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Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on July 15, 2010, 08:16:07 AM

Title: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: franksolich on July 15, 2010, 08:16:07 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x3668

Oh my.

Quote
triguy46 (1000+ posts)      Thu Jun-24-10 09:37 PM
Original message
 
What to do when heat index is 105 in Okla:

Time to bale prairie hay. Got 152 square bales from 9 acre meadow. Storms heading this was last night so I had to put all 152 in barn by myself, got dehydrated by time it was all done, though I'd been drinking gatorade, water, and eating. But its in the barn. Good news is every last bale was sold before I baled it, picked up check tonight. Love the cutting, raking, baling, but getting way to old to put into barn. Could only stack 3 or 4 bales before having to rest.

Quote
Bitwit1234  (1000+ posts)     Thu Jun-24-10 09:46 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Take people like Inhfhe or how the hell you spell his name and let them stew and soak there for a while. Then tell us there is no global warming.

Quote
Bitwit1234  (1000+ posts)     Thu Jun-24-10 09:47 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. PS our lilacs usually bloom in June and July this year it was May and they were all gone by June. How's that for another spike in the anti-global warming crap. We live in up state Minnesota above Duluth.

Quote
Old Codger  (1000+ posts)      Thu Jun-24-10 09:51 PM
Response to Original message
 
3. Good deal

I just did 700 here in Oregon but I do my best to sell it before I have to handle it, let them have it for .50 cheaper if they take it out of field so I don't have to.

Quote
triguy46 (1000+ posts)      Fri Jun-25-10 09:00 PM
Response to Reply #3
 
9. I will do the same next year. My customer says her son and his friends will do anything for her cooking. I too, will take off $.50 for field pick up.

Quote
tularetom  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jun-24-10 10:27 PM
Response to Original message
 
5. First time in years I didn't have to haul hay in

We had so much rain there this spring it looks like I'll be able to get through the summer on what we produced on site.

Put myself through college baling and hauling hay.

Quote
madrchsod  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jun-24-10 10:29 PM
Response to Original message
 
7. i did that a couple of times when i was a kid...

was`t that hot but close..75ct an hour! good thing beer was a buck and a half for a 6 pack.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: dutch508 on July 15, 2010, 08:22:59 AM
I worked in the hay fields from when I was 12 years old until I left for the Army.  There were plenty of days the tempwas over 100*. Of course we used a slide stacker and put up 15 ton stacks, not bales.

The reason you hay is to put up feed for the winter, not to make sure you ahve feed in the summer. You leave the grass and what the cows don't eat goes to rot- then you want have feed come winter.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: JohnnyReb on July 15, 2010, 08:50:26 AM
I worked in the hay fields from when I was 12 years old until I left for the Army.  There were plenty of days the tempwas over 100*. Of course we used a slide stacker and put up 15 ton stacks, not bales.

The reason you hay is to put up feed for the winter, not to make sure you ahve feed in the summer. You leave the grass and what the cows don't eat goes to rot- then you want have feed come winter.

Yeah I was about that age when most of the haying work fell on me to do. I'd get home from school, put the mower on and mower down about 200 bales worth. Then hook to the rake and rake up yesterdays cutting. Then hook to the baler and start baling....daddy would get home from work and bring the truck. I'd hook the tractor to a wagon and we'd haul about 200 bales to the house and put them in the hay loft of the barn...by pure muscle power, no elevators or stackers. That went on just about every day for 6 weeks starting in mid August.

At about age 15 we no-tilled fescue and clover into our pastures and hay fields. It eventually took over and killed out the native grasses. Being in the peidmont of the carolinas, it grow just about year round and that greatly reduced our need to put up hay for the winter.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: BlueStateSaint on July 15, 2010, 06:57:02 PM
This asshole obviously didn't see the story on Drudge earlier this week (after the quote):

Quote
Bitwit1234  (1000+ posts)     Thu Jun-24-10 09:46 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Take people like Inhfhe or how the hell you spell his name and let them stew and soak there for a while. Then tell us there is no global warming.

The story that a ski resort in the Canadian Rockies had 18 centimeters of snow this past week . . .

