<div dir="ltr"><div>You say: "Horse people are a funny lot."... OMG!!! What an understatement... :-) :-) :-)</div><div>Most of our clients are pretty much nuts. Too many of them are an accounts receivable nightmare. Many of them are of course just nice people but the bad eggs make it into work. We are only about 6 miles from the horse track and casino and we see a fair number of racehorses. Thankfully we are self care boarding and we don't do a whole lot of daily handling. Many of those that race come in pretty squirrelly. Word has gotten out that a short stay here will calm them down a lot. One gal that has kept horses here for 10 years works at the track and has kept several track horses with hers for short times. Right now only one client is not track connected. She is a vet tech that is now in KY and paying the 10 year gal to care for her horse. We only keep doing this stuff for 2 main reasons. One, we like the horses and second, we can make 6 or 7 times as much per acre as we can renting ground for corn / soybeans. I would shift more acres to the horses but I'm already too busy (and too old to get more busy).<br></div><div>My father also grew up working horses on the farm. He really disliked horses. He always said that he spent his whole youth staring at a horse's rear end and hardly knew what the other end looked like. My paternal grandfather never owned a tractor or car. When my father took over the farm the horses were the first thing to go, replaced by a new Ford Ferguson 9N. <br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Aug 30, 2021 at 6:33 PM Cecil Bearden <<a href="mailto:crbearden@copper.net">crbearden@copper.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>My Dad grew up working horses to farm. He always said you did
not feed alfalfa to a horse that was going to be worked. They
would get too hot. They only fed alfalfa in the winter. I sold
horse hay for many years before I got cow that eat more than I can
raise. I had people coming from 15 mi away to get my hay. I
baled hay for a couple of "horse" people around here and they
would wait until the hay was dry as broom straw before baling.
Many times I baled mine the same day it was cut. I still do if I
can get my old joints to keep calm..!! Nearly every buyer would
remark how my hay was always so green when opened up and their
horses would eat it like it was candy. I had one lady who called
and returned 4 round bales because her 3 horses ate it up in 3
days. She said she could not afford to feed that much hay!!!!
<br>
</p>
<p>Horse people are a funny lot. My 2 horses are 15 and 11 yrs old,
and they eat anything I drop over the fence. I cut the weeds off
their field with a swather and baled it to keep the weeds from
going to seed. I baled it very very green. Big juicy weeds, 4
ft tall. 2 weeks later they were eating the bales where they
sat!!! Moswt horse people don't want johnson grass as they say
is is bad for horses. I had a vet tell me that a horse could
handle more Johnson grass and the prussic acid that forms during
heat stress than cattle could. I noticed that my horses keep the
johnson grass ate down as far as they can reach over the
fence... I bale it with the TS110 and now the new 504R Vermeer,
then haul it in with the old 5000 Ford with the hyd bale trailer
behind. The best thing I can find on the new baler is it will
wrap a 12in diameter bale. I can wrap one like the old Allis roto
Baler. Net wrap though...</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Cecil<br>
</p>
<div>On 8/30/2021 6:00 AM, Indiana Robinson
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>I wouldn't know why it wouldn't be OK. As a late first
cutting it will naturally be a little stemy but it will still
be hay. I have seen beef cattle in particular winter through
on some remarkably rough hay. Much of what is feedable is
often just the perception by people of what is good hay. I've
seen people that would turn up their noses at decent hay on a
good hay year but in a shortage of hay year (or a tight wallet
year) they would feed thistles and scrub brush and be glad to
get it. Son Scott once had a girlfriend that kept her horses
here. I knew money was tight so I offered to give her some
fairly decent hay I still had in the loft. She turned it down
saying that her primary horse was a show horse and he couldn't
eat that rough hay. I pointed over to the corner of the fence
line and said "He ate that damned gate"... :-)</div>
<div>Our own little private herd of 7 useless but loved equine
creatures (mostly rescues) normally winter over just running
about 65 acres of corn stalks and soybean stubble and usually
get fat on them. When the weather gets really bad we do
usually stick in a round bale, often something son Scott
didn't try to sell because it didn't tie right or was
miss-shaped.</div>
<div>Most of the time if the world is encased in ice or deep
snow we feed a few alfalfa cubes. About a pound per horse,
hand-fed like treats late in the day seems to make a good
difference in keeping them warm overnight. They have shelter
but seldom use it. A couple of semi-recent old and starved
rescues do get special feeding. They are getting pretty slick
looking now.</div>
<div>To be on topic... Any time I take an old tractor out in the
pastures they all have to gather around it and study it
carefully. Not sure why, none of them know how to drive...</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Aug 29, 2021 at 11:52
PM Mike M <<a href="mailto:meulenms@gmx.com" target="_blank">meulenms@gmx.com</a>> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Hi
all, I have a question. I have a guy that bales my field, for
his<br>
cattle. I just give it to him, because it saves me the trouble
of brush<br>
hogging it, and it doesn't go to waste. It's been so wet in
SE<br>
Michigan, he hasn't been able to get on it it yet, He's only
baled 40 of<br>
the 200 acres he normally bales. At this point of the year, is
the hay<br>
even any good?<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
Mike M<br>
<br>
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<div>-- <br>
<br>
Francis Robinson<br>
aka "farmer"<br>
Central Indiana USA<br>
<a href="mailto:robinson46176@gmail.com" target="_blank">robinson46176@gmail.com</a><br>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>-- <br><br>Francis Robinson<br>aka "farmer"<br>Central Indiana USA<br><a href="mailto:robinson46176@gmail.com" target="_blank">robinson46176@gmail.com</a><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br></div></div></div>