Rake Twice Bale Once: First Cutting Is Done

all right we're gonna go rake a little hay I already went and looked at it it dried out pretty good so should be able to mail it tomorrow I would think foreign like they are all put air in tires and grease it real quick foreign [Applause] remember what I normally do with this [Applause] seems like I just do this shouldn't go nowhere foreign Four mile an hour okay now we can go back to the bottom of the hill I probably should have moved that draw bar over one more hole I think it would line up a lot better with the tractor right here in this spot I'm kind of high centered so pull forward a little bit see how she's doing foreign I can't really go any further this way because it drops off I don't want that I want that wheel falling off just kissing the ground so [Music] I think we're good foreign all right it's all raked up I've actually been done for a while I've been just sitting there on the draw bar with a tractor contemplating life um should have absolutely no problem bailing this tomorrow it's there's a couple little [Applause] couple little spots where there were some plug piles from the mower they weren't overly huge but um they they were a little green but luckily they ended up on top of the windrow that yellow rocket um they ended up on top of the windrow so it'll dry out fine and I mean when I say a little bit I mean just a little you'd probably put in a bale and you'd never know it um I don't know why I'm going picking this out of the there ain't enough of it to bother with but I'm here and it annoys me so this stuff is holding its color really well I like nice green hay put that in there luckily I didn't the only thing I found out here so far that was a big issue there would have been a I guess it wouldn't have been a big issue but of course it would have broke going through the Baler and then it would have become a big issue but there was one glass beer bottle out here yesterday I found while I was crimping yeah that right there oh this isn't even no wonder it's still green this is and I wonder too because every time I plugged up it was right back in here and this is where her damn brother got on his hissy fit and spread out that jar of food plot mix that had radish and stuff in it and that's what this that's what this stuff is I'm wondering if it was them radish leaves that didn't like going through the mower that would explain a lot because I never once plugged up out in the front it was all right here in this spot where that stuff was growing so that's a possibility but really this that that spot right there is the only bad streak that there is I don't I thought it'd be worse apparently I did a better job following my mark than I thought and then this was obviously where I had to skim to pick up the last little triangle here but that mower does a pretty decent job of cutting I mean I don't see anything wrong with it I do think I have a couple guards that could use a whack with a hammer to do a little bit of fine tuning but see right here there was radish and stuff in here right here like you can see the leaves I'm wondering if that's what was plugging the mower was that those radishes there's radish leaves in there where there was a plug that would explain a lot I didn't even think about that I don't know why necessarily why it would have made a difference but if that stuff wrapped around the guard somehow I can see it but luckily this should be the only cutting we have to deal with it on because this will have eliminated it and then it just won't be a problem anymore I'm hoping if I if I can get 50 bail off of this I'll be what's that if I can get 50 bail off of this I'll be satisfied I'll have to bring a hand rake with me tomorrow and get the stuff raked out from around these posts don't want that that's concrete I'll tell you what it's a pain it's not just a pain mowing around these things it's pain raking around these things too yeah I'll bring a rake and then once you rake around them you gotta go back and re-rake it and bump them out far enough from the legs so that you don't catch anything or so you don't catch the baler I'm still trying to figure out the best way to mow around it because basically it ends up right in the middle of a mower pass so I mowed up to it picked the bar up backed up swung in set and then mowed and then backed out I don't know if that's there's not really a good way to do it with the room I have to maneuver sorry I'm just walking around looking for crap that needs picked up I haven't really seen a whole lot so I must have done a good job when I planted it this is some good looking hay though I was I was nervous how it was going to turn out but this is some really good looking hay [Applause] it's nice and thick and it's only going to get better from here as the stand gets some age to it the the bare spots are filling in nice so I think we're in good shape [Applause] but anyway I'm gonna what oh pill bugs um I'm gonna get flipped around on the right here and take it back and stuff it in the barn because we're done with it for the time being obviously probably go get some twine balls out take them over to the Baler and check the Baler over real quick I need to get the stump grinder unhooked from the 1800 because I don't think I shouldn't really have I mean it's not steep enough that I'd have to worry too much like I'd be going a million mile an hour I will say though that rake does not like side Hills it's not bad it's it's kind of bass backwards you'd think if you had the rake raking uphill so driving that away you think raking up hill it would try to push itself downhill uh you put you have it raking uphill it stays going straight you come back this way and you have it raking downhill all I want to do is slide sideways which once you get off of the hay so that it's on Solid Ground that it'll Trail straight just fine but when you're raking over top of the hay the hay Slick Rick wants to slide downhill so that took some getting used to but I got a technique figure out and it didn't work out too bad breaking with a four-wheel rakes and art form but honestly I like them better than five bar rakes because they turn slower they don't beat the crap out of the Alfalfa so you don't hardly lose any leaves because I mean let me get a hold on here Maybe come here I mean Leaf retention pretty darn good I wish the leaves are worth your proteins at so anyhow I'm not so sure how this Summer's gonna turn out ladies and gentlemen because I was looking at checking corn stands today and a lot at my uncles and there's stuff that germinated and it's like v e to V1 there's stuff that germinated