Mowing hay.

[triguy46]

http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z231/triguy46_2007/?action=view¤t=mowinghay.mp4>

[tularetom]

1. Is there anything in the world that smells better than that?

Takes me back to my hay baling and hauling days of my yoot.

[doc03]

6. I have different memories, I remember sweating my ass off in

the 90º sun loading the stuff then stacking it in a 120º barn. Then after finishing up going home dead tired covered with a scratches and a rash. No thanks you can harvest all the hay you desire I will sit on the porch and have a cool ice tea.

[NNN0LHI]

13. The smell of curing alfalfa is one of my favorite smells in the world

My wife and I occasionally go visit her relatives in Missouri and Arkansas and I just like driving down the road smelling the stuff drying in the silos.

Life doesn't get no better.

I can smell it right now.

The smell of fresh baked bread is nice too. But not as good as alfalfa. Not even close.

Don

[riderinthestorm]

2. What's really funny is I've only ever made hay with horses

We had a team that was being prepped for a living history farm which meant we had to teach them to operate all of the old equipment so I've only mown, baled, stacked and stored (yes with hay forks that the horses pulled up into the loft) with a team.

It was peaceful but the damn sickle bar mowers are a bitch - they clog up a lot!

I like your tractor. I'm shopping right now. Our JD 3020 is troubled and quite old. I've been browsing the ads for a used JD in the range of 50- 75hp that won't break the bank. It's kind of a race against the clock since the 3020 needs some pretty significant repairs that will cost the amount of a decent down payment on a newer tractor.

Here's hoping for sunny weather to continue til you bale and get it in the barn.

[triguy46]

3. Mine's a 5103, 45 hp, so its on the small end for hay work...

handles mowing and raking, and for that matter baling, handles the JD 346 w/o probs. Don't think it would run a big round baler. I have a video posted on the thread titled "what to do in Oklahoma when its 105" or something like that.

[creeker]

12. try AGCO great tractors less expensive

I researched tractors over the years--- JD use to be the best-- but unless you are willing to spend extra money to buy the elite series you will get less tractor.
the AGCO will give you more "bang for your buck". I recently compared some 100 HP tractors and and the John Deer was way more than an Agco---Look on line and compare specs-- you can buy a JD series for less but you get less-- such as hydraulic pumps(gpm) and other internals that the JD's scrimp on on the lesser models.
Look for yourself online---an AGCO 100 hp I got for $49,000 versus a JD at $65,000
The old Jd's are work horses that last forever. Beware the new low priced ones.
'nuff said

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. A lot of the farmers here are on their third cutting.

Lots of rain = lots of grass

[triguy46]

8. this a native hay pasture, so max would be 2x per year...

they guys doing bermuda are well into 2nd. They'll get 3 easy even if we don't get any more rain. We are maxed out on soil moisture.

[Paper Roses]

9. Send some of that rain our way. My grass is dead.

The Northeast seems to be getting no regular rain, just a few flood producing downpours now and then. Too heavy and quick to penetrate the hard as a rock soil to do any good, Just wipes out a community here and there with flash floods.

[triguy46]

11. We've had 3 weeks of rainy stormy weather, very unusual...

Oklahoma is becoming the next Louisiana, hot, wet, humid instead of hot dry dusty. We got 6 inches last week. We're way ahead for the year again, 3rd year in a row for record rainfall in OK. Today was 96 with heat index of 114. overnight low tonight is to be 78 and dew point is also 78, so could be a very, very interesting morning. The upside is, I can bale a bunch more hay and I have a buyer who will buy every bale I put up. Kind of hard to complain.

[DURHAM D]

5. Alfalfa? nt

[triguy46]

7. Prairie hay, a mix of bluestem, bermuda and other native grass

[polly7]

10. No, there is nothing better in the world.

We used to sleep up in the loft a day or so after we'd gotten the bales all in and the dust settled down. It was heaven. Except for the wasps ........ those weren't so good.