[AT] Hey Ralph!

[Cecil R Bearden]

Alfalfa can be hard on kidneys.  Also a horse working will get too hot 
quicker on alfalfa than grass hay.

Cecil in OKla


On 11/22/2015 5:20 PM, Carl Gogol wrote:
> I'm told that alfalfa is not kind to horses.  Hay dealers around here use
> grass based hay (no or only minor amounts of legumes).
> Carl
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of charlie hill
> Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2015 5:20 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Hey Ralph!
>
> 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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