The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Hay Dude]

Sure is nice scenery there!!!

It really is. I get to cut, rake & bale fields where the Battle of The Brandywine occurred on 9/11/1777. Its a place filled with both history and mystery. We have a British Headquarters building nearby where “traitors” (patriots) were hung. We have several Hessian soldier mass-burial grave sites. My church has war dead in it’s cemetery. We have 2 headquarters building where George Washington and Marquis de Lafayette fought side by side to help defeat the British.

Is this about the end of the season for you?

Its a bit of a late ending. We had 9 straight days of rain in the last week of September until Wednesday October 2nd from Helene.

I’m baling tomorrow and then have 2 more fields to drop & bale then I think I’m finally done.

 

[Hay Dude]

Interesting....

It really is. If you rode with me to deliver hay to the mushroom houses, you’d be blown away by the size & scope of the bigger operations.

Next question.... What kind of mushrooms are they growing? To sell fresh? For canning? For something else?

All kinds of mushrooms. Shiitakes, Portobellos, etc. The best shrooms are the ones packaged fresh, the lower quality ones are canned.
The families that grow them have been here for over a century. It’s massive and impressive.

I will try to post some pictures of the facilities I deliver hay to

 

[BackRoad]

And I buy Hay Dudes' mushroom soil after the mushroom growers are done with it as a fertilizer/compost ammendment for the garden.

It's still plenty potent and relatively cheap...

Many local nurseries carry it here in PA.

 

[Hay Dude]

And I buy Hay Dudes' mushroom soil after the mushroom growers are done with it as a fertilizer/compost ammendment for the garden.

Well, truthfully the growers and “mulchers” make the mushroom soil. I just make the biggest ingredient

It's still plenty potent and relatively cheap...

Many local nurseries carry it here in PA.

Some years I buy 500 tons of it to refertilize my fields. Each of the piles you see kind of dumped together is a extra long tri-axle load of spent mushroom compost.

Its mushroom soil that has been used to grow mushrooms in, then cleaned out of the giant wooden “trays” and given away to local farmers like me.

Its a possibility that some of the soil in those piles has hay in it that I grew the previous year

Here I am using the Massey 7495 to pull a rented Artex spreader to spread loads of mushroom soil.

 

[Hay Dude]

duplicate post

 

[Hay Dude]

I had to hitch a ride today. I thought you’d get a kick out of this. Here I am in the bed of a pickup. A nice lady saw me walking and offered me a lift. The car behind me wasn’t amused when she stopped to give me a lift.

Life in a small rural town….

 

[Molalla1]

It really is. If you rode with me to deliver hay to the mushroom houses, you’d be blown away by the size & scope of the bigger operations.

All kinds of mushrooms. Shiitakes, Portobellos, etc. The best shrooms are the ones packaged fresh, the lower quality ones are canned.
The families that grow them have been here for over a century. It’s massive and impressive.

I will try to post some pictures of the facilities I deliver hay to

HD, I'll thank you again about ^^^^^ this I had my son check in such and .

 

[Dryland Farmer]

I will try to post some pictures of the facilities I deliver hay to

Please do.

 

[LHF2019]

Here we go again!

I live in “The Mushroom Capital of the World”. Mushroom growers grow hay in a blend of hay, straw, chicken litter, horse manure, lime and water. They blend it all together to make a soil that mushrooms grow in. In my area, there’s a lot of opportunity to sell hay to the mushroom growers and horse/cattle owners.
I sell about 80% of my hay to mushroom growers and 20% to feed hay buyers.

I hope you have your description saved so you can just copy and paste ever time lol

 

[Hay Dude]

It’s ok. I get that it’s a “local” think for us. You still have any hay left to bale?
I have 2 more fields, or about 50 acres than I’m done cutting/baling