New Paragraph
Our Farm Diary
Weather
Somewhat of an odd title I guess. But it got us. High heat and periodic downpours instead of easy rain cost us our straw crop this year. When the straw was ready to cut, it was close to 100 degrees, too dangerous for anyone to work square bales. Then came the downpours. By the time another mowing window opened, the weeds and Johnson grass seeds had started coming on.
So, we lost most of this season's straw crop. We would have lost it all if it weren't for Mike & Sue of Ozark Akers Regenerative Farm; they use straw for poultry bedding, don't mind the seeds, and are terrific friends.
Thank you!
Farmers are eternal optimists, and all this rain should make a great second cutting of hay!
July 25, 2022
Cutting Hay
We've just started our spring cutting of round bales! Sometimes we luck out and the weather is just right. We're in the middle of getting in 80 acres of hay that's down. We just finished this 50 acre field of mixed rye/fescue/orchard grasses. We've tedded for the second time the remaining 30 acres cut Monday. We'll start bringing the hay back to the barn once its cured a bit in the field. this week has been Hot!
There are phrases Murrays uses that people new to conversations about hay production may not have heard before, so I thought I would explain what's involved with changing growing grasses into stored bales of hay.
The hay is mowed, tedded, raked, baled and either transported back to the barn, unloaded and stacked, or picked up directly by customers in the field. Each step requires a different piece of equipment, and numerous trips around a field.
Mower: same mower is used for square bales, round bales, hay and straw. The mower leaves piles of cut, crimped and conditioned grass in its wake.
Tedder: spreads and fluffs those piles of mowed grasses so that they can dry out. Wet grass is not only tough on the equipment, it will mold once baled.
Rake: takes all that fluffy, loose grass and puts it into long 2' wide piles (windrows).
Baler: we have two! One for round bales, the other for square bales.
Cure: "go through a heat"...plant cells continue to release heat after cutting.
Right now we are putting up plenty of no spray, chemical free, herbicide free round bales.
Square bales will second cutting, later in the season.
Just give us a call!
June 2, 2022
Welcome!
Welcome to our farm diary! This is a new website, once again, as I did not realize that the site I had recently created looked great on desktop but was butchered on other devices. Thank you for finding us anyway!
We've gotten the first of our round bales in, another 50 acres to go. Everything we do is based on the weather. WRAL, NOAA, radar sites, we look at all of them when making decisions as to when to cut. May 25, 2022