starts. And, this all depends on the weather and hopefully no more duratios like we had last June.

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