First Hay Bales

The weather has definitely been different this year. There is only so much you can do on the farm until the conditions are right. Case in point: chopping. Normally we are chopping our wheat, rye, and ryegrass for the cows to eat sometime after the middle of April. So far it has been too wet to do anything. 

We had about eight inches of rain in less than two weeks plus all the extra rain we'd gotten before that. The weather has also been mild here. I know this because the kids and I have had discussions that went on too long about wearing shorts to school.

In the meantime the silage we have in our silos is getting low. We have been able to chop a little without getting stuck, just enough to put on a wagon to feed as green chop, that is immediate feeding without letting it go through a fermentation process in the silo. The wheat and such is holding on to the water so much that our mower and chopper can hardly cut it.

First Round Bale of Hay

To solve that problem I actually ran the tedder and rake over it trying to get it dry enough, but not too dry, that we could get it to go through the chopper. Some of it that got too dry made the first hay bales of the year.

Many jokes around here have been made about how the preachers can stop praying for rain for the drought we endured last year. Things are looking up. Yesterday was the nicest day we've had with sunshine all day long and the ground is finally drying up. Hopefully chopping will begin in earnest very soon!