[AT] Hey Ralph!

Carl Gogol cgogol at twcny.rr.com
Sun Nov 22 15:20:44 PST 2015


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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