Hey, nitwit primitive--it gets hot in the heartland in summer.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: Revolution on July 15, 2010, 07:22:09 PM
Quote
Bitwit1234  (1000+ posts)     Thu Jun-24-10 09:46 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Take people like Inhfhe or how the hell you spell his name and let them stew and soak there for a while. Then tell us there is no global warming.


First response goes to "global warming..." Doesn't take these fellows long to bring out the talking points.

It's been pretty steamy here in the cheese state, but it's normal for seasonal temps. Stop with the BS, Nitwit
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: franksolich on July 15, 2010, 07:26:07 PM
I worked in the hay fields from when I was 12 years old until I left for the Army.  There were plenty of days the tempwas over 100*. Of course we used a slide stacker and put up 15 ton stacks, not bales.

Illuminate me, please, sir.

I've been all over Nebraska--born and raised here, remember--and the predominant way of preserving hay is in those rectangular bales, circa 100 pounds each.  On occasion, I've seen great big rolls of the stuff, and thought they looked rather silly.

It's obvious God and nature intended hay to be baled in those 100-pound rectangular bales.

As incredible as it might seem, I've never seen a "haystack" in Nebraska in my life, unless I wasn't paying attention.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: Carl on July 15, 2010, 07:38:30 PM
Illuminate me, please, sir.

I've been all over Nebraska--born and raised here, remember--and the predominant way of preserving hay is in those rectangular bales, circa 100 pounds each.  On occasion, I've seen great big rolls of the stuff, and thought they looked rather silly.

It's obvious God and nature intended hay to be baled in those 100-pound rectangular bales.

As incredible as it might seem, I've never seen a "haystack" in Nebraska in my life, unless I wasn't paying attention.

As of right now my cousin and I have baled around 9000 small square (14x18) bales of hay with the average weight being about 50 lbs.
It is the best way to store hay but the most labor intensive.

Out in dryer western areas they may have used 16x18 or even 16x23 bales that didn`t use twine but wire instead.
They would likely push the 100 lb mark.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: franksolich on July 15, 2010, 07:47:29 PM
Out in dryer western areas they may have used 16x18 or even 16x23 bales that didn't use twine but wire instead.  They would likely push the 100 lb mark.

I'm going on childhood memories here, as that was the last time I was intimately acquainted with hay bales.

They were bound by wire--one had to use gloves when handling them--but it seems to me they were larger than 16x23.  But of course that's a childhood memory, and things get magnified.

We lived on the edge of town, surrounded on three and a half sides by farms, where was grown stuff that was ultimately baled.

Once a farmer had made a great big block--surely more than 8' tall--of the bales, my younger brother, friends, and I used to go out when the farmer wasn't around, and make "forts" and "castles" out of the bales, stacking the bales higher and hollowing out the insides of the blocks.

We got a lot of grief for this, and so had to give it up.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: franksolich on July 15, 2010, 07:59:29 PM
As of right now my cousin and I have baled around 9000 small square (14x18) bales of hay with the average weight being about 50 lbs.
It is the best way to store hay but the most labor intensive.

Out in dryer western areas they may have used 16x18 or even 16x23 bales that didn`t use twine but wire instead.
They would likely push the 100 lb mark.

By the way, sir, I'm curious about something.

Why would hay from drier western areas be baled in bales larger than hay from colder northeastern areas?

I mean, hay is hay.

There's probably an eminently reasonable reason for it, but I dunno what it is.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: Carl on July 15, 2010, 08:13:08 PM
By the way, sir, I'm curious about something.

Why would hay from drier western areas be baled in bales larger than hay from colder northeastern areas?

I mean, hay is hay.

There's probably an eminently reasonable reason for it, but I dunno what it is.

To answer the other post first,if it was made in an old stationary hay press rather then a pickup baler then they may have been larger.
Those required wooden blocks to be inserted to seperate the bales and there was not knotter or wire twister to tie them.
A man on each side of the bale chamber inserted wires through grooves in the blocks,the wires that had a loop on one end and a hook on the other.
These were joined and as the bale case narrowed to make the bale denser were tightened.

