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Soapweed

Well-known member
Flowersandcows.jpg

Flowers and cows
Windrowsofhayinthebac.jpg

Windrows of hay in the background
Haybalesonthefield.jpg

Hay bales on the field
Thehaycontractorsequipment.jpg

The hay contractors' equipment
Therake.jpg

The rake
Balingoutfits.jpg

Their balers and tractors
Yellowstonealert.jpg

Yellowstone alert
Drinkingonthejob.jpg

Drinking on the job
Movingtheredcows.jpg

Moving the red cows
SaddletrampontheothersideoftheRedC.jpg

Saddletramp on the other side of the Red C
Hayfield.jpg

Hayfield at home
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
Wonderful pictures, Soapweed.

Refreshing to see all that green.
Be thankful for how good your country has held up.
You are one of the lucky ones.
 

Rowdy Ranch

Well-known member
Never tire or your photos-beautiful country to photograph
:!: :wink: Glad there is still some green-looks good along with the cattle.
Have a great day!
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
MsSage said:
Great Pictures. Love Yellowstone alert.
Have a dumb question......do you want the algae in the tank?

No, we don't like the stuff, but we never do anything about it. About every twelve to fifteen years, the tank eventually rusts through and gets replaced. Then the process starts all over. :wink:
 

Denny

Well-known member
How many bales do you need to put up for winter?I figure we need 6 bales per cow where we were baleing yeasterday a retired farmer stopped and gave me a hay meadow for free should be 100 bales or more we are just getting going good here the hay seem's pretty fair one field of 8 acres yielded 53 1200# bales of clover timoty mix should end up with 2000 bales this year about 600 more than I need.

As dry as it is here we may need all the hay we can get I had pasture for an extra 20 pairs this spring but the way it's looking it won't be extra.
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
Denny said:
How many bales do you need to put up for winter?I figure we need 6 bales per cow where we were baleing yeasterday a retired farmer stopped and gave me a hay meadow for free should be 100 bales or more we are just getting going good here the hay seem's pretty fair one field of 8 acres yielded 53 1200# bales of clover timoty mix should end up with 2000 bales this year about 600 more than I need.

As dry as it is here we may need all the hay we can get I had pasture for an extra 20 pairs this spring but the way it's looking it won't be extra.

We try to go into the winters with plenty of winter grazing, as well as hay. If the snow doesn't get too deep, we can usually get into mid-January before we have to feed hay. No matter how much volume of grass is available after that, our cows just don't seem happy grazing. When they're not happy, I'm not happy, so we try to pamper the old girls to a certain extent.

Back when Sandhills ranches ran thousand-pound Hereford cows, the rule of thumb was that besides grazing it took a ton of hay per cow to get through the winter. With bigger cows, it sure takes more hay. I like to have closer to two tons per cow going into a winter, and if there is hay carried over it is just as good as money in the bank.
 

Heel Fly

Well-known member
Soapweed have you tried putting cooper in your tanks. We do and it sure makes a difference with the alge and stuff. My hubby also puts some fish in the ones that we heat in the winter. That can be comical the first time one comes up when a horse is drinking. :lol: I always enjoy your pictures. Is that sprear your brand??
 

ranch hand

Well-known member
Heel Fly said:
Soapweed have you tried putting cooper in your tanks. We do and it sure makes a difference with the alge and stuff. My hubby also puts some fish in the ones that we heat in the winter. That can be comical the first time one comes up when a horse is drinking. :lol: I always enjoy your pictures. Is that sprear your brand??

We put fish in the ones that we chop ice on with no heaters. They have been there for 8 years. They keep having babies. They sure do get big in a tank.
 

efb

Well-known member
Soapweed, I always enjoy your photos. I usually have one as my screen background. I was curious what you have to pay to get your hay put up. The price down here is now running 18 to 24 dollars per roll. I paid $20 for my first cutting and it was so short I doubt he made anything on it.

