I bought an old handmade scythe at the Union Gap Threshing Bee several years ago, my 80 year old Uncle came over and he showed me how to use it, I could just tell by watching him that he had scythed a lot of acres over his life as a young man, he instantly went from an 80 year old to a young man scything hay in a couple sweeps. Very cool, I will remember that for the rest of my life. Well done, nice to see a sharp scythe out and some great old machinery working! If you didn't know when raking hay, you do the inside of the field first then the outside rounds so that you don't drive on the outside rounds and make wet places where you compacted the hay, but I'm sure you already knew that. I looooved the hay going up into the bar! Great Job!
Wet places?!? Haha! I rake different ways depending on the shape of the field, whether I’m baling or putting up loose, or what direction I feel like turning! Haha! Thanks for watching!
Our farm very much revolves around how happy and healthy we can make the cows. They each know their names and we really love them. Thanks for noticing and watching!
The video I've been waiting for all summer. I could almost watch the full hay season live. Thanks for posting and I know its been a tough year up there. Keep up the good work.
I really enjoy watching you operate older equipment. Reminds me of when I was a young boy staying on my great grandparents farm. Sorry your hay season wasn’t better.
Thanks, Randy. It can be slower sometimes, but sometimes that is the pace of your own endurance. Yes, this hay season, well, it helps us be thankful for our healthy cows and see where we can improve.
I loved seeing you mow with a sickle bar mower. Way back in the early seventies when I was a young teen the first farm I helped on mowed hay that way. We would then run a New Idea hay conditioner over the hay before the raking operation! As time went on the farmer eventually bought a used self propelled haybine. Really enjoyable video! 👍😎
We used the track and hay forks in our and my uncle's barns. We owned an Allis Chalmers (AC) Roto-Baler, a Kneib bale loader, #5 JD mowers, a hay rack, and lowboy trailer. We would cut, rake, bale, load, and mow up to 8,000 80 lb bales in two cuttings per year. The bale loader let one man load 100-110 bales per load in as little as 10 minutes. This is the first time I've seen a track, carrier and hay forks used since my uncle retired in 1978. After that we started baling the large 1400 lb bales. The only time I've seen a track and carrier is when an antique shop tries to sell them as ancient horse-drawn farm equipment.
I can say one thing based on my own experience, better a drought then a wet year. Never the less a normal season as we have overhere is prefered, you guys hold on next year will it be awesome, thanks and greetings from a Dutch dairyfarmer
Thanks for the encouragement! A bet a wet year there is terrible! We normally get 18 to 20 inches total of rain, and are considered a semi-arid brittle environment already. We usually have a "mud season" at the end of spring when we get rain before a dry summer. There wasn't one this year.
Youre very welcome, and we farmers have to deal whit the wheather, makes it sometimes hard and frusstrating, but if you dont like it you can always join the coastguard i quess
we had a banner year here got 740 kicker bales off our 4-5 acres!! course we had 40,000 gals of manure put on last fall but the farmer that rents the rest of the farm got over 200 round bales but now it wont stop raining
You guys can have some of our rain... Here it hasn't QUIT raining. And when the sun does come out, it's been unbearably hot and humid. I still had some standing water in my yard on the 4th of july! Made for a bad skeeter season, too.
So much hope and promise of good hay back in May! Nice scythe work. You certainly earned every blade of that grass. Such a mix of hay over the season. Short hay really doesn't trolley very well. Good to see Spud on patrol and the vocal support of the chickens was good too. It appears that your mowing and grazing practices have left a good base for growth next year. Thanks for sharing. Hope you have to plow lots of snow this Winter. 😁
Very astute observations! It was a crazy hay season with different cuttings at different times, and an array of different annual weeds which actually helped fill some grazing gaps. Constantly humbled by nature. Always something new to learn and appreciate. The hardest part was accepting in July that we were already in a "winter" feeding mode instead of starting to feed hay in October/November. But healthy cows and a beautiful place to work!
thanks for sharing your journey with us i have a question if you get more of these dry summers wouldn’t irrigating not be a good option with the windmill maybe
In general, the quality is better with loose hay, especially with legumes. A lot less leaf shatter. For grass hay, I do like baled more just for the convenience. Even if I had my own baler, I doubt I’d ever bale our alfalfa. Thanks for watching!