Pick up balers that came along in the 50s had a tying system that is rather complicated and a real horror to use when they wear out.
Twine disks and a bill hook to hold and then make a knot as needles fed the twine up through.

The thing about dry land farming is a mystery to us here in the northeast.
We have to spread the hay out once to several times with a machine called a hay tedder to get it dried down enough to rake and bale and keep.
Out in more arid areas they actually wait until evening falls and a dew sets in before baling so as not to have all the leaves fall off through the process as it is that dry.

Not having to do anything more then mow it in a windrow and bale it a few days later will leave it as green and nutritious as it was standing so is perfect for commercial hay growing.
That dictates the need for larger and denser bales and has led to the large square balers we have today.
They make a several hundred pound bale that you can build a house out of.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: franksolich on July 15, 2010, 08:19:05 PM
Thank you, Carl, sir.

I knew you'd come through with the upstate New York perspective on the matter.

Now I'll wait until dutch508 shows up to illuminate both of us about the Nebraska perspective on the matter.

That's what's great about conservativecave; all the intensive knowledge members here have.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: Carl on July 15, 2010, 08:31:56 PM
Thank you, Carl, sir.

I knew you'd come through with the upstate New York perspective on the matter.

Now I'll wait until dutch508 shows up to illuminate both of us about the Nebraska perspective on the matter.

That's what's great about conservativecave; all the intensive knowledge members here have.

There is still hay that is transported from western areas into here despite our own hay growing capabilities.
The more you work hay to get it dry enough to safely bale the more leaves you lose and that is where the feed value (protein) is.
The stems are dry matter and roughage which is good for digestion in cattle but won`t produce milk or meat.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: franksolich on July 15, 2010, 08:39:06 PM
There is still hay that is transported from western areas into here despite our own hay growing capabilities.
The more you work hay to get it dry enough to safely bale the more leaves you lose and that is where the feed value (protein) is.
The stems are dry matter and roughage which is good for digestion in cattle but won`t produce milk or meat.

The major export, from both South Dakota and Nebraska, up until very recently (so we're talking circa 2004-2008 here), were those rectangular bales of hay, sold to Texas.

U.S. Highway 81, a major roadway, used to be clogged with big trucks hauling nothing but hay, southward.

I was always curious why that was; after all, Texas is a pretty big state, with plenty of space to grow hay.

But Texans were paying big bucks for Nebraska and South Dakota hay.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: Carl on July 15, 2010, 08:50:52 PM
The major export, from both South Dakota and Nebraska, up until very recently (so we're talking circa 2004-2008 here), were those rectangular bales of hay, sold to Texas.

U.S. Highway 81, a major roadway, used to be clogged with big trucks hauling nothing but hay, southward.

I was always curious why that was; after all, Texas is a pretty big state, with plenty of space to grow hay.

But Texans were paying big bucks for Nebraska and South Dakota hay.

They are too hot to grow much hay,it will more likely burn up (not literally) in the fields then grow.
In the dry west they can irrigate and make it grow but in the south just not cost effective to do that given the heat.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: Ballygrl on July 15, 2010, 09:12:35 PM
Quote
Bitwit1234  (1000+ posts)     Thu Jun-24-10 09:46 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Take people like Inhfhe or how the hell you spell his name and let them stew and soak there for a while. Then tell us there is no global warming.

:bs:

Inhofe isn't telling you there is no Globull Warming, the scammers own memos did that all themselves.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: Freeper on July 16, 2010, 07:44:52 AM
Quote
Bitwit1234  (1000+ posts)     Thu Jun-24-10 09:46 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Take people like Inhfhe or how the hell you spell his name and let them stew and soak there for a while. Then tell us there is no global warming.

