What a year for making hay! No farmer in Powhatan wants to be heard complaining about rain in July. It has been a wonderful spring and summer and here we are at the end of July with green fields and lush grass. It only happens in a farmer’s dream! But there is one problem. We haven’t been able to get all the hay made and I am talking about the first cutting of hay!!!
Gene was able to squeeze a few hay days in here and there and has already made about 100 acres. Last week the weather was finally “hay making weather” again; hot, very hot, and dry. Monday and Tuesday he put over 100 acres of hay on the ground in 19 hours. He can cut 5-6 acres per hour. It was a good week and lots of round bales of hay for his cattle was made. He needs another 10 days of sunshine and heat as he still has another 130 acres to cut.
Mowing hay
Some of the heavier hay he had to “tetter”. He uses the tetter (below) to spread the rows of cut hay (above) so that it can dry faster. Some of the mornings we had a heavy dew and he needed to “help” the hay dry.
After the hay dried they would rake the hay back into rows for baling.
Sam Powell raking hay.
Gene was often in the same field baling right behind the rake.
I saw this turkey feather laying in the hay field.
Graham Said:
on July 23, 2013 at 9:23 am
How many acres do you all have? Is it all in one place? I guess you all must have more land you are farming now then when we were there (we used to live in your green house). It seems like most people have had a tough time this year. Good luck with the rest!
Pat Said:
on July 24, 2013 at 5:00 pm
We still have the same. He makes hay quite a few other places.