I heard the mice laughing all the way out here in Pennsylvania. No place to hide he says. Next video The mice have taken over the model train setup and are taking turns being the conductor.
It’s pretty arid here, but some moisture does migrate through the concrete. We’ve tried putting plastic down under it, so we’ll see how that works. Without anything under it, we may loose a couple of inches. Back when we did outside stacks on the ground, we’d lose about the bottom 8”.
I know you bought some hay. My question is, do you have enough land to head of cows? I know theweather can effect haying season. I remember putting up a lot of loose hay like you do. Keep up the hard work.
We’ll have to put that on our list! Thanks! In the meantime, here’s an older video showing some milking and other chores. ruclips.net/video/LGBBo5xNRs8/видео.html Enjoy!
Been there done that thats the way i started, i never liked it, but thats the way my dad taught, till late in the 50s then it was sickle bar and walk behind with a pitch fork
@@vnthomas16 I know how farm works whole day they Busy. If we have a livestock than its a big job we maintain and all iam from a Farmer background my grandparents having a farm's I is to go and work with them. And really love towards your barn design milk parlour. Love and support from 🇮🇳 Always.
Yes, you can see and hear them in this video a few times. We have Buff Orpington, Dark Cornish, and a Bielefelder rooster and a cross of these types that we hatched out this year. 18 total. They are crazy free range and lay eggs in the hay pile. They go into a coop at night.
We do have some horsedrawn equipment, and like to use both old and new technology. There is a beautiful simplicity in how some old machines work. Thanks!
Well done on getting the Farm going and putting up the barn I watched all the barn videos in one go! Do you think you might get a bull to save the AI? Might be worth it of you keep some more of your heifers.
I don’t think we could keep a bull for what it costs us for AI. It’s pretty inexpensive. Plus, it allows us to easily bring in genetics from New Zealand. Glad you enjoyed our videos! Stay tuned, more to come!
@@vnthomas16 Welcome Glad you know but sometimes a trick like that makes life easier When I was a kid my job was to drive the tractor to pull loose hay up into barn Same system as yours
Droughts are never fun, it's hard on the animals it's hard on the bank balance and even harder on the farmers, it will rain eventually it's just that question of when. We go through alot of drought in Australia and it's never fun but at least you have feed in the barn. A tip, when times are good cut and bale everything you can, you can never have enough and stored properly will keep for a few years, I've heard of farms opening silage pits 15 years after they made them.
Michael you are so right! Last year we had some hay we didn't get to cutting, and this year our plan was "How much hay are we cutting this year?....ALL OF IT." Of course, nature had other plans. So, yes, in the future we will harvest everything and store extra. I heard in some places in Australia they had drought and mice plagues!!! Glad that isn't here!!!
@@vnthomas16 store as much as you can, we normally only cut and bale 500ish small squares and 100 round but the drought of 2019 we got 150 small squares, 2020 was very wet but I went nuts baled 3500 small squares and 215 rounds, I have hay every where, I have being selling abit this year but will go stupid again as we've brought another 20 Angus Hereford heifers, the droughts we get here in Australia can last Year's the mice plagues out west can get very bad I've seen millions on one place in a matter of minutes and they get into everything. there's a photo in the lounge room of my great grandfather's 20,000acre farm in 1905, at the start of the Federation drought they had 1000head of cattle 5000sheep 45 horses and 15 milking cows, 10 years later at the end of the drought they 10 sheep, 5 milkers, and 6 horses, the photo is of the yarding of the remaining stock. sadly it isn't uncommon over here for most of Australia some small pockets like my district get some rain in drought but nothing like we are use to.
You guys are such an inspiration to me I am 12 years old and I’ve always wanted to my own farm
Glad you enjoy our videos! It was about 12 when I decided I wanted to farm!
