[AT] OT Hay question

Cecil Bearden crbearden at copper.net
Tue Jul 11 17:45:04 PDT 2006


The short answer to that question is yes...  You cut the wheat or oat 
forage while the grain is in the milk stage.  You try to cut the wheat 
before it produces any real beards.  There is some beardless wheat around. 
Oats are really a pain to get the grain to stay on the heads when baling. 
The greener y ou bale the better on oats.

We bale all our wheat here.  It pays better to run it thru the cattle than 
to sell it as wheat...

This year there is no wheat hay and there may not be any prairie hay.  Large 
round bales are $60for prairie...   We got almost 1.5 inches of rain last 
night.  So, my cane crop may make it after all.

Cecil in OKla
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dean Vinson" <dean.vinson at vinsonfarm.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 8:28 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] OT Hay question


>
> Cecil, I'd like to chime in with another Eastern-guy "huh?" question. 
> What is "oat hay" or "wheat hay"?   All my experience with hay is in 
> baling alfalfa or timothy or whatever mix of grass and leftover stragglers 
> of past alfalfa happened to be in my dad's fields.  And all my experience 
> with baling oats or wheat is in picking up the straw left behind by the 
> combine, nice bedding but nothing the cows would eat.   Do you just bale 
> it green and use the whole thing for feed, young grain and all?
>
> Dean Vinson
> www.vinsonfarm.com
> Dayton OH
>
>
>> a mower-conditioner here is a pull type swather.  A swather is a 
>> self-propelled cutter usually with a crimper attachment that conditions 
>> the hay as it is exhausted into the windrow.  We release the tension on 
>> the crimper rollers when cutting prairie hay as you will have only 
>> particles of hay if it sets in the windrow too long.  When cutting grains 
>> or large stalk type of forage, then we load the tension on the crimp 
>> rollers to break up the stalks and take some of the moisture out of the 
>> material...  I have baled wheat hay when the belts were slipping on the 
>> rollers due to moisture running out of the wheat and the bales being so 
>> heavy.  You could smell the bales fermenting for about 3 weeks afterward. 
>> However, when we fed it that following winter, the cows would fight over 
>> the hay..  I never noticed any mold in those bales.  I think that there 
>> was enough acid in the sap to prevent it from molding.  I would much 
>> prefer to bale with the sap moisture than rain or humidity.  Hope this 
>> makes sense..
>>
>> Cecil in OKla
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: <rasmith4 at juno.com>
>> To: <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 7:04 AM
>> Subject: Re: [AT] OT Hay question
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Grant
>>>
>>> Here in the East (NY) we don't have "swathers".  We mostly use
>>> nower-conditioners.  What is the difference between a swather and a
>>> mower-conditioner?
>>>
>>> Richard
>>> In Central NY
>>>
>>> -- "Grant Brians" <gbrians at hollinet.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I have cut with mower, mower-conditioner and swather over the years.
>
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> Remembering Our Friend Cecil Monson 11-4-2005
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at 




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