ran out of water and dyed their stuff that hasn't even germinated yet I haven't been down to look at the muck that's probably a little in a little better shape but basically anything that got planted after I fixed a after I fix the oil cooler pump on the White basically anything after that point and it really for that matter anything before that that actually came up and is out of the ground looks like hell too because it came up all uneven but it's it's not looking good not looking good at all and there's still no rain in the 15-day forecast and I was just looking at the radar and I zoomed out and looked at the whole United States and there's rain over basically from the Great Plains to the West Coast there's pot there's rain all over the place right now there's a big storm rolling up on Maine and then you get to the Midwest Michigan Indiana Illinois Ohio Wisconsin Minnesota Kentucky all the way down to the east coast and then down to Florida it it's it's like a dead zone there ain't on the radar whatsoever and everything's rotating around the Midwest so we're not getting anything everything's just rotating around us it's in the weird part the few the few pop-up storms that we have been getting the last few days or like the end of last week that went and completely around here we didn't get anything other than a few drops but normally our weather comes from west to east one store or one set of storms came straight down from the from the north one set of storms came straight up from the south and one set of storms came straight in from the East which around here storms coming up from the south ain't no big deal normally when the Gulf Coast gets hurricanes we get weather out of the South all the time but weather straight down from the north and weather straight in from the East is very very odd especially the straight in from the East I I mean I'm not saying I've never seen it but it doesn't happen very often not not often at all so it's I don't know what's going on but it's it's not looking good I'm very I'm almost at a loss for words for what's going on because I don't even know what to do I got stuff that needs sprayed but I don't know if I should spray it because if it's just gonna burn up and die then you just wasted money spraying I got corn that could use side dress but if you side dress it and it burns up and dies you just wasted money on side dress I think if I do side or I think at this point if I do end up putting nitrogen on I'm probably gonna cut my rate way back because the corn stands are so atrocious that there ain't no sense putting on a full rate because you ain't gonna get the benefit from it I don't know but I've been talking way too long I'm just stressed and I need to talk so I guess I got some other stuff to do so we'll catch you guys tomorrow getting this bailed up well we're not gonna be bailing today we're going to be bumping Windows over there because there was a pop-up shower I wouldn't even call it a shower it was a pop-up sprinkle it put like 10 drops on the ground but they weren't even calling for it but it clouded up about one o'clock and about 2 30 3 o'clock it I'll put my boss as it rained for probably five minutes down here Dad said it barely even sprinkled but it sprinkled just enough to make the hay tough so can't bail it so while it is still tough and I don't gotta be necessarily too worried about knocking leaves off I'm gonna go bump the windows over and fluff them back up so that we can get them to dry back out again I did get up the Baler already last night it's got twine in it it's greased up it's ready to go as far as I know but that means I gotta dig the bang right back out so tell you what if it would rain if it would have if his shower would have popped up and dumped like half three quarters of an inch I would have went over there smiling with the loader tractor and the grapple and used it like a or used it like a buck rake and raked all them windrows off off on the off the off the edge of the hill and put them in a pile and let it rot and not not said a bad word about it but it really irks you off when we need rain but you got hay on the ground and it sprinkles just enough to screw everything up but it doesn't actually do a liquid good as far as you know everything else that needs rain basically just screwed the hay up luckily tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny but it's not supposed to be overly hot and the hay didn't get wet enough so I think as long as I bump the windows over so that they can dry out I don't think it's going to bleach it hopefully because I hate bleep Tay dramatic it ain't that cold I mean it's a little disappointing it's just I mean it's still got crunch to it but it is just I mean just barely I don't even think when it rained it rained hard enough to change the color of the road but it just it's still crunchy it just feels tough so rather like I say I could probably almost get away with not bumping it over but just my luck I let it sit the inside will stay tough and I'll end up bumping it over tomorrow anyway so might as well do it now and hopefully still be able to make it tomorrow and if I do it now while the windrow's still tough it'll fluff it back up but I won't knock any leaves off so that's the theory anyhow oh [Applause] foreign [Music] well hopefully that does the trick I used to hate that job bumping windrows you had to go slow you didn't get a hole in it took you forever to get something done she didn't a he didn't want to beat the crap out of the hay and B if he went too fast you would just roll the windrow completely over and it'd flop back in its same position just over two feet where you want to take the windrow and you want to flip it upside down is the goal so it's a shame I had to flip that there's some really nice color to that hopefully it doesn't bleach too bad but I didn't knock any leaves off the Alfalfa that I saw so as long as we get some wind tomorrow tomorrow I think we ought to be good because I really don't want to have to Ted this back out so I guess we'll just see so hopefully we catch you guys tomorrow bailing hey that would be the ideal thing in the meantime run this back home and put it away again and Lord mom and dads and work on getting the sprayer ready to go because my chemicals should be here tomorrow hopefully so not that I'll do anything tomorrow I'll be bailing but might as well start getting ready all right today we're actually going to get some hay bale it's probably going to take me longer to get the tension and everything set on the Baler then it's actually going to take me to bail it that is if everything goes well if