25 Tons Tomorrow

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Mr. D? As always...you got my serious admiration...you go, guy!

And still...watch the arm? Peace

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Hell No! If it had been a live snake, that would've been the last hay bale I picked up. At least for a couple years anyways. The one I saw was chopped in half, and it was the bloody end that was hanging out the bottom of the bale, but it still scared me. lol


The angry one you found was probably hungry.
(at least 1 of the many reasons he was mad, anyways)

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

They used to grow a combo of mostly timothy, alfalfa, and clover here when I was young, I had to look up Teff, it must be a new grain they are now using that I never remember hearing anyone talk about around here.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

Very cool video! Love looking at different equipment and methods.

a reply to: rickymouse

Yeah, they grow timothy here too. We really like the teff though because it has protein values up in the 14% range which is right up there with alfalfa. Orchard brome and timothy are down in the 10% range or less. And the feed values on teff are way up there with alfalfa too, but it's not a legume like alfalfa is so you don't have to worry about moisture content and bloat. If alfalfa gets wet you can lose a whole herd overnight from bloat if you're not really careful. With teff we don't have to worry about that.

Teff is actually an imported African savanna grass and it's a good nitrogen replacer in the soil similar to soy beans. It's a hearty grass once it gets established, but it takes irrigation to get it going. It's gaining traction here in the US due to it's feed values and how well it serves as a rotational crop, but many still either don't know about it, or still have a stigma about putting grass under their pivots with water rights being what they are here. Farmers are creatures of habit on a lot of things. I get it though, plus they wind up needing new equipment for grass. They wind up having to switch from sweeps, seed drills and combines to swathers, tedders, tractors and balers. Even the tractors are different because you don't need the massive HP like you do for crops so those giant tractors are really more a a detriment on grass.