The Gazette just has to do us a favor and remind us of the drought. It's never far from my mind but I can bury it in the day to day worries of getting everything done, until somebody comes along and rubs my nose in it.
The one guy talks about putting up no hay and having to buy some all ready this winter. It's the same here but I bought my hay early knowing I would need it. In a way I wish I could make this kind of deal every year. With the payout from my insurance for putting up no hay, the hay I bought was cheaper than I could put it up for if i would have had hay. I paid just over $80/ton for hay but once the insurance check came in my out of pocket expense for it was $20/ton. I can't put up hay that cheap so it worked out good, except for the fact the hay quality is less than I put up, but it's all a trade-off.
There is not really much to say about the drought. I'm hoping for a better year, it wouldn't take much, but planning for the worst. I will at least have a better start to grass this year with the moisture that fell last fall. It's still in the ground and will help bring the green grass on. Whether we get enough moisture after that is the question. It's kind of like the one article says, all that remains is hope.
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment. Samuel Johnson
Monday, January 17. 2005
Drought
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This is probably a pretty dumb question - especially to a cattleman. But that picture on the drought article showed the rancher "rolling" the hay out. I always thought the hay was dumped in spots or in a feeder. When I was in high school we had 2 cows and 3 horses and put up loose hay the first cutting and had someone bale the 2nd. We generally just broke up open a bale for them to feed, or pitched them a pile. Now I see these huge cinnamon roll hay bales as on the picture - but never thought much about how they used them. When you feed - do you roll out the hay as in the picture?
#1
Linn
on
2005-01-17 07:25
(Reply)
Linn, there is a "feeder" that one can buy to feed those big round bales in that keeps it up off the ground and the cattle pull the hay out of it. They would waste less hay but they are pricey. Some people have a device on a pick up or flat bed that seems to roll the hay out so they don't have to do it by hand. I don't know if those are for sale or if they make them themselves. There are almost as many ways to feed hay in the field as there are people doing it!
#2
bonnie
on
2005-01-17 11:55
(Reply)
Linn, we have a spear on the back of the tractor. We spear the hay, and turn it to "unroll" some of the hay as you drive forward.
#3
Karen
(Homepage)
on
2005-01-17 13:32
(Reply)
Looks like your question has been answered Linn and remember my philosophy of life, "There are no dumb questions." I am glad Bonnie and Karen piped up since I don't feed big round bales and aren't real conversant with them. I put up all my hay in little square bales and when I have to buy hay it is in big square bales. Both are a little more labor intensive to feed but less mechanically dependent, especially little square bales, so thats the choice I made.
#4
Sarpy Sam
(Homepage)
on
2005-01-17 18:01
(Reply)
It was the drought of the 1930s that drove my father's family from their farm in SW South Dakota to N.J. The family history book says "Old Indians warned the earliest homesteaders that a bad year occured almost every 7th year, and that the 7th bad year would usher in a drought lasting for 7 years." Math confuses my mind in middle age now, but do those numbers lead to now? Not only did the crops diminish, but the farm animals had no grass to eat, and so the cows that lived didn't give much milk. My father remembers eating one slice of bread and one glass of milk for supper one winter. And his father had even less. And hoards of grasshoppers were a problem in the drought. They ate everything - even the upholstery in cars. Then with no trees to hold the soil, the dust storms came. WOW, what a hard life. And yet, what a great one!
#5
Jessica
on
2005-01-17 19:00
(Reply)
Thanks, everyone. That actually was very interesting.
#6
Linn
on
2005-01-18 08:42
(Reply)
