[AT] New 8N/Now hay, coastal bermuda

[Cecil Bearden]

Let me say that I am not a "horse Person", but I do love horses. 
Nothing is more therapeutic than watching  horse run through the pasture 
   kicking and bucking and enjoying life.  I had 2 registered Morgans 
that died a couple of years back.  The Mare at 31yrs and her "colt" at 
22 a year later..  She had a heart attack and he died of a twisted gut. 
  They ate any hay we had.  It did not matter if it was moldy, had 
Johnson grass in it, wheat hay, triticale hay, Rye hay, whatever, they 
ate it.   the "colt", Shadow, would get into the grain drill when we 
were sowing wheat, and once ate over a 5 gallon bucket of grain.  Never 
phased the guy.  They had a shelter, but would not go into it.  In their 
last couple of years, they would go into the sheep barn for shade during 
the day...  Most of the time they stayed under the trees.  I kept them 
with my sheep and they kept the coyotes off from them.  I got a mare 
after the old mare died and she bit the head off a lamb, so I got rid of 
her.  She was a great pet, just chased the dogs and sheep.

I really miss my horses, the place just is not complete without them.
I am setting up to bale some 4ft wide by 3 ft diameter bales to cater to 
these horse folks that cannot afford a "real" tractor like we have to 
handle those 1000 lb bales.  These little tractors have a 4 ft bucket 
and won't require a bale spike for a 3 ft diameter bale, they can put it 
in the bucket.  These folks never have enough money to buy a spike, or a 
real tractor with a loader..  Also at 3 ft diameter, the hay will shed 
water better, and they can roll the bales down the aisle of the barn... 
    I am getting some old power poles from our Rural electric to set the 
bales on so they should stay in good shape.

I sold some Bermuda hay to a builder that is also a horse person. 
Pretty good guy though, for a builder... He called me back about an hour 
later to tell me that one of the bales I loaded for him was prairie 
instead of bermuda..I told him to bring it back.  He said he had already 
opened it up.  When I asked if they were eating it,  He told me that 
they left the Bermuda to eat the prairie.  But he wanted Bermuda for 
them...

My belief is that prairie hay is what horses and bison grazed on for 
thousands of years here in the plains.  If it is original prairie like 
mine is, then it has all the nutrients that the animal needs from the 
multitude of different types of grasses in the prairie..  I get one 
cutting a year, and bale it within 12-24 hours of cutting.  I mow the 
pasture down in September to prevent fires and leave about a 1ft strip 
between swaths to catch the snow when the wind blows..  So far it has 
proved effective...  I also get a lot of directions on how to drive a 
tractor when the local farmers see the strips of grass left!!!!  I do 
not have any prairie hay left at the end of the feeding season...

Cecil in OKla

charliehill wrote:
> Farmer if wasn't so wrong it would be funny how some of the well meaning 
> horse owners treat their animals.  I see horses all the time that are 
> covered with a sheet or blanket on a sunny, still 50 or 60 degree day 
> because the owner didn't bother to take it off.  They get all sweaty under 
> the thing and then when it falls off into the 20's at night they are both 
> wet and cold.  I sometimes wonder how the poor creatures got by for several 
> thousand years without us to look out for them.
> 
> Shylow has a bad case of  missed meal colic doesn't she?
> But from your pictures she looks healthy, just too thin.  I bet she'll be a 
> nice one when you get her filled out.  My horse buddy just inherited to 
> standard breds that are retired from harness racing in FL.  One is lame, the 
> other is a nice horse.
> 
> The way the economy is going these old harness horses might come in handy in 
> the future.  I know you've heard your parents talk about Hoover Carts.  We 
> might get to learn about the 21century version of the same.
> 
> Charlie
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Indiana Robinson" <robinson46176 at gmail.com>
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 11:11 PM
> Subject: Re: [AT] New 8N/Now hay, coastal bermuda
> 
> 
> On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 9:54 PM, Al Jones <farmallsupera at earthlink.net> 
> wrote:
>> Charlie,
>>
>> If I were raising hay, I wouldn't mind one bit making a light bale for 
>> them
>> at the "heavy bale" price! I don't have anything against horses per se,
>> but the way some horse people act, I wouldn't have any problem charging
>> them.
>>
>>
>> Al
> =========================
> 
> 
> 
> I can identify with that statement and we are horse people...   :-)
> Over the last several years I have sold a lot of hay to horse people
> but have made no bones about the fact that I do not raise "horse hay".
> I sell two kinds of hay, common hay and sheep and goat hay. Diana's
> cousin hauls his "junk" hay to the auction. I told him that we never
> sell junk hay but we sell a little sheep and goat hay...   :-)
> One of my peeves is the horse people that almost abuse their horses by
> over caring for them. They want to stick them in a dark stall in a
> stable that is as tight as a new house and feed them all alfalfa hay
> and a ton of grain and wonder why they freak out and get so excitable
> and why they keep developing respiratory problems. They make them
> stand on concrete for days at a time cushioned by 1/8" of sawdust and
> wonder why they have leg joint problems. They want the horses to live
> like people instead of living like horses.
> It bothers me to see horses out in a lot with zero shelter but those
> will usually be healthier than the ones kept in poorly ventilated
> tight warm damp stalls. I'm pretty adamant that grazing animals belong
> on grass...   :-)
> -
> The USERL just brought us another rescue horse and she is on a
> recovery program. If you go to:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/robinson46176
> and click on the album marked Shylow you can see what almost no care
> looks like. She had been in recovery for about two weeks before they
> brought her to us and the first time I saw her she looked about twice
> as bad as the pictures we took today. She is an "off the track"
> thoroughbred that I gather was just a little too slow. She is 6 years
> old and about 16 hands high and most of it is legs. She is a real
> sweetheart and really responds to a little attention. It will probably
> take about 6 months to a year to get her in shape but she will look a
> lot better in a few weeks. You can't just shovel feed at her like you
> can a person or you end up with problems like colic or laminitis etc.
> Even in bad shape she looks beautiful at a gallop.
> I want to start training our horses for some light driving but they
> will never replace old tractors...   :-)
> We find that horses are great therapy for those that have been driven
> insane by humans.
> 
> 
>