Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Montana Storm Report

Cooling off, 88 north of Atlanta. Oh, it's getting darker too!

Ya Sam we got a complete disaster happening up here. I would guess the average guy is 50 Percent done. Am also worried about getting the hay home. This storm crap better straighten out.

Jesus....


That is one helluva a crop.

Slow cutting when you keep the headers low?



I've seen a few fields where they got in a hurry(with brand new red machines) and clipped off the top foot of spring wheat and left damn near 2' of stubble.





What model combines?

The guys that cut our little wheat patch have two 770's(?), MacDon headers. They are 2018 models with dual front tires. Got 'em stuck 3-4 times so far here. I haven't been around for much harvest or there would be pics.

They are both 2012 jd s670. Too small for this year. Running 35 foot flex Drapers. And can only go 3-4 miles an hour. The durum has been running around 70-75. Been insane. Lentils got too much rain and were diseased didn’t yield good at all. The peas were also extremely good. My dad got stuck once. We unloaded the tank into the cart and somehow drove out. Kind of hoping it freezes up and a guy can travel again.

You mean like the sun is setting?

I think you're better off with one big fat front tire?


(keep a spare on hand.....)

I will put up wheat hay if anyone wants.



My millet is probably on the ground now.

Probably settled to 10 inches now.

We got about 10 inches that stuck. Heavy wet stuff. Several medium sized branches down. One Aspen fell over into an old shed. Looks like my apple trees might be gone. Wind came up this afternoon and broke some more branches off. In the 40s now and supposed to be in the 40s during the week so this won't last terrible long.

I was trying to figure out how many bushels of wheat would be in a 1600lb bale.

Say you had 50-60 bushel wheat.



Grind it up and blend with some silage and alfalfa for calves this winter.

Used to figure that 2/3rd of a bale of ripe wheat hay was grain.


Rule of thumb anyway.



We have fed a pile of wheat hay over the years, by itself.


Its good feed, but can be a bit bitter.

We talked about baling a quarter or something as well. Would definitely have to be ground as it’s already ripe so mainly
Straw but I bet a guy would put up a pile of bales in a hurry.

Never mind that Jim beat me to the punch I’m surprised how much wheat would actually be in it. That would add up in a hurry

Wheat is digestible with out grinding or cracking.


Grinding does not add enough to be economical.

Whole bales ground for a ration would be good too, but ground kernels can cause digestive trouble and bloat.

Uhhhh, yah, that....

Are you channeling your inner Al Sleet, the hippie dippy weatherman?




Tonight's forecast.............Dark.

Geno

I’ve never heard of feeding wheat hay, do you use it as a supplement to grass hay? I know they use low grade wheat for different animal feeds.

Wheat can be put up in the binder stage. That is fully developed kernels but a greenish stem. Often put up in the dough or soft dough stage as well.

Its high protein at that stage. Wheat itself usually being 12 to 14 percent protein.


When we usually hayed they wheat was when it was fully ripened. Either it was too weedy to mess with or the quality was too poor to combine.


When fully ripe, I believe the total protein is lower, but the hay is high in energy.

Indeed, it makes a fine high energy supplement to grass and alfalfa hay.


Fully ripe wheat hay is not normally used as a complete ration, but it makes very good feed.


The beards have never bothers us much.


We have actually always preferred to buy, feed or put up fully ripened grain hay.

Grass or alfalfa hay is usually available......but easily accessible "energy" is often not.

When I lived in Eastern WA, there was an outfit there that put up the big square bales of wheat straw after the grain harvest. In asking around I was told it was baled up that way to fit into containers for shipment to Japan........................for feed for them fancy cattle they eat over there.

Not being raised in the cattle world, and having used plenty of consumer sized bales of wheat straw for assorted things like archery backers, animal bedding, and mostly for garden mulch because wheat straw was always a coupla dollars a bale cheaper than any type of hay, I never figured it would make good feed.

Interesting stuff I'm learning here.

They seem to put up a lot of rye hay here in NE Cali.

Geno

Rye makes good feed....but it seems like it can have some disease or defect that makes it bad for cattle?


Straw is a good feed for cattle. Normally people prefer barley straw, as it is sweeter and more readily consumed.

Barley straw is not always available though.


Cattle will readily consume wheat straw in winter. It's mostly a filler, but does have some feed value.


We try very hard not to put up any straw any more. Now that we calve on green grass the need for straw is way down.

Also, we try to graze all year if we can, supplementing some hay as needed. Straw does not fit the plan as well as it did.



Another problem with baling straw and hauling it home is the fact that a good deal of the nitrogen or N in your field is stored in the straw.

When you haul straw off your field, you have to then replace that N with synthetic fertilizer. You already paid for that fertilizer......might as well leave it there for the next crop!