Success is nice

I paid a farmer who was able to cut this morning to knock down the back field. He charged $16/acre. I'll work on the sickle bar this fall and winter. I did bale what I had ready and it turned out great! It was windrow size and tractor speed. I combined some windrows and went a bit faster. The bales were much much tighter. Still not very heavy but I'm assuming it was because I was baling straight grass that was bone dry. Anyways I had some success and wanted to share. The entire time I was saying in my head.... Please nothing break... Please nothing break...

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Success is nice

"Tedding" vs. "Turning" - Krone Tedder Terminology

In the Krone Tedder literature, when talking about the wheel position/basket angle adjust-ability, it mentions using a steep angle for 'tedding' the crop and shallow angle for 'turning' the crop.  I'm wondering what Krone is defining as tedding, and what they are defining as turning.  Is tedding what you are doing when scattering the original mower swaths, and turning what you are doing when running the tedder across the crop in subsequent passes?

 

"Tedding" vs. "Turning" - Krone Tedder Terminology

Hay Dryers.... Anyone have one??

After a terrible season for making hay and still only being half done, I'm starting to look into purchasing a hay dryer. They seem to be very costly but the amount of hay we have had rained on this year if could pay for itself in a year or two. Does anyone on here use one or have any experience with one? If so, what kind? The Veda Farming Hay Dryer looks to be very well designed but potentially quite costly. I have also seen videos of dryers that use a sealed building with grating in the floor that could be used as a storage shed the rest of the year but i'm not sure if they would work as well. Any info would be appreciated, thanks.

Hay Dryers.... Anyone have one??

Wheat varieties

I was wondering what wheat varieties you guys like to plant? I'm looking to achieve maximum forage. Needs to be rust tolerant and have a good disease/insect resistance. Located in west Texas. Thanks

Wheat varieties

Generic Hydraulic Fluid

I own Kubota & Deere tractors and both dealers have advised against using "generic" hydraulic/transmission fluid (from Tractor Supply for example).  UTD2 and Hy-Gard are quite a bit more expensive and I wonder if there is a enough difference to justify the higher cost. Would this also apply to diesel engine oils?  

 

  

Generic Hydraulic Fluid

Late summer planted oats

I have read a couple articles in the past about planting oats in the late summer for a fall hay or silage crop. Here oats are typically planted in the fall around the latter part of October and over winter like wheat for harvest next summer. The articles I read however were based out of some northern states( I think it was Wisconsin)where oats won't overwinter and they were using them as a late summer planted and fall harvested crop. I was just wondering if anyone has tried this and how it worked our?

I decided to go ahead and try a few acres where I had some teff that didn't regrow after I cut last week. I drilled 3 bushels an acre today. I started to plant some more but I hated to do more than a few acres in case it doesn't work out I won't be wasting much seed. I didn't apply any N as im thinking there might be some left over from the teff since I only got one cutting.

Late summer planted oats

Bought a Krone 4 Basket Tedder This Week

I had been casually looking most of the summer and finally the right deal on the right machine came along.  Drove 3 hours it.  The seller had a 2005 KW550T, and a 2009 KW552T.  The 550 showed a lot more wear, and I preferred a few of the feature differences the 552 offered.

 

 

 

Bought a Krone 4 Basket Tedder This Week