Haying.....

How goes the battle? Everyone getting some in? Good/bad?


We baled about 100 round bales on the weekend (smallish rounds) and it seems like they're holding up alright despite the fact the hay still felt a bit damped when we baled...

We also baled about 40 big bales of haylage - the rain and humidity arrived too soon and we had no choice but to wrap them...

We were hoping to cut more today but the forecast isn't looking too promising...

I got home from work last night and got in the truck and hauled hay off the fields until 11:30pm... my day job sure gets in the way :roll:

our crop is just starting to mature now, we sit on a ridge and we run about 2 weeks later than just a few miles down towards sackville, We still had snow a couple weeks after it was gone in town and our lilacs bloom about 2 weeks after the ones down there do so our hay runs later too.
I've bought some to supplement pasture from a hay supplier in the area but cant wait till we get to start ours whenever the forecast calls for a few sunny rain free days in a row.

Hmm interesting... think it is slower because the ground is rocky?

Our timothy, at this point, actually looks like it is starting to seed out a bit.

D-Cutch wrote:

Hmm interesting... think it is slower because the ground is rocky?

we dont have rocks but we do have heavy clay, back in spring people were starting to mow lawns in Amherst, our fields were still covered in snow with only a few small bare patches showing through. Even air temperature differs up here by a couple degrees than down towards town.

I'm not doing my fields this year which I now regret. I'm still going to have them mowed off because the horses wasted so much and it is all overmature now. Last year the hay was rained on when it was down so I still had to pay for mowing and tedding then had a friend come and bale it for her sheep (no charge). I'm still going to have to pay about the same amount this year for mowing so I should have took the chance and had hay made. Damned if you do, damned if you don't :roll:

Now I'll be waiting for the second cut from a local dairy farmer. He dumps the wagons right in front of my hay shed so I just have to stack it. Good deal for me. I'll buy the rest throughout the winter from work or Tom's dad. I still get anxious though not having any hay secured till September.

I just bought my first load of fresh cut. We've actually had really good hay weather this summer. So far the stuff looks great. Now I just have to round up the moola to fill the hayloft. It's going for 14 cents/pound ($280/ton). What are you guys paying?

hmmm,... I've never heard of hay being priced by the lbs/ton

they all price it by the ton or lb around here. And weigh every single bale as it's unloaded onto your truck or into your loft. That way it doesn't matter what size the bales are and nobody thinks they get ripped off. This is the first place I've ever heard of do it that way too. Round bales are priced by the bale. I guess weighing them would be too hard!

We haven't dropped ours yet. I am getting anxious, as I now hate haying. My back (which I broke 11 years ago) really, really hurts. And I never seem to have enough help available.

Anyway, we have 400+ left from last year, so no rush, but I am despairing of evr getting any in....no weather for it yet!

I believe we are paying $25.00 delivered per round bale, and $3.00 / square bale ( we pick them up )
Is that in the area everyone else pays ? ( other than those of you paying by weight... )

we are done got all our hay in yeah!!!!!

I have about 2 dozen round bales in. I lucked out this year. Tom's dad had his fields in Bass River hayed by a local guy and told him to put half in the barn for me and he could take the rest. Well, it wasn't quite half but hey, it's free so I'm not complaining. He did let them get rained on after bailing so some will be wasted. That is a hugh peeve of mine. If you take the time to make the darn stuff get it in the barn right away for pete's sake :roll: Of course he got his in before the rain. Now I just have to figure out how to get them on the truck in the winter when the driveway isn't plowed His dad uses the tractor for plowing in Windsor during the winters so it won't be around. I'll figure something out though, always do

Cinderelly......all your ponies have been driven.....hitch them up to one of those bales and haul away!!!!!!!!!! :cowboyhound.gi

LOL that's what hubby use to do when he lived by himself...

He got a team of horses from his brothers and hauled the bales home with the horses - they only gave him an old David Brown to work the Ch'town farm with and it spent more time broke down than working so he did everything with only a couple horse power.

It's looking like there wasn't much good hay made in our neck of the woods... It was too muggy this summer with the exception of a couple days.

There was actually a barn that burnt down just a couple weeks ago here on the Island and I believe it was due to bales heating...

I have nothing yet...but I usually don't get my hay till Mid August, so I'm not concerned yet. Last year my last load came the 2nd weekend in September. I have hay left from last year, as I was down one horse for two months. I have it moved to my parents barn, but it is there if I need it. Also my husband has worked out some deals with other farmers, so I'm getting some rounds too, whenever I need them.

We now just need 3 days of clear weather... :tn_pray110.gif

We got our first squares in today...or should I say hubby got the first squares in today. My designated task was to get all wayward kittens out of the hayloft. We have close to 100 round in but it has been a trial to get the squares. It has been a terrible year..up until the end of last week and this week no more than a couple of days without rain. Hopefully August will be a good month. The grass came along really well in our area

We brought home 200 bales that we picked up off the field. That's all our barn will hold. We use round bales as well and
picked up 13 round bales as well and we have someone who has storage that sells them to us after that. I just hope
that farmers don't go short this winter due to the bad weather we've been having. In Calgary, they haven't been
getting enough rain and hay is selling at $7.00 a bale.
Feed is easy, but hay is always a worry at times.