This morning bright and early I went out to check the cutting again and wasn't very impressed. As I had feared I knocked down rather than cut a lot of good hay making vegetation. I did a little research online and came across a comment from some old farmer who mentioned what they did when the fields were too thick for a sickle mower back when he was a kid. They brush hogged them.
So this afternoon after the dew dried I put the brush hog on the 8N and leaving it set about as high as I could so as not to scatter out the stuff I already had cut I went over the spots I missed. Certainly not an ideal scenario but it did level out the uncut rows and will at least add a bit more hay to the entire thing after it dries. The brush hog cuts the stuff a bit too fine for baling but I ran it slower than 540 off the PTO and managed to make it come out looking pretty good.
Still a lot of pushed over rather than cut hay out there though. I am not sure how that is going to effect raking. I might have to set the rake kinda high but I figure anything that pops back up will mean I can get another cutting off it sooner. I imagine it's a lot like mowing one's yard after weeks of rain. The first cutting just doesn't do the job right so you have to get another one in quickly after the first to get things back into order.
Last night after my post the weather forecast changed from no chance of rain to heavy thunderstorms in the space of about an hour. Man was I fit to be tied. However the heavy storms failed to materialize this far North so all was well.
Still a slight chance of some rain tomorrow though so I am not out of the weeds yet.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!
Not much to be done when the grass is like that, it is a pain even with a scythe. It will be better next cutting and you will have your equipment figured out. Get up what you can, like the old guy told me, it will taste better than snow balls.
ReplyDeleteRaining here but we can actually use a little bit now.
Sf - Ya I just wish it hadn't knocked so much down. Not sure how I am going to get it back into shape at this point. The sheep don't care though they will eat what I can get.
DeleteIt'll work, the brush hog. We too, back in the day, had to brush hog our fields. The lower fields bordered the river and were always the last to dry. The remainders we left for the horses and cows.
ReplyDeleteStephen - Ya they say you get much less hay off it when ya brush hog it but at this point less is still more than none.
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