FUBAR Hill Forum

Berm speak => Livestock Bar & Grill => Topic started by: wtxsflyr on July 18, 2020, 08:57:40 PM

Title: Making Cow Food!
Post by: wtxsflyr on July 18, 2020, 08:57:40 PM
Raking hay while it was 113 degrees.
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: Onepoint on July 18, 2020, 09:20:02 PM
I can't figure out how to embed video, and for some reason the link won't play.  I will have to mess with it more tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqIGpop_aA0
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: Onepoint on July 19, 2020, 07:27:48 AM
I just ran it through youtube instead

113 degrees adn no cab or even canopy? You are braver than me Carl, that doesn't even sound fun.
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: balsum fractus on July 19, 2020, 09:53:35 AM
Hmmmmm....reminds me of the time I got kidnapped and forced to bale hay........😉
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: Onepoint on July 19, 2020, 11:12:41 AM
We wouldn't have been out there if it was anywhere near that hot though.  :icon_smile:
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: balsum fractus on July 19, 2020, 02:28:00 PM
Heh heh.....  seemed like it to me at the time....  😃 especially being covered with hay fragments from head to foot....,
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: stetto on July 19, 2020, 03:14:16 PM
Quote from: balsum fractus on July 19, 2020, 09:53:35 AM
Hmmmmm....reminds me of the time I got kidnapped and forced to bale hay........😉

Yup, been there. Rousted by the old man at 5 in the blessed a-m, "I volunteered you boys for some FARM WORK this weekend", got hauled out to a wheat field in the tooleys and loaded trailers with square straw bails for two days, don't even remember the heat.....I do remember not being able to open my eyes for three or four days...

I was 11 or 12....I don't remember getting any pay either....
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: balsum fractus on July 20, 2020, 01:15:19 PM
You probably got fed, though.....😃
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: stetto on July 20, 2020, 03:06:10 PM
Quote from: balsum fractus on July 20, 2020, 01:15:19 PM
You probably got fed, though.....😃

You just kinda wait for me in the bushes, don't ya Nony.... :icon_razz:
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: balsum fractus on July 20, 2020, 11:08:05 PM
Naaaa......I've got all the respect in the world for people that are not afraid of hard work...

In the olden days, when we lived in a small mining town buried in a deep valley, winter lasted from the end of September til the beginning of June. Our only source of heat was a wood burning furnace. Dad would order between 8 and 10 cords of wood to get us through the winter. After it had been bucked into 2' lengths, my little brother and I would spend days piling it up. I don't  think my little brother had even started school yet, and he was only 2 years younger than me. Throughout the winter we Had to keep the basement stocked up as wood was consumed, so each log was handled 3 or  4 times. (Dad was working 2 jobs at the time, so he was not always there to help). This was an annual routine until grade 11 when we moved into a house with oil heat.
So, I too have tasted hard work, and respect others that have done the same!  BTW I got the same pay that you did😃
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: Onepoint on July 21, 2020, 05:27:04 AM
Heh, well some of us are still dumb enough to do all that when they are 50+, and a lot time for the same, pay!  :icon_lol:
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: jetmex on July 22, 2020, 07:49:07 AM
I got volunteered by my dad all the time to muck out horse stables when I was a kid.  One of his friends had horses and I was cheap labor.   No money at all, but the man's wife sure could cook!

Ok, so being the ignorant city slicker that I am, I have to ask someone to explain the advantages / disadvantages of baled vs. rolled hay.  My guess is that the rolled variety comes out of the feeder better after you put your quarter in....IAH airport grows the stuff between the runways and sells it every couple of weeks.
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: Onepoint on July 22, 2020, 08:14:54 AM
Depends on how you feed or haul it. I use both little squares and rounds, squares mostly to sell, since they are easier to haul,  but do feed them when feeding singles or small groups animals in pens.

Rounds are lots easier when feeding, you use a loader and can either roll them out or dump them in a feeder, which apparently makes them grumpy and bite at nearby planes, but I digress.

The other advantages with rounds is they shed water and are much easier to store and usually bale up faster than small squares.
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: wtxsflyr on July 22, 2020, 08:44:48 AM
I started out with squares, but soon realized I was to old to be out there picking up, loading, then unloading and stacking squares in the barn.  Round bales are much easier on the body because I use a hay spear on my tractor to pick them up and load on the trailer, and then to unload and place in the hay lot.  Then use the tractor to place them in the feeder for the cows.
Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: Frazz on July 22, 2020, 12:47:17 PM
Man, you guys make me envious we got out of cattle 10 years ago. In the winter we always had to go out three times a day in winter and chop ice off of the tanks with an axe, then throw out chunks with an ensilage fork. Then every week or two, get the tractor and scoop and clean up ice so cattle could get to the water. We baled everything. Wheat straw, millet, millet straw, even had some barley. Had to roll the wheat straw out for bedding by hand, then clean it out of the pens eventually.  We got out when drought was really bad and nowhere to pasture but a few head. Most ground here is farm ground. 

Title: Re: Making Cow Food!
Post by: Onepoint on July 22, 2020, 03:49:18 PM
Its been a tough summer here for that, most of the grass is played out in the smaller places already with the triple digits and no rain, even the big pastures are making people reduce numbers. I started feeding about a week or so ago to supplement, but can't feed all summer and expect to have feed for the winter. 2020 sucks.