I bought an old handmade scythe at the Union Gap Threshing Bee several years ago, my 80 year old Uncle came over and he showed me how to use it, I could just tell by watching him that he had scythed a lot of acres over his life as a young man, he instantly went from an 80 year old to a young man scything hay in a couple sweeps. Very cool, I will remember that for the rest of my life. Well done, nice to see a sharp scythe out and some great old machinery working! If you didn't know when raking hay, you do the inside of the field first then the outside rounds so that you don't drive on the outside rounds and make wet places where you compacted the hay, but I'm sure you already knew that. I looooved the hay going up into the bar! Great Job!
Wet places?!? Haha! I rake different ways depending on the shape of the field, whether I’m baling or putting up loose, or what direction I feel like turning! Haha! Thanks for watching!
Your herd really is impressive. They all look so happy and cared for. Great job!
Our farm very much revolves around how happy and healthy we can make the cows. They each know their names and we really love them. Thanks for noticing and watching!
The video I've been waiting for all summer. I could almost watch the full hay season live. Thanks for posting and I know its been a tough year up there. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the encouragement! I’m always glad when hay season is over, but love seeing and smelling a barn full of fresh hay!
I really enjoy watching you operate older equipment. Reminds me of when I was a young boy staying on my great grandparents farm. Sorry your hay season wasn’t better.
Thanks, Randy. It can be slower sometimes, but sometimes that is the pace of your own endurance. Yes, this hay season, well, it helps us be thankful for our healthy cows and see where we can improve.
I loved seeing you mow with a sickle bar mower. Way back in the early seventies when I was a young teen the first farm I helped on mowed hay that way. We would then run a New Idea hay conditioner over the hay before the raking operation! As time went on the farmer eventually bought a used self propelled haybine. Really enjoyable video! 👍😎
I love sicklebar mowers! It’s so dry here, no need to condition. Nobody tedds hay here either… Thanks for watching!
Wow, I really hope you start seeing some rain soon! Also, I was not aware that Virginia allowed you to drive her tractor!
HA! Laughed so hard at that. Thanks. I needed that! We got a short rain storm the other day and have .04 inches so far this month.
Beautiful farm you have there
That hay moving system/claw thing you have, is so cool. I haven't seen anything like that in action before. I love it.
It sure is handy! Commonplace in old barns, you don’t see them installed in new barns very often. Our trolley is 100 years old!
We used the track and hay forks in our and my uncle's barns. We owned an Allis Chalmers (AC) Roto-Baler, a Kneib bale loader, #5 JD mowers, a hay rack, and lowboy trailer. We would cut, rake, bale, load, and mow up to 8,000 80 lb bales in two cuttings per year. The bale loader let one man load 100-110 bales per load in as little as 10 minutes. This is the first time I've seen a track, carrier and hay forks used since my uncle retired in 1978. After that we started baling the large 1400 lb bales. The only time I've seen a track and carrier is when an antique shop tries to sell them as ancient horse-drawn farm equipment.
I can say one thing based on my own experience, better a drought then a wet year. Never the less a normal season as we have overhere is prefered, you guys hold on next year will it be awesome, thanks and greetings from a Dutch dairyfarmer
Thanks for the encouragement! A bet a wet year there is terrible! We normally get 18 to 20 inches total of rain, and are considered a semi-arid brittle environment already. We usually have a "mud season" at the end of spring when we get rain before a dry summer. There wasn't one this year.
Youre very welcome, and we farmers have to deal whit the wheather, makes it sometimes hard and frusstrating, but if you dont like it you can always join the coastguard i quess
So dry ! Maybe the heat will break soon. All the best. Thank you for sharing.🐂🐂🐂🐂
It’s been cooler… Need some rain though! Some is forecast for this week, but I’ll believe it when I see it! Thanks for watching!
Hope that you all get the rain that you need soon!
We do too!
we had a banner year here got 740 kicker bales off our 4-5 acres!! course we had 40,000 gals of manure put on last fall but the farmer that rents the rest of the farm got over 200 round bales but now it wont stop raining
Either too wet or too dry. That’s the way farming goes! Next year will be better!
Those are some nice looking calves.
Thank you!
Ya I hope we all have better nix year this dry weather suck
Next year will be better!
@@vnthomas16 we all hope
Absolutely fantastic to see the cub still working hard 💪💪💪
It’s a workhorse on our farm for sure! We use it as much, if not more than our New Holland! Thanks for watching!
