[AT] Old tractors and hay

[Francis Robinson]

    Kevin mentioned making hay and I have been busy doing a little of that 
too. That and closing mom's estate and working on son Scott's addition (26' 
X 32' - two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a new utility room) to his house. 
This last weekend we got the perimeter walls framed, the trusses put up and 
the decking on.
    This years drought really wiped out the hay crop all summer. The late 2 
1/2" rain and a few little ones finally got stuff at least green if not 
tall. A little crop is better than no crop so I mowed about 6 acres last 
week and baled it. It only made about 120 bales but it was pretty clean 
orchard grass and will sell OK at $4.00 a bale. Yesterday I mowed about 
another 6 acres of it and today I will mow about 6 more acres of rough old 
lots. I mowed the orchard grass with my S-MTA and an old drawbar mounted 
John Deere sickle mower. I have a New Idea flail mower but it is a little 
severe on short soft orchard grass and I think the sickle mower is better 
for it. These rough lots I'll cut today are old pasture lots that are mostly 
fescue and some common pasture weeds. They also have some small mulberry 
sprouts and some old dry stemy stuff from last year. We couldn't make hay 
last year due to rain every 3 days (along with family health care problems) 
and this is the first we have been able to do any haymaking this year due to 
no rain. Maybe next year will be "normal"...   ;-)   I will cut those rough 
lots using my 6' bushhog on the 3 point of my Farmall S-M. I could use the 
New Idea flail mower but it requires so much HP that I would have to get out 
one of the big tractors like my Deere 4020 and the fuel cost goes way up. 
The bushhog will make that rough old stuff look like actual hay. If the 
weather holds I will maybe get a chance to take a second small cutting off 
of it after a weeks growth using the sickle mower. The sickle mower cuts 
much closer to the ground. The first rough cutting I will probably take to 
the auction at Knightstown IN. A cousin of Diana's once told me that he was 
selling some "junk" hay there. I told him that I never sell "junk" hay but 
that I do sometimes sell some "sheep and goat" hay.   ;-)

    I have been watching carefully to make sure that blisters or boils don't 
pop up on the S-MTA drawbar from coming in contact with that John Deere 
green paint on that sickle mower...   ;-)   It is a nice mower. I don't have 
any idea what model it is, I have not found a tag or numbers anywhere on it 
yet. I was going to a show auction last year and a brother-in-law had known 
it was in the sale and asked me to to watch and see what it sold for as he 
was just curious. It was obviously a good mower and since it only sold for 
$65 it followed me home. Maybe next year I will mount it on my 1948 John 
Deere A.

    We are the first road out of the city limits (now about a half mile from 
my corner field) and it always seems a little funny to me when people stop 
on the road to watch me working in the hay fields. There seems to be some 
deep connection to people and hay... Sort of like the way people naturally 
gather around a wood stove or a campfire whether it is burning or not. The 
connection to hay seems stronger than just corn or soybeans.



--
"farmer"

When you reach the end of your rope
 tie a knot and hang on...

Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net