The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[oldhenlikesdogs]

That's called a rake. Generally hay is rake a couple times after cutting with a haybine, and before baling.

 

[getaclue]

Thank you for teaching me that. I guess I should have known, but since it doesn't exactly rake it up in piles, I was not sure as to what it was called.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Thank you for teaching me that. I guess I should have known, but since it doesn't exactly rake it up in piles, I was not sure as to what it was called.

It rakes it into rows so the baler can pick it up. I grew up on a dairy farm, and my husband and I owned one for about a decade before giving up on that.

 

[1muttsfan]

Actually the tossing thing is a Tedder - strange name! - and it loosens and turns the hay so that air and sun can dry it evenly. Then a rake is used to windrow it, followed by baling. The sun unfortunately does not kill molds, but if the hay is properly dried (quickly and completely) they do not have the chance to grow in it before baling. Most hay when baled looks fine, but hay baled too moist or too loosely will have mold growth inside the bales where you can't see it until the bale is opened. It is terribly risky to bale hay with too much moisture, as it can spontaneously combust when stored stacked in a barn.

Quality if the hay is a different issue. Plants that are overly mature when baled produce hay with fewer nutrients, which is not so much an issue for pet animals that are well cared for, but can be a problem for older horses, or animals that are in production (like Dairy cattle). Generally cows utilize poorer quality feeds better, as they ferment fiber in their rumen, which improves the yield of the hay, and their respiratory tracts are not as sensitive to molds.

 

[1muttsfan]

I dated a dairy farmer for a while, until I realized that the cows came first. Always. While I understand that and agree it's right, I was not interested in being married to 200 cows.

 

[getaclue]

1mutt, YES it's a tedder they use. Not a rake. They don't have to rake it to bale it, just run the baler around.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Here tedders look like spiders, and arms turn horizontally, rakes turn more vertically. Tedders are just another version of a rake. I guess names are different depending on where you are.

 

[getaclue]

A bit of background. Our driveway is almost 1/2 mile long. We share it with 1 neighbor that lives further down. Although we, and the neighbor have enough property to each make our own individual driveways, the original owner of this place, and the neighbor agreed to combining them. Both, have contributed to the continued building up, and maintenance of the drive. Last year, we and the neighbor decided it was time to have it paved, but neither could afford to have the entire thing paved at once. It was decided that every year for 3 years, both would contribute to having 1/3 rd. of it paved, so last year, 1/3 rd. of it was paved.

There is a fairly wide separation, and another driveway next to ours that goes down to 2 neighbors that live even further down. In that middle separation between the two drives, is where the cables for internet, phones, and tv are run for all the houses past ours. (Our lines were all recently replaced, and don't run down the center division).

Remember I was talking about them cutting the hay, and having to fight the rain? Well, they used the opposite driveway from ours, to get the equipment into the field. The owners of the driveway, asked him not to use their driveway again, since the equipment was too heavy, the driveway too muddy from the rain, and their equipment had torn up the drive too bad. For normal weight vehicles it's not a big problem. Anyway, the neighbors had the driveway graded.

They returned yesterday with 2 semi's towing flatbeds, and the 2 big tractors, mower, and baler. WITHOUT permission to use our side, and having been asked not to use the other side, they entered using BOTH driveways, 1 semi, followed by one big tractor pulling equipment on each side, then crossed over the separation to the other side. Those semi's loaded with all those bales of hay are super heavy, not to mention the other equipment. When they left, they left in the same order they came in. They tore up both driveways bad. They broke up all our paving. When they crossed over the separation, they broke all the cables.

Everyone was/is in an uproar over it. All the men, on their tractors, held a fuss fest, as they tried to get the driveways fixed enough for the cars to be able to get through. Man did I stir up a hornet's nest, when I pointed at the field, and told them to take a good look. The field is only half done. They'll be back.

 

[1muttsfan]

Grrrr

 

[speckledhen]

Well, this morning was interesting. I reached for my pasture game camera, to open it up to look at the screen and froze. Wrapped around the part on the back where the strap comes through against the tree was a juvenile snake. Thankfully, it was in the low 50's so quite cool, and the snake was lethargic, but Tom poked it with a stick to get it to uncoil and drop to the ground, pushed it tight behind the head and picked it up and whaddayaknow, it was a baby rattler, yikes! It met its demise right afterward. But, mama and daddy are somewhere around.