Wehner Homestead

[Wehner Homestead]

Busy few days. I’m working hard to do some spring cleaning. Getting things gone through. Lots of trash and items to donate making its way out of the house.

I’ve started freezing pasteurized goat milk! Very exciting. I need to decide how I prefer to do it. Recommendations?? Thinking I’ll experiment some.

Worked on some hooves tonight. Did Diamond, Snowflake, Nellie, Caramel, Jasmine, Knight, King, CeCe, and Sparkle in that order. I had done Blossom’s on Friday. That leaves Jackson, Jericho, and the 6 little ones. I need to reburn Theo’s horns tomorrow night so I may do the two older boys’ hooves and wait a few days to do the 6 little ones...

DH’s Dad was here today greasing up the round baler. It’s about that time. Hay season is definitely busy around here!

 

[Southern by choice]

Everyone is cutting and baling here too!
Lots of cutting last week, then we saw the rakes, then the balers. Good thing as Rain every day for the next 8-9 days, lots of thunderstorms.
I don't like first cutting though. We avoid those, and our hay guy is pretty good at picking our hay from certain fields. That is our neighbor hay guy.
The stuff that is brought in from the North. Wellllll.... like no hay available.! ! ! We managed to get a decent orchard grass hay. No alfalfa left.
Great, no alfalfa, we have 2 shows coming up and on test.
We don't feed straight alfalfa, we mix it... but still, this will hurt.

And we wait.

We have been getting goats ready, cleaning up stuff, clipping , etc. they've been loading the van slowly.
I have been trying to do what you are. I emptied out my back storage (walk in attic back of house) - it is all in my living room.
Then I got sick.
Back up now but yikes, gotta help them get ready for shows, then 3 days do all the farm stuff. My grown sons will be helping me out. They are pretty awesome with that kinda thing.
Having the milk machine is great but I am still slow. I also tend to overfeed.
With all the rain we moved a bunch of hay into the old milkroom in the barn, that way I don't have to keep taking hay out in the pouring rain and thunderstorms.

Gonna be a long weekend I think.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

There’s a hay shortage here. We’ve got some extra but DH won’t sell it as it’s more of a safety net for us and the two farms that buy from us. Won’t take a chance on running out.

First cutting always gets turned into haylage. Square bales and dry rounds come from second or third cuttings.

@Southern by choice good luck taking care of everything! I know it’s quite the job.

@Goat Whisperer and @OneFineAcre good luck at the show! Can’t wait to see pics and hear how y’all did!

 

[greybeard]

We’ve got some extra but DH won’t sell it as it’s more of a safety net for us and the two farms that buy from us. Won’t take a chance on running out.

DH is spot on!
Running out is no fun. And if very little is available and the price runs up because of it, like it did here in 2011 drought (4x5s of marginal/junk hay were $110 and up) the $ you made selling your safety net don't do you much good.
We're never more than 3 weeks away from drought here. Then hurricane season comes right in the middle of 2nd and 3rd cutting season.......

 

[OneFineAcre]

The oat hay I got from my hay man is some of the best I've ever seen.
Goats love it.

 

[farmerjan]

I really like oat hay but it is hard to find. And we usually have questionable weather to make it. I would like for us to try growing some next year.
We also won't sell down to "nothing" on the chance that the next years hay doesn't do good. We are pretty much out of square bales of orchard grass, got enough for one more 100 bale load to take to a couple of our regular horse customers, before we start making this years. We mostly roll all our first cutting in large round bales, and wrap it if we have to but try to make it dry. We will wrap the sorghum/sudan if the weather doesn't allow it to be made dry. Last year we made all our hay dry.
Most of the orchard grass 2nd and sometimes 3rd cutting is made in small square bales. We are having a terrible time finding help and I have told my son that we may need to look at a bale stacker. They are expensive, but the money is in the small square bales. Problem is, no one wants to help put it up because it is hot sweaty work. Years ago, there were kids galore that would work because it was good cash money. I helped a couple of farmers when I moved to Va. A 30 + yr old adult female; and took my pay in hay. Which was $3.00 per hour and hay was selling for $1.25 a sq bale. Today, it is "too hard". What a bunch of wimps and cry baby's this younger generation is. And we are paying $10 per hour CASH money and we buy lunch or dinner if they work through those hours. If I was not having so much trouble with my ankle and knees, I would be on the wagon, but I do not have the stability to do so. I did run the tractor last year with the square baler and my son rode the wagon and stacked. Even with a kicker on the baler, if you stack them on the wagon, you can get more on, and if they sit there for a week or two before being unloaded, the ones stacked will keep their shape, the ones just kicked on will get somewhat mis-shapen.
So even though I know everyone thinks square bales are expensive, it is alot of work, handling, expensive equipment, and now the price of fuel is going up and we are going up on the price. Our tractors do not run on air, and then we deliver so you are adding that much more to the cost. Most "small farmers" cannot handle the bigger rolls, or the big 3x4 or bigger square bales, but there is alot of handling with small squares. And the hay HAS TO BE DRY... you can roll hay a little higher moisture than small squares. Those small squares are put into a building and any moisture will cause heating and that is a fire danger. And unless you are willing to come get the hay on short notice, right off the wagon, it is also a pain to have someone only want to come get 10 or 20 small squares. I get it, I used to only have one horse when I was a kid and we would go get a very full pickup load of 50-75 bales; but it is more time out of the farmers day that he has 20 other things that need doing. We don't hate the "little guy", we just have trouble justifying taking time out of a day to meet someone to load 20 bales. And then you deal with someone who doesn't show up...or is late and doesn't call...or wants to quibble about the price after they have been told what it is.........
We have a couple who will come and get the hay right off the wagon, or we drop the bales on the ground and they pick them up and load on their truck &/or trailer. But, it is something that they understand that they don't have alot of notice sometimes, that we are making it and may have to bale it because it might rain the next day.

 

[Baymule]

I have gone behind the baler and loaded up square bales before. It's cheaper to buy them that way. Now we buy 1200 pound round bales from a neighbor and he stores them in his barn.

 

[greybeard]

Years ago, there were kids galore that would work because it was good cash money. I helped a couple of farmers when I moved to Va. A 30 + yr old adult female; and took my pay in hay. Which was $3.00 per hour and hay was selling for $1.25 a sq bale. Today, it is "too hard". What a bunch of wimps and cry baby's this younger generation is. And we are paying $10 per hour CASH money and we buy lunch or dinner if they work through those hours.

And here I thought I was in high cotton loading in the field, and stacking in hot dusty barns for 11 cents/bale, which was up from the 1st summer I did it for 7 cents/bale. (1966-67)

 

[Latestarter]

pennies nickels and dimes all add up when you're a kid. I used to work for a farmer with his day laborers in the fields cutting cabbage and butternut squash. 50 cent an hour if I remember correctly. The laborers worked with long knives and bent the cabbages over and whacked through the stalk then held the head and trimmed off the bad outer leaves by whacking length off the stalk. I had to work with a 6" "butter knife" because they didn't trust us "kids" with real knives. That was some back breaking work. Then when picking the squash, the vines have "spines" all over them and my hands and arms would be raw by the end of the day.

 

[MiniSilkys]

Supper last night...
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7 babies waiting to be put back eight their Mamas this morning.
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Have you ever tried green tomato chow chow i n your deviled eggs mix of as a topping? Yummy.