Did the hay loader one year too then put in a stationary chopper and made silage
We don't make lots of silage around here because pretty dry in hay season. There are pros and cons to the hay loader, but we like using it.
You guys can have some of our rain... Here it hasn't QUIT raining. And when the sun does come out, it's been unbearably hot and humid. I still had some standing water in my yard on the 4th of july! Made for a bad skeeter season, too.
Yikes! Well, you must have sent some our way because we got 1/3 of an inch yesterday!!!! Thanks!
Your trolley operated much rougher than ours did on our barn.
Scythe is good for the waistline.
It’s a workout for sure!
Great video! You got pretty much the same hay and pasture season as us. If things always went well we would have no storys to tell. Thanks.
Very true. Plus, I like saying next year will be better because I believe it!
Heartwrenching to see all your hard work impeded by the climate. Is there anything we can do to help?
Awww....thanks! Empathizing really helps. Finding local ecologically minded farms and buying from them helps us all. Thanks!
Are you guys ever gonna build a second story to that barn to store hay?
No, no plans to add a second story. I suppose it could be engineered, but we didn’t design it for that. Thanks for watching!
So much hope and promise of good hay back in May! Nice scythe work. You certainly earned every blade of that grass.
Such a mix of hay over the season. Short hay really doesn't trolley very well. Good to see Spud on patrol and the vocal support of the chickens was good too. It appears that your mowing and grazing practices have left a good base for growth next year. Thanks for sharing. Hope you have to plow lots of snow this Winter. 😁
Very astute observations! It was a crazy hay season with different cuttings at different times, and an array of different annual weeds which actually helped fill some grazing gaps. Constantly humbled by nature. Always something new to learn and appreciate. The hardest part was accepting in July that we were already in a "winter" feeding mode instead of starting to feed hay in October/November. But healthy cows and a beautiful place to work!
Wow,, nice,,sorry on the dry,
Yes, the dryness has been hard to deal with, but we are looking forward to the fall!
Nice vid! No smoke from the fires? Plenty here in Northern nv
Some days are more smoky than others. For example, yesterday was real bad, but today was pretty good. We just hope for the best. Thanks for watching!
thanks for sharing your journey with us i have a question if you get more of these dry summers wouldn’t irrigating not be a good option with the windmill maybe
Unfortunately we don’t have water rights for irrigation.
I wonder if you could have put up a hot wire and let the cows graze off the stuff beside the barn.
We have, we grazed the regrowth. We’re actually strip grazing the alfalfa field right now. Got a few more days on it. Thanks for watching!
great video. I always like to see a farm wife driving a tractor
We do all the farm work together on our farm. Sometimes Stacy, the farm husband, also drives the tractor. ;)
Very cool to see, what was your reasoning doing loose hay compared to bailed lower cost of entry?
In general, the quality is better with loose hay, especially with legumes. A lot less leaf shatter. For grass hay, I do like baled more just for the convenience. Even if I had my own baler, I doubt I’d ever bale our alfalfa. Thanks for watching!
I heard the mice laughing all the way out here in Pennsylvania. No place to hide he says.
Next video
The mice have taken over the model train setup and are taking turns being the conductor.
HA! Oh, that was good! Yes, we have to be careful what we say because nature always wins! Thanks!
Is the loose hay directly on concrete? If so how much do you typically lose from moisture
It’s pretty arid here, but some moisture does migrate through the concrete. We’ve tried putting plastic down under it, so we’ll see how that works. Without anything under it, we may loose a couple of inches. Back when we did outside stacks on the ground, we’d lose about the bottom 8”.
I know you bought some hay. My question is, do you have enough land to head of cows? I know theweather can effect haying season. I remember putting up a lot of loose hay like you do. Keep up the hard work.
Typically we would have enough ground to put up all our own forages/grazing. This year was anything but typical though…
would you do a milking video please former dairy farmer in Ohio thanks
We’ll have to put that on our list! Thanks! In the meantime, here’s an older video showing some milking and other chores. ruclips.net/video/LGBBo5xNRs8/видео.html Enjoy!