I also use copper in my concrete tanks to keep alge out. You can buy copper crystals bottled for swimming pools. As you know too much copper can be toxic to cattle, so it doesn't take much. I usually add about a table spoon in my tanks every month or so and it makes a big difference. Our Extension livs't specialist said too much alge will cause cows to scour. Anyway, glad you've got hay to put up. We are burnt up here. My inseminator this morning said he was 1,100 rolls short, and my neighbor is 3,000 rolls short. Just bought some milo stalks to roll and some soybean hay. It's tough when your scrambling for feed.
 

Cowpuncher

Well-known member
MsSage wrote:
Great Pictures. Love Yellowstone alert.
Have a dumb question......do you want the algae in the tank?

Soapweed wrote:
No, we don't like the stuff, but we never do anything about it. About every twelve to fifteen years, the tank eventually rusts through and gets replaced. Then the process starts all over.


CP

Copper sulfate does a good job of getting rid of algae. Especially in areas where there is a copper defiiciency.

The rusting problem also has a solution.
We have redone all of our tanks with Virden Perma-bilt epoxy.

We sandblast them (most people don't have a sand-blaster), then apply the Virden stuff with a compressor and texture spray gun.

It takes about an hour to sand blast and another hour to spray the coating on them. Judging from the trouble we had getting the overspray off of a pickup parked to close, the stuff will last forever. You can even plug up some pretty sizeable holes with stuff - up to half an inch in diameter.

Cost is $200-300 depending on the diameter of the tank.[/quote]
 

Cowpuncher

Well-known member
MsSage wrote:
Great Pictures. Love Yellowstone alert.
Have a dumb question......do you want the algae in the tank?

Soapweed wrote:
No, we don't like the stuff, but we never do anything about it. About every twelve to fifteen years, the tank eventually rusts through and gets replaced. Then the process starts all over.


CP

Copper sulfate does a good job of getting rid of algae. Especially in areas where there is a copper defiiciency.

The rusting problem also has a solution.
We have redone all of our tanks with Virden Perma-bilt epoxy.

We sandblast them (most people don't have a sand-blaster), then apply the Virden stuff with a compressor and texture spray gun.

It takes about an hour to sand blast and another hour to spray the coating on them. Judging from the trouble we had getting the overspray off of a pickup parked to close, the stuff will last forever. You can even plug up some pretty sizeable holes with stuff - up to half an inch in diameter.

Cost is $200-300 depending on the diameter of the tank.
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
efb said:
I was curious what you have to pay to get your hay put up. The price down here is now running 18 to 24 dollars per roll. I paid $20 for my first cutting and it was so short I doubt he made anything on it.

This year, I am paying $30 per ton for the contractors to mow, rake and bale part of our hay. The bales last year weighed 1330# average, so that is about two-thirds of a ton. Each bale would cost about $20 for the labor and I furnish the hay. :wink:

Our own crew could probably put up all of our hay (we have in the past), but it makes a long summer. My justification for hiring some of it baled, is that more hay gets put up when it should be put up. Also, if we get any rain, the early cut meadows come back with great aftergrowth for fall grazing. It is my experience that poor quality grass put up early as hay, is more desirable to cattle than high quality grass hayed later in the season.

A lot of our water tanks in areas where we both winter and summer, are eleven-foot Hastings steel tanks. One thing about these smaller tanks is that you rarely have to pitch any ice in the wintertime. Usually, if they are pumping at all they stay open. The last ones I bought were about $350 per tank.
 

efb

Well-known member
Soapweed wrote;
Our own crew could probably put up all of our hay (we have in the past), but it makes a long summer. My justification for hiring some of it baled, is that more hay gets put up when it should be put up. Also, if we get any rain, the early cut meadows come back with great aftergrowth for fall grazing. It is my experience that poor quality grass put up early as hay, is more desirable to cattle than high quality grass hayed later in the season.

I believe you are exactly right. A couple years ago I had a hay sample win 2nd place in our hay show with a 22 per cent protein. Our hay normally run 12 - 14 per cent. When we are getting good moisture we can cut our costal bermuda grass every 28 days. We happen to put this cutting up at 21 days because that's when the cutter could come. That was the only thing different with that sample.
 

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