everything goes if not if if it doesn't go very well it's going to take longer but hopefully it goes well it's been a minute since I punched any hay through that baler it's only done straw for the last three years and before that it was probably I don't know two three years before that since the last time it actually bailed hay so can't get the 18 in here so I gotta pull it out with the 55. no dramatic that being said it is a little chilly in here because it's a black foundator a stone foundation foreign we can get into twine um since I'm just dropping them on the ground I took the wagon extension off the chute that way that one back there flopping around so and obviously I left the wagon hitch out oh good be good to go well I got one slight malfunction at the junction the drawbar on the 1800 slid all the way in man I can't get the PTO shaft hooked up so dad is bringing me a wrench so that I can slide the draw bar out damn it so that I can get the PTO shaft hooked up so this is a two-handed attack okay now let the drawbar set right I didn't even think about checking that once the drawbar set right I have to thread the knotters okay okay now I guess I might as well start right here at the corner that way I'm on flat ground while I'm playing with the bail tension thank you [Music] [Music] well this is already promising oh because somehow we lost the twine out of the needle all right hold please okay now that I actually got to make a bale don't judge the shape since this is technically rebal but it's plenty heavy uh green side he's gonna need well that Bale looks better though okay so we got one two three so let's reset our counter and then we'll have to remember to add three at the end [Music] I should have had dad leave me a tape measure can't tell I think they're even round about this one might need one more what I'm gonna do once I get my tension set is I'm going to write on here hey this many inches of thread showing straw this many inches of thread showing that way there's no guesswork you just take a tape measure set your tension and away you go but this Bale definitely looks better than that Bale but that Bale's all rebal so it's going to look a little funny [Music] [Music] foreign those look pretty darn good if I do say so myself I'd say they gotta be at least 50. looks like I can drop my pickup just a hair I like them and I'm gonna drop that pick up because we don't want none of this foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] foreign [Applause] foreign foreign [Applause] [Applause] I thought I was gonna doing good and I was gonna be able to tell you it did the whole thing without me or without missing a bale and then it waited right till the very end then the last on the last windrow and it skipped three in a row so 55 Bales total too bad off of an acre that was a little behind because it got brush hogged not too long ago I think that was what four weeks ago now talk this something like that but it's nice looking hay kept its color real good Bales are nice and heavy now I gotta come back and pick them all up so this thing back home blow it off real quick put it back and go get a trailer come pick these things up so we shall return foreign together and later this week when I get a chance I'll pull it back out and clean the bail chamber out because unless you're gonna go right back to using it I don't like leaving hay or straw or whatever sitting in the chambers especially down here in this basement if that starts drawing moisture and it starts rusting the walls of the Bell Chamber and then that gives you all sorts of issues probably rather just have it cleaned out well somehow wait a minute there was three oh I did my math wrong because it would have been 60 Bales I broke three so yeah I did my math wrong they're 56 on the trailer it's one still in the bail chamber because my apparently my automatic last Bailey jacket is broken so I'm gonna have to get that fixed before we before we do the next cutting um but so yeah there's 56 bales I screwed that math up oh well it is I am very pleased with I mean this is the colors beautiful the texture is beautiful the moisture is good I mean this is I am very proud of it hey hopefully as the stand gets some age to it and feels a little better we'll be able to increase that yield a little bit but for a fresh seating first cutting I don't think we did bad at all to figure 50 pounds per 50 just figure an average of 50 pounds per Bale I didn't bring a scaled away one but let's just say 50 times 57. about 2 800 pounds an acre a little over a ton well well over a ton almost a ton and a half that's that's not bad at all really so you notice when I was bailing the windrower I was coming this way and I got right to about here and I I dipped out and went down the hill but I felt the Baler start pushing the tractor so I was like yeah we're not doing this so I hurried up and turned it that's why I wanted to use use the my 1955 would actually probably be better because a it's stanced wider and B it's heavier which is why I wanted to use the 1800 to the 1600 not unnecessarily I mean you don't need the horsepower to run that Baler but you need the weight in front of it to keep it to keep it under control on these Hills and the problem with my 1955 is the that with that short Baler tongue and being so close to the pickup you end up with your tire like halfway into the wind drill on the 1955 so you can't really Bale with it but anyhow I guess to go get these things unloaded they're just going up there and they're a little uh tarp garage deal they got for storing hay so they're staying here but other other than that little rain shower that pushed me back a day where it wasn't even a shower it was a dang heavy do basically but it didn't I mean Hayden bleach I'd I'm happy with it so the one thing I'm going to ask for my more experienced Haymakers is this getting clipped Too Short do I need to lower the shoes on that mower or is that fine because that seems and there's probably two inches of stubble that just seems a tad short to me but maybe not I don't know let me know what you think if I need to drop the shoes on that mower a little bit and leave her a little bit more stubble but maybe I'm just being too too cautious give me your stick we want you gone huh all right well I guess get this out of here and call her a day so that's it for this one we'll catch you guys on the next one as I get as I get this stick out of here

Channel: Oliver66FarmBoy

Views: 142,104

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Id: gEXElv32d74

Length: 54min 22sec (3262 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 09 2023