And we heard all winter that a cold winter is not enough to discredit global warming errr climate change. Yet a few hot days proves it?  :mental:
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: PatriotGame on July 16, 2010, 07:51:17 AM
Quote
triguy46 (1000+ posts)      Thu Jun-24-10 09:37 PM
Original message
 
What to do when heat index is 105 in Okla:

Time to bale prairie hay. Got 152 square bales from 9 acre meadow. Storms heading this was last night so I had to put all 152 in barn by myself, got dehydrated by time it was all done, though I'd been drinking gatorade, water, and eating. But its in the barn. Good news is every last bale was sold before I baled it, picked up check tonight. Love the cutting, raking, baling, but getting way to old to put into barn. Could only stack 3 or 4 bales before having to rest.
Hay - weed...DUmmy post...do the math...
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: vesta111 on July 16, 2010, 09:29:27 AM
I helped to hay up here in New Hampshire as a teenager, the farm I worked on did not bail their hay.

They had a very old tractor that went out pulling a hay cutter and the hay was cut on a day that was assured of dry weather for 3-4 days.

The old farmers had a saying that a smart farmer got his hay in before the 4th. of July.    This insured him of a second crop by fall.

This is how it worked as I remember it.

After the hay was dry, 4 kids my age ,males hooked up the tractor to a trailer with high sides and as the tractor pulled the trailer the males would with rakes gather up the hay and throw it into the cart, my job was to tramp it down to allow more hay to be added.

After the cart was full to over flowing back to the  barn.  The barn had a large door leading into the attic where hay was stored.

A large thingy with teeth and hinged was lowered by block and tackle took a big mouth full of hay from the cart, and winched up to the top.  All hay was loose, not compacted in any way.  There was  a shoot that the hay could be raked into down on the floor where the milk cows lived.

As a side note a class mate of mine at 14 years old was working on a farm that bailed their hay.   Something went wrong with the baler and the boy ended up with a spike of some sort in his side.    Mother took me to the hospital to see him, first time I had seen anyone of my age that badly injured.

Some advice for parents, when a childhood friend of you children has a very bad accident, have them send cards and make phone calls to their friend, communicate over the computer.  Do not take them to visit if the friend is in a coma or hooked up to tubes or cannot  recognise the visitor or is in pain.

After 40 some odd years there are times when I dream of that time, the first time the reality's of life had hit me, kids can do everything right but still get caught up in a terrable accident.     

Farming is a very dangerious life, for both the young and the old.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: JohnnyReb on July 16, 2010, 10:47:25 AM
Baling hay isn't nearly as labor intensive as it used to be. You can put up thousands of pounds of hay and never leave the comfort of your air conditioned seat in the tractor cab. I'm talking 800 to the 1200 and more pounds round bales.

One of the things they're doing now is cutting and windrowing with a hay conditioner ....coming along right behind it with the baler and baling it....this used to be an absolute no-no...but now they come along right behind the baler and wrap the bales in plastic... causes the hay to go thru a heat and ferment... it's more like silage than hay. They say it's better this way because you don't lose the sugars in the grass. It stinks like bad pickles but the cows love it.
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: PatriotGame on July 16, 2010, 10:51:42 AM
See what I told ya about a DUmmy's "hay" dreams:

(http://tinyurl.com/2dds4pd)

(http://tinyurl.com/29f583o)

(http://tinyurl.com/24y3lw3)

(http://tinyurl.com/2e9dvr2)

(http://tinyurl.com/2a8blex)


SURPRISE, IT AIN'T FOR HORSES!
 
You will probably wonder now every time you see a load of hay going down the highway....
 
What if the hiding place had illegals, terrorists, or maybe even a dirty bomb?
 
What if Arizona wasn't as concerned as it is???
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: IassaFTots on July 16, 2010, 02:39:08 PM
HEY!  That's Texas.  I never would have thought of that before. 
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: diesel driver on July 16, 2010, 05:28:17 PM
Quote
Bitwit1234  (1000+ posts)     Thu Jun-24-10 09:47 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. PS our lilacs usually bloom in June and July this year it was May and they were all gone by June. How's that for another spike in the anti-global warming crap. We live in up state Minnesota above Duluth.

Back in 1978, we had our rye cut and in the silo before April 18th....
Usually it was early to mid-May before it was mature enough to chop....

Back then, they were crying "The Coming Ice Age" blues....
Today, it's "The Global Warming, Ice Cap Melting, We're All Gonna Fry!" polka....

