DAPNET Forums Archive › Forums › The Front Porch › Member Diaries › Hot and Dry
- This topic has 10 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 9 months ago by
mitchmaine.
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- July 6, 2012 at 2:10 pm #43929
Andy Carson
ModeratorThe forecast says it’s supposed to get to 98 today and 103 tomorrow. Brutal. The oxen haven’t been worked for a couple weeks because of the heat. They seem fine up to 85 as long as the humidity isn’t too bad. I have to keep a close eye on them between 85 and 90, again depending on the humidity. Past 90, and I just put them away. I am glad I planted sunflowers. The lack of rain and the heat are hitting some crops hard, and the grass is yellow all over. The sunflowers love it, though. I got lucky with this one.
July 6, 2012 at 4:51 pm #74457Donn Hewes
KeymasterYes, it has been really hot. Finished my first cutting of hay today with a wagon load from a field I had grazed in May. Nice hay, almost second cutting in quality. So hot I raked it yesterday and went out and baled it before noon today. 1900 bales so far. Time for a little break and a little rain to make the grass grow again. Two mares bred to the jack, and one so big she hasn’t worked in the afternoon for a while. Just some tedding and raking. Donn
PS. This mule weather, they don’t think this is hot!
July 7, 2012 at 12:16 am #74462mitchmaine
Participanthey donn, you will laugh, andy too, when i tell you it was hot here too. a blistering 88 degrees. i don’t know. maybe maine blood is thick or something, but 100 degrees would kill me. i just know it. its been wet here for two months. 200 bales is all i can show for the time. the hay is thick and ripe and a little gone by in spots, with a lot of work ahead of us. we have five sunny days ahead of us. something we haven’t seen up here since april. i should let the ground try and dry up a little but i can’t afford the time. i can say i know what it means when they say “make hay while the sun shines”. ok. enough for now. good luck with 2nd cut, and let us know how it is going. mitch
July 7, 2012 at 8:02 pm #74459near horse
Participant61F on Tues; 85F Fri; 90’s Sat; Upper 90’s from Sun – Wed; BUT – we can’t get that hot that fast w/o the threat of thundershowers. So lets roll the dice and put some hay down!
July 7, 2012 at 9:11 pm #74455Does’ Leap
ParticipantWe started our second cut today on one 4 acre field that we cut in May – mid 80s and humid. Cooler weather to come……
George
July 8, 2012 at 11:25 am #74458KeymasterHi George, My first hay fields won’t be ready for another month. You must have been getting more rain than me. Donn
July 8, 2012 at 11:49 am #74460karl t pfister
ParticipantHere we got just 1.75 ” of rain in June and some of the more gravelly spots the 2/nd cut is turning brown ,ugh . we are about 3/4s thru 1/st and 2/nd cut a ways off .
Anybody seen any sign of the army worms ?
July 8, 2012 at 12:16 pm #74456ParticipantNo army worms here, but a good friend in the next town over (Fairfield, VT) had all his pastures decimated by army worm. The only thing they left was clover.
George
July 8, 2012 at 12:24 pm #74463Participant@karl t pfister 35788 wrote:
Here we got just 1.75 ” of rain in June and some of the more gravelly spots the 2/nd cut is turning brown ,ugh . we are about 3/4s thru 1/st and 2/nd cut a ways off .
Anybody seen any sign of the army worms ?
karl, 4.93″ in may and 10.75″ rain in june here (coastal maine). we aren’t that far apart distance. i’d meet you someplace in the middle on rain totals. mitch
July 8, 2012 at 7:45 pm #74461ParticipantSounds like areal deal Mitch how about same with snow ? sort of the way the government places more emphasis on the 1/4year totals than the monthly , the 1/4 year seem to average out ,but the lack of rainfor 30 days at a critical point in plant development can make a wicked difference, sort of like defoliation from army worms . Well back to tedding
July 9, 2012 at 12:52 am #74454J-L
ParticipantWe’ve had some 50 and almost 60 degree temp shifts in a day. Frost ten days ago with high 80’s in afternoons. Been keeping an eye out for pneumonia in my cattle, so far so good. Our rainy spell was a total of .10″, other than that not a drop for more than three months. Super dry.
Mowed 20 acres of hay yesterday and today (10 each day). Looks like we will put up about 40-50 round bales, give or take, on 30 acres. Last year I put 137 up on the same patch.
The good part was that my new I&J mower is a champ. My son and I put our mowers in the grass at 9:30 this morning and had 10 acres down by 12:30. He was on my #9 with a 6′ bar and I was on the 7′ I&J with the motor.
We swapped teams on mowers and I worked my young Shire mares on the #9 for an hour or so to finish out the piece. Funny thing was the #9 boogered them more than the motor. The inside mare did NOT like the sound of that knife. Took us ten or 15 minutes to get lined out. Take three steps, stop and think…take three steps, stop and think…etc. In the end she came around and did great. I just love mowing with a new team when you can see them turn the corner and figure it out. Rewarding.
I burned about a gallon of gas mowing what I did this morning. The noise is probably just a bit less than the #9 surprisingly. I talked to Jonathen Lawton a few times about this mower (he has two) and he encouraged me to get it. Glad he did. - AuthorPosts
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