The drought seems horrible. We got 13" of rain in July here in VT! Your loose hay seemed very dusty--was it?
It was dusty… Unfortunately due to the drought, I had to cut closer to the ground than I typically do. Next year will be better!
Good Idea, I like it
Been there done that thats the way i started, i never liked it, but thats the way my dad taught, till late in the 50s then it was sickle bar and walk behind with a pitch fork
We like a hybrid system. We like the grass in bales, but feel the legumes are put up best loose. Thanks for watching!
Hi why are you breeding with angus bulls? Thanks
We use angus for our first calf heifers due to the smaller calves.
Why this time late uploaded video?
We don't have a standard upload time. We try to make quality videos and get them up as our farm work allows. Thanks!
@@vnthomas16 I know how farm works whole day they Busy. If we have a livestock than its a big job we maintain and all iam from a Farmer background my grandparents having a farm's I is to go and work with them. And really love towards your barn design milk parlour.
Love and support from 🇮🇳 Always.
Do you guys have chickens?
Yes, you can see and hear them in this video a few times. We have Buff Orpington, Dark Cornish, and a Bielefelder rooster and a cross of these types that we hatched out this year. 18 total. They are crazy free range and lay eggs in the hay pile. They go into a coop at night.
YOUR HAYING LIKE my grandfather did but he used horses no tractors
We do have some horsedrawn equipment, and like to use both old and new technology. There is a beautiful simplicity in how some old machines work. Thanks!
what's wrong with cat's leg?
Nothing is wrong with the three he has… Check out this video we made about his story to learn more: ruclips.net/video/3z9BTmcLwcI/видео.html
@@vnthomas16 ah ha
Well done on getting the Farm going and putting up the barn I watched all the barn videos in one go! Do you think you might get a bull to save the AI? Might be worth it of you keep some more of your heifers.
I don’t think we could keep a bull for what it costs us for AI. It’s pretty inexpensive. Plus, it allows us to easily bring in genetics from New Zealand. Glad you enjoyed our videos! Stay tuned, more to come!
If you do a 360 at end of your cut you don't have to back up.
Thanks for sharing! I’ve done that too… I call it clover leafing… I find this is the easiest method for me! Thanks for watching!
@@vnthomas16 Welcome Glad you know but sometimes a trick like that makes life easier When I was a kid my job was to drive the tractor to pull loose hay up into barn Same system as yours
Droughts are never fun, it's hard on the animals it's hard on the bank balance and even harder on the farmers, it will rain eventually it's just that question of when. We go through alot of drought in Australia and it's never fun but at least you have feed in the barn. A tip, when times are good cut and bale everything you can, you can never have enough and stored properly will keep for a few years, I've heard of farms opening silage pits 15 years after they made them.
Michael you are so right! Last year we had some hay we didn't get to cutting, and this year our plan was "How much hay are we cutting this year?....ALL OF IT." Of course, nature had other plans. So, yes, in the future we will harvest everything and store extra. I heard in some places in Australia they had drought and mice plagues!!! Glad that isn't here!!!
@@vnthomas16 store as much as you can, we normally only cut and bale 500ish small squares and 100 round but the drought of 2019 we got 150 small squares, 2020 was very wet but I went nuts baled 3500 small squares and 215 rounds, I have hay every where, I have being selling abit this year but will go stupid again as we've brought another 20 Angus Hereford heifers, the droughts we get here in Australia can last Year's the mice plagues out west can get very bad I've seen millions on one place in a matter of minutes and they get into everything. there's a photo in the lounge room of my great grandfather's 20,000acre farm in 1905, at the start of the Federation drought they had 1000head of cattle 5000sheep 45 horses and 15 milking cows, 10 years later at the end of the drought they 10 sheep, 5 milkers, and 6 horses, the photo is of the yarding of the remaining stock. sadly it isn't uncommon over here for most of Australia some small pockets like my district get some rain in drought but nothing like we are use to.
Hii I'm indan farmer how this grass Verity named please responce bro
We use mostly Smooth Bromegrass.
So sorry for you all! The farming lifestyle is a tough one! Trust in God who will supply our every need!
Next year will be better!