How I spent my day

Here's how most of my day yesterday was spent. We are now in haying season, and looks like 4-5 days of dry weather so I gotta get after it while I can.

More hay getting cut today then I have 3-4 days to Rake and Bale.

Here's a short clip of me mowing the hay down. 100Hp McCormick CX100 Xtra Shift (24 speed) Tractor and Vermeer 9' disc mower. Thanks goodness for Air Con in the tractor and my stereo. Typically I'm mowing a bit faster than this, but doing a video with one hand and driving with the other I decided to drop her down a few gears.

https://youtu.be/NcMxp6JMzZE

Here is the field after I'm done mowing, its about 15 acres of hay there ( I dropped 20 acres yesterday). Only 60 acres to go.

https://youtu.be/bpyH7tHDwjY

No Bike riding this week, ill be to friggin exhausted. most days like this will be 8am to 8pm with one stop for lunch . Mowing is the easy part. The tractor I use for raking has no A/c & No Cab. Back in to the big rig for doing the bales though.

Maybe another boring "hay" video today - Raking

My son hates haying, he wont be pleased when he finds out he's lugging bales into the barn on Friday after work. My Daughter hates it too, she's coming fr a visit this weekend, im not telling her, or she may not show up...LOL

8-10 acres of small square bales (~500-600 bales) and 15 acres of large round bales 40-50 rounds, in the next few days. Typically in the season I do 1200 squares and 70-80 rounds (I sell the rounds).

 

Dang. is that alfalfa? My wife's little animals need some and they are charging $30 a bail in Cali. 15yrs ago it was $6.
That is a nice tractor dude. We only have a 4x4 198xx Kubota with bucket and PTO. 4' mower and 5' scraper attachments. Luckily only 30-45 hrs a year mowing against fire hazard issues. It is very dry out where I live.

 

Its mostly Timothy hay, alfalfa doesnt survive well up in my neck of the woods, likely due to the length of our winter (?). Further south in Ontario, Alfalfa is commonly grown. In addition Alfalfa is way way too rich for our horses, Timothy is just fine for us (so the boss tells me, I just plant what she says). Alfalfa also takes longer to dry.

And by unpopular demand, you didnt ask for it, you didnt want it, but never the less, here it is....the Rake at work. This time behind the McCormick X4.3 70 HP open station with a canopy :


https://youtu.be/WsOfrjbqBVU

 

here are the rigs:


2011 McCormick CX100 Xtra Shift - 100HP, 24speed, 4wd




2019 Mccormick X4.30, 70 Hp 12 speed, 4wd






Yes they are waxed (ceramic coated actually), yes I use tire shine. Why wouldn't I, these things are more costly than a car or truck, makes sense to look after them.

 

Wholly wow, batman. Nice beasts! There is so much dust where I live that it seals in the leaking oils.

 

timothy hay is the main food of my beautiful, sweet, little black-tail prairie dog, chi-chi and all pet p dogs.

 

Hey SqM. looks like what we call a GroundHog, bit different but similar. Not the farmers best friend, but im glad you enjoy her, I try my best to watch for the Ground Hog holes & Mounds when im mowing, doesnt treat the blades on my mower well when you rip through a mound of dirt. LOL

 

they're related, both ground squirrels, but the ground hog is MUCH larger.

 

aaah yea, I seem to recall the prairie dog being quite small.

 

Well, that took me back a few years when I was the son relegated to driving the tractor, slogging small squares and sweating my butt off loading/unloading. Long before they even had cabs or AC on tractors..... think Minneapolis Moline, Farmall H and M, Case D (hand clutch), and Massey 135. Grain binder with steel seat. I have books on vintage tractors, my Dad was not a John Deere guy, but IH and eventually a Nuffield.

So, I woulda been happy to come up and play hay mower, raker and round baler.... I'm too old at 72 to slug small squares and sweat that much. I know exactly how your kids feel, lol.

So we had an old McCormick Deering harvester.... sent me down a rabbit hole with the McCormick... wow, made in Italy. I had followed some years ago the takeovers and buyouts, this one surprised me. A neighbour here has a half dozen IH's sitting on his front lawn, presumably one day they may get fully restored.
https://archive.ph/20121216084652/h...ormick/brand_page/en-US/8605/Our_History.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCormick_Tractors

 

I thought for a minute you were driving a 747!

Back in the 80's I was visiting a friend in Colorado and those Prairie Dogs were amazing. Kept popping up and down in their burrows at every turn of the road....lol....

 

[QUOTE="Bazza, post: 636004, member: 236 Back in the 80's I was visiting a friend in Colorado and those Prairie Dogs were amazing. Kept popping up and down in their burrows at every turn of the road....lol....[/QUOTE]