To all lurking global warming DUmmies and enviroweenies:  GO TO HELL!  You assholes haven't been correct about ONE single thing in the 40 years I've been aware of your existence, and I'll bet any amount of money you'd care to loose that you're wrong now!  Now GO AWAY AND STFU!
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: diesel driver on July 16, 2010, 05:42:44 PM
There is still hay that is transported from western areas into here despite our own hay growing capabilities.
The more you work hay to get it dry enough to safely bale the more leaves you lose and that is where the feed value (protein) is.
The stems are dry matter and roughage which is good for digestion in cattle but won`t produce milk or meat.

This is the main reason why we chopped ours and put into sealed silos (Harvestores) on our dairy farm.  Dad and I sometimes would mow the hay down in the morning, and be chopping it by late afternoon, but usually the next day.  Two men with 3 tractors, a chopper, a blower, and 4 self-unloading wagons could put up 30-40 acres/day and not break a sweat!

If the hay got dry on us, we'd chop after dark, when the dew fell.  Usually finish up 1:00 or 2:00 am.

We put our hay up between 25-40% moisture content  (baling, less than 15%, or the bales could heat up and burn down your barn!)  Less moisture was usually dusty, more moisture would gum up the blower paddles....
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: diesel driver on July 16, 2010, 05:48:20 PM
See what I told ya about a DUmmy's "hay" dreams:

(http://tinyurl.com/2dds4pd)

(http://tinyurl.com/29f583o)

(http://tinyurl.com/24y3lw3)

(http://tinyurl.com/2e9dvr2)

(http://tinyurl.com/2a8blex)


SURPRISE, IT AIN'T FOR HORSES!
 
You will probably wonder now every time you see a load of hay going down the highway....
 
What if the hiding place had illegals, terrorists, or maybe even a dirty bomb?
 
What if Arizona wasn't as concerned as it is???


Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw many years ago:
"Get high on milk!  Our cows are on grass!"

Ain't it the truth....
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: Carl on July 16, 2010, 06:32:17 PM
I helped to hay up here in New Hampshire as a teenager, the farm I worked on did not bail their hay.

They had a very old tractor that went out pulling a hay cutter and the hay was cut on a day that was assured of dry weather for 3-4 days.

The old farmers had a saying that a smart farmer got his hay in before the 4th. of July.    This insured him of a second crop by fall.

This is how it worked as I remember it.

After the hay was dry, 4 kids my age ,males hooked up the tractor to a trailer with high sides and as the tractor pulled the trailer the males would with rakes gather up the hay and throw it into the cart, my job was to tramp it down to allow more hay to be added.

After the cart was full to over flowing back to the  barn.  The barn had a large door leading into the attic where hay was stored.

A large thingy with teeth and hinged was lowered by block and tackle took a big mouth full of hay from the cart, and winched up to the top.  All hay was loose, not compacted in any way.  There was  a shoot that the hay could be raked into down on the floor where the milk cows lived.

As a side note a class mate of mine at 14 years old was working on a farm that bailed their hay.   Something went wrong with the baler and the boy ended up with a spike of some sort in his side.    Mother took me to the hospital to see him, first time I had seen anyone of my age that badly injured.

Some advice for parents, when a childhood friend of you children has a very bad accident, have them send cards and make phone calls to their friend, communicate over the computer.  Do not take them to visit if the friend is in a coma or hooked up to tubes or cannot  recognise the visitor or is in pain.

After 40 some odd years there are times when I dream of that time, the first time the reality's of life had hit me, kids can do everything right but still get caught up in a terrable accident.     

Farming is a very dangerious life, for both the young and the old.

Vesta,I still have the hay forks that were used here in a bygone day.

There were two styles...

A harpoon hay fork,which is what is here.

(http://wvls.lib.wi.us/ClarkCounty/clark/history/images/hayfork.jpg)

Or a grapple hay fork.

(http://www.stoneyacresfarm.com/images/medium/C/C1904_MED.jpg)
Title: Re: primitives making hay while sun shines
Post by: Chris_ on July 16, 2010, 06:55:47 PM
There are other uses for hay bales besides smuggling drugs...
(http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1836/countrychristmassmall7rv.jpg)