Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[misfitmorgan]

So much for "sheep and goat" height fence keeping her in!

Once she is kid free and can go back outside we are putting an offset hotwire in. See if the butt jumps that lol.

 

[misfitmorgan]

So we may have a problem.

We planned for winter with our small herd for hay...they are now eatting two small square bales a day instead of 1 so we will be out of small square hay by about mid-january. We have 4 or 5 round bales for back up and that should get us thru mid-march. So basically we will be buying hay it seems. Kinda sucky because we sold 100 bales this summer before we got the new boers and the buck which would have been enough. We also split hay with the guy who helps bale and the guy who helped us move/stack. All in all we probly lost 400 bales in those deals before we ever sold any.

So unless we do more then one cut next year we are not selling any hay. Our feild was suppose to be plowed last fall but the guy never got to it.....didnt this fall either. We intend on planting a new grass mix and a tiny bit of alfalfa, if it ever gets plowed. The main goal is to smooth out the field it is rough as can be and is getting worse each year.

 

[promiseacres]

That sucks. I am feeding more than planned also. Just so cold this early...feeding more due to that. But we should be ok. I ended up reserving an extra 100 bales from a neighbor.

 

[misfitmorgan]

That sucks. I am feeding more than planned also. Just so cold this early...feeding more due to that. But we should be ok. I ended up reserving an extra 100 bales from a neighbor.

We have noticed our herd is already eating more then normal as well due to the cold temps. We went from 12 hay eaters to 22

 

[Baymule]

We had a summer drought and hay prices spiked. We bought hay that turned out to not be very good. It fills their bellies and that’s about it. Then we got another horse. Next year we are going to buy some square bales to go with the round bales.

 

[farmerjan]

Sorry to hear about the hay because at one time you had so much and were worried about trying to get it moved. Hopefully prices there won't be too bad, and you have to kinda get situated with the amount you will be getting there on your own place. Not surprising that you are going through so much more when you did basically double the number of sheep.

Since the field didn't get plowed/planted, at this point my suggestion would be to see if you can just cut it next year and then get the renovations done in the fall next year. Get your hay, even if mediocre, made and stored first, then see about the field getting renovated. You don't want to do it in the spring and then have bad weather or a drought and not be able to find any hay, or not be able to afford it. Rough fields, just mean you will have to do the haying with a little more patience, slower speeds, and then you can try to get it the way you want. You might find that after a first cutting, it might come back decent and give you some nicer 2nd cutting. Plus, although the income would be nice, I would just plan to fill up any/all the space I can with hay, and then get something decent planted that will bring you good money when it comes time to sell it. Better to have too much, even if not the greatest quality.... you can supplement a little bit of grain but having that fiber to fill them up is important in the winter.

 

[Bruce]

We have noticed our herd is already eating more then normal as well due to the cold temps. We went from 12 hay eaters to 22

That will sure screw up your hay plans! Hope you can find some decent stuff for a good price.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Sorry to hear about the hay because at one time you had so much and were worried about trying to get it moved. Hopefully prices there won't be too bad, and you have to kinda get situated with the amount you will be getting there on your own place. Not surprising that you are going through so much more when you did basically double the number of sheep.

Since the field didn't get plowed/planted, at this point my suggestion would be to see if you can just cut it next year and then get the renovations done in the fall next year. Get your hay, even if mediocre, made and stored first, then see about the field getting renovated. You don't want to do it in the spring and then have bad weather or a drought and not be able to find any hay, or not be able to afford it. Rough fields, just mean you will have to do the haying with a little more patience, slower speeds, and then you can try to get it the way you want. You might find that after a first cutting, it might come back decent and give you some nicer 2nd cutting. Plus, although the income would be nice, I would just plan to fill up any/all the space I can with hay, and then get something decent planted that will bring you good money when it comes time to sell it. Better to have too much, even if not the greatest quality.... you can supplement a little bit of grain but having that fiber to fill them up is important in the winter.

The hay actually is good quality still just lower yield. The biggest reason is the field is so rough now that even going super slow the hay keeps falling off the wagon going over the ruts and bumps. This years hay we had to restack some of the wagons 3 or 4 times and we were already stacking them two rows shorter then we normally would. We also already round bale the back of the field which is the worst of the field for yield and bumpiness.
It wasnt a good year for hay up here though, normal yield is about 2.5-3 tons/ acre, this year it was about 2.25 tons/acre for us. The guy who helps do hay won't do a second cut on that field because the first cut is bad enough and we dont want to risk breaking equipment for a few hundred bales of 2nd. We have a guy who cuts, rakes and bales...he gets half the field, then our guy who helps stack in field and our buildings gets 200 small squares. Both of these people do a lot to help us out through out the year and are like our family so we give them extra when it comes to hay.

After we moved we decided to only retain one hay field which is approx 27 acres. We have no tractor and no haying equipment right now. We had a baler, a tractor, and share deals on a mower, a rake, and wagons. The tractor broke before i came to BYH and the baler was fought over on who owns it because it was a labor trade so we said screw it you can keep it. We hope to buy a tractor this year but we will see how things go, we also have fencing to do and so much other stuff around here. A tractor lives at our farm still but it has no hydraulics atm so we can only use it for 3pt stuff.

That will sure screw up your hay plans! Hope you can find some decent stuff for a good price.

Hay is never hard to find up here, the only time it was hard was the drought in 2012 and even then the high price was $7/bale for grass 1st cut. People have high prices right now, we will wait until we get closer to running out and then look. By that time prices will have come down because people want the hay out to make room for the soon to come 2019 hay and dont want to get stuck with it when spring hits. Thats the time of year you find a lot of $1/bale deals or come get it for free if you know the right people.

 

[Bruce]

A tractor lives at our farm still but it has no hydraulics atm so we can only use it for 3pt stuff.

Isn't that all you need to make hay?

 

[misfitmorgan]

Farthest right is a new light brown sheep, the oreo, then a new dark brown sheep, the one in the blue feeder is a new white sheep, the far left is a a new light brown sheep.

To the far left is a new brown sheep.

Right to left
New brown, Oreo, New brown, suffolk ram lamb, new white(foreground), Fate, 294(white lump by fate), on this side of the bale big ram, little buck, latte. far side of the bale captains head behind Greg the new ram(giant white lump), to the left is the polypay, then 310 or 308, far back is sweetie.

Phoebe, Ivy, and big boy are in the barn. 308 or 310 and espresso are not in the picture.

Also pretty sure all those brown sheep are really going to be black when they are sheared. They have black faces.