Sunday, July 24, 2011

Harvesting hay

It's starting to inch toward harvest time in north Idaho. The first thing to get cut is hay, whether grass hay or timothy. I love watching the harvest.

Here's a field of magnificent timothy being cut and swathed. (That's dust -- not exhaust -- coming up from the combine.)


A distant field of grass hay, mowed and swathed, waiting to dry before baling.


With luck we'll have our own hay (cut from two adjacent pieces of property) cut and swathed this upcoming week...

6 comments:

  1. Patrice, The mowing season has begun here, too - love it! How is your wheat coming along?
    Lisa

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  2. Here in SoCal they start harvesting 1st cut hay the end of May most years. Second and sometimes third cuts are June and July. We have a mixed grain hay field across the road from us. I too love watching hay harvest time. Something about harvest time that just makes it seem like things are right in the world for just that moment.

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  3. A million years ago, when I was in high school, I helped my uncle during hay baling season. It was one of the hardest jobs I've had. Hot, dusty, etc.
    Between that and picking pickles for another uncle, I gained a tremendous respect for farming.
    When they died, we lost a vast amount of knowledge. They knew about life. Looking back it was one of the great times of my life.
    Steve

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  4. I love the smell of fresh-cut hay. When I was growing up, we didn't bale the hay - we just piled it onto a wagon and then pitched it into the barn. Good memories (except for the chigger bites).
    Kay

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  5. This was our second year, we got the first cutting to auction 5 weeks ago bringing 80cents to $1.30 a bale. It needs cutting now again and the baler from the 1940's is broke down. We were doing this as a joint effort with my brother in law who turned into a ornery slave driver. We were enjoying it and now we hate it . It is hard work and we are middle aged and out of shape but not too hard do, but the constant fighting has ruined it for us and our kids. It is good to read the comments to see that this could be indeed an enjoyable thing if we get the brother in law out of it.If a fat 52 year old woman with no prior experiance can do it anyone can!!!! lol Only 15 acres or at these prices we will go broke!!!!We are at the beginning of a learning curve and all I learned is I don't like being yelled and glared at from 8 in the morning until 2:30 am . I don't believe we should cut all 15 acres 2 days before a week of prdicted rain with a broken baler either but what do I know!!LOL Karen

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  6. Oh, man, Karen! Plain ol' Bermudagrass hay is going for between $6 and $7 a bale here. I would LOVE to have hay like yours.

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