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.

Last fall I no-tilled Orchard grass into an Oat field. We got a good rain and had a good sprout of oats and annual ryegrass. We hired the spraying done as our sprayer was broken as usual. The local Co-op sprayed thirty acres with the center boom section plugged so we had some interesting test plots.

The first lesson, which I have learned over and over and over again, is to never no-till until the crop you are planting into is Round-Up Yellow! 

Other observations are that annual ryegrass will suck the water and nutrients and must be managed. If you look a the picture you can see that the areas with rows have broadleaf weed pressure but do not have annual stubble. There are no rows where the annual is thick.

This field looked like it had a decent stand of oats and enough annual to take for hay. The first cutting was good but I rushed it because of rain and baled too wet. We did sell it but it was a mess.

The second cutting looked like it would work, However, the dog fennel came on strong after a late rain and spoiled the hay quality. 

Sometimes the ratio of hydraulic fluid to hay production is a measurable negative quantity. I sprayed these pants with tire soap (because that is what was in my pickup) and my wife actually got them clean. They were almost new.

The only crop that is really selling now is Alfalfa. Western Oregon alfalfa is a challenge. We have heavy dew which bleaches the hay and 90 degree day time temperatures which cook it. 

This year we set the mower narrow. Then used a tedder /fluffer with multiple ground driven wheels. (See past blogs) 

The wheels are set at a very slight angle and you pull it as fast as you can go. This lifts and fluffs the hay but does not turn it. The point is to get the hay off the wet ground (we irrigate heavily) so that air can circulate. 

I just let it set for six days and on day seven I set the double rake to put two windrows side by side. I started at 7 a.m. while the hay was still damp. 

The idea was to rake both windrows together on day eight, but by 11 a.m. the hay was down to 16 percent and I started baling. 

Since Alfalfa is the only crop actually selling right now, we decided to fertilize. Our fertilizer choices were highly influence by what was leftover from spring planting. (My brother also got professional advice)

The suggested rate was 4 gallons of 32 solution per acre.  

We were a little tight on the 32 but had more 10-34 so I did 3 gallons of 32 and 2 gallons of 10-34.

We still don't have a real reliable sprayer setup so I decided to use the Gator-sprayer at ten gallons per acre so I added 5 gallons of water. One tank would do 5 acres. 

This was not the best idea I have ever had. It took a while... For some reason the rate controller decided not to open up for ten gallons at 8 mph so I dropped to 8 gallons per acre and 8 mph. I suspect there will be interesting patterns.