The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Hay Dude]

I always enjoy watching the Hawks when mowing, amazing how fast they can just drop out of the sky and that sudden flare and up with a snack.

I think the Fox, Eagles & Hawks know the sounds of the farmers discbine.

 

[scootr]

He have lots of predatory birds here (wheat fields and vineyards all around) Some will hang in the breeze without moving much at all watching and waiting. When they spot prey the fold their wings and drop in. Cool to watch.

 

[Hay Dude]

Finished up that field from yesterday.

One more small field and I’m finally done 1st cutting.

 

[Hay Dude]

Now we are at the point where it rains so much that even when they predict sunny weather, it rains anyway.

We were able to get some hay made in less than perfect conditions on Saturday.

Here’s a raking pic from Saturday. This was after we had rain on Thursday night. Was at least able to get it dry enough to bale just 36 hours later.

Now baling.

This is pretty much the story of this summer. Unexpected, untimely rains.

We had more rain Sunday night into Monday. Tuesday was supposed to be sunny until late afternoon. Got up this morning and now we have a chance of showers at 8 AM.

This is a year that separates the men from the boys.

 

[Hay Dude]

Back at it on Wednesday morning. Still trying to catch up and be done with first cutting. We are still about 2 weeks+ behind. A rare prediction of hot sunshine forecasted today after Tuesdays rain.
This hay is completely shot and bound for the mushroom growers. Rained on and too long on the ground.

Got going and jammed the feeder clutch a few times…. still got a few wet spots here & there.

Once the drying affect of the raking set-in and the sun did its work, baling became easy and stayed that way until the end of the day.

Here’s the Magnum pulling a pretty good hill. Baler weighs 38,000lbs. Then you have 2 or 3 2,000lb blocks of hay in the chamber, so it’s 40,000lbs easily. Have to watch the damage to the field when the ground is still soft from all the rain we’ve had.

 

[groundcover]

Thank goodness you have the mushroom market to fall back on ! Only so much need for mulch hay otherwise.

 

[Hay Dude]

Thank goodness you have the mushroom market to fall back on ! Only so much need for mulch hay otherwise.

Agree 100%.
If it weren’t for them, my operation would be 50% smaller.

 

[EddieWalker]

Do you have any pictures of the mushroom farm? I'm just curious what they look like and how they use the hay.

 

[LouNY]

The big dairies (3000+ milking cows) around here are starting their 3rd cutting. Drove by a few fields yesterday that they had finished cutting (haylage) some chopper tracks and a lot of truck and dump cart tracks and ruts in nice hay fields.
The smaller beef operations are just getting started on 2nd cutting and are being a lot nicer to their fields.
It is amazing the amount of ground the big boys cover in a day.
Of course with triple headed mowing units covering 26 to 36 foot width at a pass, then the big mergers putting 12 swaths into one windrow for that big self propelled chopper to pickup it doesn't take much time to cover a good piece of ground.

 

[Hay Dude]

The big dairies (3000+ milking cows) around here are starting their 3rd cutting. Drove by a few fields yesterday that they had finished cutting (haylage) some chopper tracks and a lot of truck and dump cart tracks and ruts in nice hay fields.
The smaller beef operations are just getting started on 2nd cutting and are being a lot nicer to their fields.
It is amazing the amount of ground the big boys cover in a day.
Of course with triple headed mowing units covering 26 to 36 foot width at a pass, then the big mergers putting 12 swaths into one windrow for that big self propelled chopper to pickup it doesn't take much time to cover a good piece of ground.

I’m guessing you need to also get wrapped up with hay sooner since it gets colder up in your area than mine?
2nd cutting just about ready to start here….