This video covers our haying season step by step. When each field is ready, Daniel cuts it using a discbine. It is offset from the tractor, so you don’t run over the field as you cut it. Fields may be grass, alfalfa, oats, sordan, or like the first one shown here, triticale. Daniel is an…
Category: Hay
Heroes of the Hay
While I’ve been safely ensconced in my house, well, for the most part… or somewhere else, the guys have cut, raked, baled, and stacked all the pollen loaded hay surrounding my house! I’m always very appreciative that Vernon now makes a point of doing these fields first. Grass pollen usually ends up ruining the month…
Outdoor Experience
Well, I had told myself I would do something *outside* today. This was not what I had in mind. Brandon and Megan were going to Worland to buy straw for our calving shed and I would hitch a ride if they would stop at the grocery store’s case lot sale. With four of us working,…
Wordless Wednesday: Hay!
Need a challenge? Try this jigsaw puzzle of one of our hay bales! Go HERE.
Back To It
Back to it. The hay has been cut and left to dry. At some point, we will come along and rake it. Raking serves two purposes. 1. To flip the hay over, putting the dry side down, and giving the wet side a chance to dry. 2. To put two windrows together, to save the…
Haying Weather Finally
When the shadows are long, we set out… Past broken dreams… To country I barely recognize. Green. Not dusty. Water standing in draws where I’ve never seen water. These storms have been a blessing on this country… …splashing neon green among the grey green of sagebrush. We walk by Vernon as he attempts to hay…
Still Hay
Haying in September is tricky. Cool nights often bring morning dew. 70-80 degrees feels wonderful but doesn’t dry the hay as fast. Scattered rain is showing up every few days. Raking to speed drying also knocks off the alfalfa leaves. But do we do it? You bet! Lower quality hay is still hay…
Different
Ever since I moved to Ten Sleep almost 41 years ago now (!), the Fourth of July has been A Big Deal. There’s the parade, the rodeo, the street dance… rarely have I missed it… a few times camping with the family, or fishing or ? I’ve gone, hauled kids, got babysitters… and enjoyed it…
Good to Go
I rode along with Brandon and the new little hay feeder. While the guys have built two large bale feeders in the past years, they decided to buy this one out of Colorado. It only feeds one bale. Once it’s loaded, we head down to feed the bulls. Brandon had a bit of oat hay…
#TBT: Third Look at Irrigating! v.2.0
This was first posted August 23, 2010. Today is my third (and most likely FINAL) look at irrigating! If you want to own cows in Wyoming, plan on feeding them through the winter. For those of you who want to try to run them just on pasture… I want to remind you of an incident…
#TBT: Hey Hey Hey Hay, v.2.0
This entry was first posted September 24, 2009. I’ve said it before…Our life revolves around hay just as much (if not more!) than cattle… Of course, the reason we raise hay is because we raise cattle…and…strangely enough…those big ol’ critters tend to want to eat in the middle of winter when there’s snow on the…
Sor-dan
This was Daniel on June 27. After our first cutting of hay was off the pivot field, he went back in and no-till drilled in some sorghum-sudangrass hybrid seeds. No-till means just that. No tilling. No plowing, discing, or leveling of the field back to bare dirt. The planter (aka a ‘drill’) has small discs…