Devonviolet Acres

[Baymule]

No kidding on the cost of seed! We spent $800 last year on clover, rye, fescue and chicory. While the actual grazing time was short, there is a root mat under the surface that can only help our sand. And after the sheep grazed off the clover, we mowed, now there is a LOT of humus on top of the soil. The Bermuda and Bahia we sprigged last year is trying to grow. We have watered it and really need rain for our pitiful patches to grow.

DV we had those huge dead trees here too. We hired someone to take them down. They were too dangerous for us to tackle.

@farmerjan on a good year it is not unusual to get 4 cuttings of hay from a good field. 3 is the normal yield. A lot of the square balers around here have gone to the accumulators because it is so hard to find anyone to pick up and stack the square bales in the barn. Those accumulators are the bees knees!

 

[greybeard]

YIKES!!! $150 for ONE round bale! Now, that’s supply and demand at it’s finest!

I watched 18 wheeler loads of Louisiana Rice Straw round bales come thru here the same year and 2010 as well. Sold for $65+ a bale...virtually zero nutritional value and you had to spray them down with molasses to get cows to eat it and supplement heavily but it kept them alive. I fed a lot of range meal and cubes that year but didn't have to sell off any stock.

In late summer 2011, Texas and Oklahoma craigslist was full of ads for full loads of hay at $85/bale + shipping..all with ph#s from as far away as Tenn, Ky, and Ill.

I know a rancher West of Houston that was running a big herd of Brangus and he had a barn full of bahia hay from 2009/2010 and he opted to sell it all and feed his herd rice straw...he made $$ out the ying yang on it.

Heat is one thing...the lack of rain is another altogether. Most of Texas and Ok, had already been in drought for 3-5 years leading up to 2011. In July 2011, I arranged (paid) for 3 of my 4 kids & their families to spend 8 days here at the farm..came from Eastern Tenn. I was hoping some of them would choose to move here and take the place over, but we chose the hottest driest year on record and they were all absolutely miserable and spent most of their time over at Lake Livingston or sequestered indoors in the A/C. They dripped sweat the whole time they were here.

Drought here broke Jan 2012 with a moderate little flood of my river, but the same year, the drought moved up into the plains and lower midwest. The next year, it hit the South East states. All this, equaled the biggest selloff of cattle in the industry's history, which resulted in the smallest nationwide breeding cow herd in 6 decades. In 2014-2015, live cattle were selling for $2.50-$3 and up per lb at auction. Retail prices reflected this. I sold a cull bull (impotent) during this period, told the sale barn he was to go straight to kill pen, and he brought me nearly $1500. He wouldn't bring 1/2 that today.

August and Sept 2011, I built the dock on my pond start to finish and never got my feet wet or muddy. I dug the holes for the pilings with a had post hole digger and cemented them in place. The Jan 2012 drought breaker did this and the water has never since got low enough to expose the pilings the dock sits on:

Between the main beams and bottom, there is 6' of posts under the beams the planks are screwed to.

 

[Mike CHS]

One of the biggest hay farmers around us uses the accumulator equipment. I literally had to pull over and watch that two man crew do the work of a crew of 10 in about 1/10th the amount of time. I couldn't see their storage barn or I would have watched that also. I have since met the farmer and he called me over when they were stacking it in the barn. That was also a one man operation that anyone who has stacked hay would really appreciate seeing.

 

[Devonviolet]

One of the biggest hay farmers around us uses the accumulator equipment. I literally had to pull over and watch that two man crew do the work of a crew of 10 in about 1/10th the amount of time. I couldn't see their storage barn or I would have watched that also. I have since met the farmer and he called me over when they were stacking it in the barn. That was also a one man operation that anyone who has stacked hay would really appreciate seeing.

That accumulator is an amazing piece of equipment. I'm sure it costs a pretty penny. But then, look at all the man hour$ it $ave$.

 

[farmerjan]

We are also looking at some different accumulator types as we cannot get the manpower to help us much anymore. The problem we may run into is having the head clearance to be able to move it into the barn to "stack it" as it stands up. We have a kicker on the baler that kicks it into the wagon, but by leaving them "willy nilly" just thrown in, they will lose shape and you cannot get as many in a wagon. It does save on the having to pull them off the chamber on the baler though. And we often will take it from the wagon, directly onto the flat bed gooseneck trailer that we use to deliver it with.

I don't know exactly what we are going to do this summer. I can run the tractor and square bale as my son rides the wagon to stack, but I really hate it because; "mom, you need to do this and don't do that" as I am running it. Well, we will see. But I do think that some sort of mechanical gatherer is in order. Yet another big outlay that will take awhile to pay for and sometimes you wonder is is worth it. And realize that it is only used for a couple of months of the year and then has to stored inside or it goes all to pieces if left out in the weather...

 

[Bruce]

I've seen some videos of hay accumulators. They leave a neat package of bales then another machine picks them all up and places them on a trailer as a unit. No human hands touched the bales. Of course they didn't show what happens when you get it to a storage location.

It's a real problem with biting insects of all types when you're as sweet as DV is...

suck up!

 

[Devonviolet]

suck up!

 

[Devonviolet]

Well, I cut down two more trees today. MAAAN, that is hard work!!! I was exhausted after we trimmed branches, cut the trunk into 16” chunks, and stacked the leaves and branches. We had to cut down a tree, that was outside the property line (in the drainage ditch between the fence and the road. We were going to leave it, but then when we were assessing the big tree inside the fence, we realized the tree outside the fence would have blocked a big branch from going gown, after I cut it. So, I felled it into the road and we hustled to cut it up and get it off the road, before any vehicles came by. We did have to let a truck go by, before making the cut.

That’s a total of five trees so far. We’ve decided to leave the bulk of the waste (except for leaves we give to the goats), from the trees, in a pile, and once the trees are all cut down, we will do a burn pile.

Three good reasons to do that: we can use the ashes in the garden, we can burn the trunks and branches, rather than haul it all to the back of the pasture, where we have another huge burn pile, and finally, we have a hose right there, In case the fire gets out of control. The whole area is mostly dirt, save a few weeds and tree seedlings. So we shouldn’t have a problem with a fire getting out of control.

We have had a broody chicken setting on 11 duck eggs. We were SOO looking forward to having little ducklings running around!

Then, the other day, DH lifted the hen, to check the eggs, and there were only 10 eggs. There wasn’t a hint of egg or shell. So, it was a puzzle, as to what happened to the missing egg.

Then, this evening, when he was feeding the ducks and chickens, he found an egg in the pen, outside the hoopster (hut). Closer inspection revealed an area, at the end of the egg, that had been pecked in. DH suspected the hen had done it, or maybe it was a snake? No, the snake would have taken the whole egg. So, he took the egg away. When he came back, he saw the hen rolling an egg out of the hoopster and start pecking it!!!!! So, he took all the eggs away and put them in the compost pile, that we have behind a fence, so the birds don’t spread it all over, before we can get it to compost.

So, we are both really disappointed!!! We are talking about saving up a dozen Muscovy eggs, and putting one of the Muscovy hens in the hoopster with them. Maybe we can still have ducklings yet.

 

[Latestarter]

I would have removed (permanently) the hen I found stealing and eating eggs.

 

[Bruce]

Sorry about the duck eggs, I wonder why she would do that.

We had to cut down a tree, that was outside the property line

Um, you are allowed to cut trees on someone else's property?