The Useful Duck!
Contribute to my Vacation, please...
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Rain and straw baling and a fire
Sunday, July 13, 2025
July farm update and Alfalfa
It is hotter than the hubs of Hades. Or at least hot for Western Oregon. Temps are in the 90's for the next couple weeks and I am having motivational issues.
I need to bale 2000 bales of wheat straw. The bales are 14"x18" x 46" I have a New Holland BC5070. It does not like 90 degree weather. I think I will be stuck baling from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. so that I can get weight in the bales.
The bales are for a feed store and the wheat is some of the best quality I have seen in years. I had to pay the farmer $25 per ton for the straw. I am getting around $110 a ton for the straw (sold by the bale) so that means $85 a ton minus $50 per ton for harvesting costs. I am not sure it is a good deal but it is what I do.
Grass hay sales are crap. We are selling almost half of what we got last year.
However, Alfalfa sales are good, see further down in the pictures.
Sunday, July 6, 2025
The never ending hay season, fireworks, making repairs
The fourth of July was my goal to finish up with hay this summer. We now have more unsold mediocre quality hay then I have made in 20 years. It is a little depressing.
I picked up the last of the second cutting annual ryegrass, oats, orchard grass, dog fennel hay yesterday. I thought I could tell which was good and which was mostly dog fennel but it all looked the same to me. I would pick up a nice annual bale and the see a big flake of green dog fennel. Apparently, it has beneficial uses, but there is not much demand for 140lb bales of the crap.
The fourth of July was eventful. We were invited to two picnics. My neighbor is making a bit of a new start in life and decided to celebrate his freedom with a $1000 package of fireworks. I was able to convincing him into saving half for New Years as I figured that it was going to take three or four hours to launch the whole extravaganza.
I had a few really large mortars left from last year so we made a bit of a display. I nailed six launchers to a 2"x12" board and tied the fuzes together. We did salvos. His were less powerful but much more colorful so I set of five of his and one of my giants and it made a nice display. No one called the cops or posted angry comments on facebook so I guess it was all good.
There were young folks around to cheer so it was not weird that two old dudes were lighting fuses and running away, laughing like maniacs.
The field was surprisingly dry so we all got to run around and stomp out embers. Fortunately, I had the Gator Sprayer and a adjustable fire nozzle.
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