[AT] Rain

[Indiana Robinson]

 We got another 1/2" of rain last night. Didn't need it. This puts us at about
 7.5" for 
the month. It was getting really dry before the rain started a couple of weeks
ago though. They are now calling for a couple of dry weeks, maybe I can actually
get some hay baled now. I baled a little strip off of one field near the road
yesterday where I tried to cut some hay. Trouble was the ground was too soft
from all of the rain on over in the field and I had to stop cutting. What little
I cut down was only 40 bales and ultra poor quality. That is why I started
cutting there. It was where we had dozed a new road ditch and the first 40 feet
was a mass of giant foxtail in the oats. I'll sell that as "economy sheep and
goat" hay for $1 a bale. I'm sure that some of the bales have plastic drink
bottles in them due to the #$&% litterbugs. I normally sell the first pass or
two by the road as sheep and goat hay just in case of litter. "Hardware disease"
is pretty much non existent in sheep and goats. Horses and cows will suck in
about anything. I have one nice clean  small field of orchard / timothy hay that
I want to get under roof this week. It is about 12 acres. I sold about 50 bales
of it to a boarding stable around the corner and he indicated that he might buy
the rest of that field. He has been pretty unhappy with the hay he has been
getting from several other guys. One batch he got was baled so loose that the
twines would hardly stay on and the bales were super light and fluffy. Another
batch was moldy on the bottom and a third batch he sent back to the seller
because it was just too wet to store. Not damp, silly wet...
 I have a neighbor that always tries to bale his alfalfa just as green as he can
 get away 
with so that it is bright green in the bale and he can charge more for it.
Trouble is that he keeps losing whole cuttings of it to mold and I fail to see
how even getting a buck more per bale can make up for those losses. I'm
surprised he hasn't lost a barn. I noticed that this year he plowed up his
alfalfa fields and is not growing any. Sorry but I would rather just bale a
little dryer...
 I have some late planted oats to bale (nurse crop for the orchard grass) and I
 have some 
common ragweed in it. I don't even remember how cows and horses react to ragweed
in their hay. When we had all of the sheep they just loved it. They would sort
it out and eat it first. They also liked any giant foxtail in the hay.

 I have a horse lot that is grown up in lambsquarter that I need to bush-hog. I
 believe 
the horse would eat the barn before she would eat that lambsquarter. The sheep
loved it and people eat it. I wonder why the horse won't eat a leaf of it? I
guess I didn't know that about horses or if I did, I forgot.   :-)
 I just looked out and it is raining again... and #$&%, the ole Lincoln has a
 flat tire 
on the left rear... Oh well...
 With all of the construction going on around here this year it is amazing that
 we don't 
have more flats. Have you ever looked in the beds of any of those pickups at
home construction sites? Some of them look more like "nail seeders" with loose
nails and screws all over the bed floor just waiting fall out on the road.


-- 
"farmer", Esquire
At Hewick Midwest
      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...

Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish Highlands,
Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana. In America 100 
years 
before the revolution.


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net