[AT] Hey Ralph!

[Cecil R Bearden]

We can't feed alfalfa grown in OK to horses here, Blister Beetles are a 
problem.  It only takes a part of one to kill a horse.   Good friend 
bought some alfalfa not far from here a few years ago.  It was supposed 
to be sprayed and beetles not a problem.  He lost 3 horses and had a 
$500 vet bill for the one he saved.

Cecil in OKla




On 11/22/2015 4:20 PM, charlie hill wrote:
> The only thing I know about alfalfa is the hay I see some horse owners
> feeding.  To my knowledge no one around her grows it.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Herb Metz
> Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2015 2:47 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Hey Ralph!
>
> Charlie,
> The only direct combined exception I am aware of is/was alfalfa; during WWII
> many acres of alfalfa seed was grown/harvested in central KS.
> If memory serves, the buyer was in Chillicothe, MO. and good yield was three
> bushel/acre and price was $15/bushel; good money in those days.  Normally,
> first cutting was let go to seed.  Crop was cut with sickle bar mower with a
> curler/roller/swather attached to the sicklebar which rolled the cut alfalfa
> far enough away from the uncut alfalfa that the tractor did not run over the
> fresh cut swath. This swather was a series of 1" wide metal strapirons, the
> outer most strap being 4' long (the last 2' was rolled up into a half
> circle).  Estimated 2"gaps between each strap.  Each strap iron back toward
> the tractor was an additional 3" long, the last strap being an estimated 8'
> long. One could make a square turn, but had to be fast or slow the tractor
> considerably.   This was years before power steering on farm tractors. This
> whole crop was vulnerable to moisture.
> I drove neighbors H Farmall pulling a 12' Baldwin with 6' wide rotating
> pickups temporarily installed; we harvested close to 100 acres each of two
> years.
> I have no idea as to todays alfalfa seed growing/harvesting situation.
> Herb(GA)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: charlie hill
> Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2015 8:32 AM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Hey Ralph!
>
> AHHH!   Now I understand.  I didn't realize you had already cut and swathed
> it.
> That is something you don't see here.  Everything we grow is direct
> combined.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ralph Goff
> Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2015 8:28 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Hey Ralph!
>
> On 11/21/2015 7:03 AM, charlie hill wrote:
>> Flax must hold very well in the field.  Of course you don't have
>> the humidity we have here but we don't have the winds and snow you have.
>> It just seems to me like the snow would knock it flat on the ground.
>> There's no doubt in my mind you know how to handle it.  I'm just curious
>> about how farming happens in different places.
>>
>> Good luck with it.
>>
>> Charlie
> This flax is already in the swath so no worries of it breaking down in
> the snow. I actually left a few acres out
> over last winter and it stood up pretty well except for some of the flax
> seeds pods breaking off.
> Now if I had left the crop standing this fall I might have stood a
> better chance of harvesting it yet before
> real winter. Now that it lies on the ground in the swath there is not
> much hope. What little snow we had
> was blown into the swaths and they lie on frozen mud now. The deer and
> moose will feed on it this
> winter no doubt.
>
> Ralph in Sask.
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