3rd Cutting Alfalfa

how's it going guys so we're mowing third cutting hay today got started a couple hours ago just about done with the fields across the road the farm we rent yeah thank you just moved into this field we had planted a little bit of a another hay type crop just a little section right here in this field and it's amazing how tall this stuff got six seven feet tall it's kind of interesting to mow through it [Music] [Music] the excavators are back today doing a little bit of grading this field's done so i'm about halfway done we got these three strips and then there's a couple fields at the bottom end of the home farm we had some old concrete out there he's holding that over to use this fill i guess i'll mow along this lane headed back through a lot of soybeans back here this year used to seeing corn i got the john deere 7220 on the mower for the first time today thought it might be a little better the air conditioner works a little bit better in this tractor than the 7130 pretty hot out again go back and check how the excavator is going a little bit he's got that evened out pretty good we wanted to be able to get over this bank with our lawnmower didn't want it too steep put some chunks of rock there under that drain so it doesn't erode at all when it rains [Music] so so we're gonna let the heifers in this pen out to a meadow there and then dry cows are going to come across that lane and out through so we wanted to make sure there was enough build up this corner to be able to have two lanes of cattle i better go keep mowing hay all right it's the next morning now so i'm gonna go unhook this mower now we're gonna go pick the rake up so what we normally do with alfalfa is we'll mow it one day and then let it dry all day the next day until the next evening and rake it up and chop it they're saying there's a chance of rain this evening so we kind of like to get it chopped before then so we're going to try and rake it late morning here before it gets too dried out and the leaves get crunchy we're getting raked up chopped this afternoon should be pretty good we like to get the stuff pretty dry to go into those blue silos the harvest stores we liked around 50 moisture we parked the mower in the old bank barn got this barn hill up into the top of that building so i gotta feel the track drop and switch the pto shaft from the 1000 to the 540. we usually go get the rake with our pickup but we're gonna be using that rotary rake again and that thing has a three-point hitch on it you can't hook it up to a pickup truck so i'll have to drive over with the tractor to get it with these john deere's they have the 540 and 1000 on the same shaft you just have to flip it depending on which way you have it it'll push a button in there and then the tractor knows which shaft is in and how fast to spin it we got a little bit of a drive to get this rake about 10 minutes in a vehicle [Music] so [Music] so we got hooked up he was telling me a little bit how to run it so the reason it's a two-point hitch is because when you steer it actually turns the back wheels they have it linked there so if you just have a pivoting on a normal hitch pin they can't have that set up so when you're pulling it actually the back wheels on that rake there will steer a little bit so we started mowing this stuff a full day ago now so it had a good part of the day yesterday to dry it's 10 a.m definitely still some green stuff on the bottom of these windrows so i don't know maybe i'll go scrape a little bit manure and then we'll start raking right after that so usually we'll start raking in the evening after the dew starts to set on it and the leaves aren't as crunchy oh with this rain coming this evening we just have to make it work here i'm gonna scrape the dry cow barn we do it three times a week so we've always scraped it out that way and there's a pit that we used to use over there but now we have our new scrape valley set up this is actually the first time we're gonna be scraping it the other way so we just made this gray valley and walkway for the cattle uh there's a scraping pit over there scrub it right into this hole we also need to put bedding in this barn today this dry cow barns got 51 stalls in it usually keep about 30 head in this barn so it's nice it's not overcrowded they have plenty of stalls we'll scrape with the hydro got the box scraper on the back pull the tractor into the shed so there's not so much heat in the cab that rake is tall and almost caught the ceiling so far since we poured this concrete it's just been chilling out here thinking you know this isn't so bad it doesn't realize its main purpose is to be a stray ballet for manure half the manure scraped out is just disappearing into the grooves in the concrete [Applause] just gonna put bedding on those beds then we'll switch the cows to the front [Applause] [Laughter] i'm gonna go out and start raking now the second cutting off alpha we use our old wheel rake and they also brought this rake over it's a rotary rake so we can kind of compare them i collected a sample from each of the rakes last time and this one tested two percent lower in ash content we're not necessarily sold on this rake just our custom guys have this one set in there and the other one's not around right now so we're gonna use this one all day today so first you gotta raise the wings up so you raise it up the whole way and it unlocks it and you just fold it down it's one thing i know i like about this rake is it's a lot faster at folding and unfolding because between fields when the corn is tall i have to fold the rack up every time so that'll save me a good bit of time this is a water way i'm going to rake this up so as those forks go around they kind of rotate on the arms it's like they'll drop down about right there in the back come around scraping the ground and then they'll pick up again [Music] so i just got started into the first field now it does a really good job cleaning up the ground doesn't leave any skippers like if you're trying to split a row i wish it was a little bit wider because i can't quite get two and a half rows i can only get like two and a third so i'm breaking that section of real tall stuff i mowed yesterday it's definitely a bit heavier i just slowed down with the rake yeah it's working pretty good it's really nice going between fields how quick it folds up so this is another hay crop we were trying i don't even know what to call it it's sort of like sorghum i guess but i'm a little over a third of the way done i need to grab some lunch i think my dad and fonzie were setting up that new barn go see if they got that done so here's our stacking area at work they got some fresh bedding in [Applause] [Applause] [Music] so okay i'm on the last pass on the last field took me a little bit longer with this rake just got to go a little bit slower with it it's about 3 30 in the afternoon i need to feed cows but it sounds like they just started chopping right now so it'll be a few hours till they're done we're putting third cutting right on top of second cutting off alpha which is in the second harvest store there the bigger one we had really good yield for second cutting so the side was a little over half full all right guys i've been working at the cow feeding i need to climb the silo to check it [Music] yeah it's getting closer it's definitely not going to all fit they still have those three fields two down there and right now they're chopping right there [Music] i didn't get the cow feed run out yet i was worried this silo would overflow i just climb back up i'm gonna stay here until it's full they move down to the bottom of the farm now so the forge harvester is running a preservative into the feed as it's going through just to help it ferment properly now with that we're at the top of this silo we're going to add another product just to help keep it from molding hopefully [Music] okay i'm gonna call it full now if we really wanted to we could stick a bit more in there but there's no reason my dad already opened that one up so we're just gonna switch the blower over there dad's sweeping up the mess down there i should go help him but if i help him then i gotta climb back up again to close it he's got pretty good for him with a shovel that's why i like to let him do that [Music] the beauty of these harvester silos is close up the lid seal it up and we don't have to feed it right away because there's no oxygen getting in or anything the uh concrete stave silos they're not sealed so we have to keep feeding off the top starting at day one or else we'll get spoiled feet at the top so right now we're feeding first cutting halogen out of that second cutting and then half a third cutting fit in this silo now we're putting the rest of third in there [Applause] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] we got one more load to put in i'm gonna throw some of this preserver in with it so 15 load first two cuttings were 22 loads so not quite as much which is what i expected still a lot of space in the silo hopefully we can fit fourth cutting in both of these if we combine them probably put a little bit more on the top of that one once it settles i'm just going to close this up real quick i like this shoe better because it's fully enclosed there's hardly any mess up here just a tiny bit of dust they're heading out [Music] i'm having trouble getting this lid on just kind of a build-up of stuff in here i told dad to get me a flat head screwdriver try and scrape that out hopefully i can get it down tight enough that i can get these handles turned on to it [Music] [Music] okay guys that wraps up there cutting off alpha thank you for watching hopefully you enjoyed

Channel: 10th Generation Dairyman

Views: 285,789

Rating: 4.967587 out of 5

Keywords: farming

Id: MrGl6ko9tgI

Length: 22min 42sec (1362 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 28 2021