Some prairie hay and history

[00:00:02]Got a few wildflowers blooming out here in the old native prairie pasture.

[00:00:09]It's about 85° out here, which is pretty warm, but there's a good southeast breeze blowing, which definitely helps to keep you cool.

[00:00:20]Sitting on an open tractor, it's not too bad at all.

[00:00:24]I cut this little bit of native prairie here.

[00:00:27]I believe it was Friday.

[00:00:30]No, Thursday. Yeah, 2 days ago.

[00:00:34]Just to see what it's like.

[00:00:36]I always found it was kind of undesirable hay. At least my cattle would leave it till last. If there was nothing else to eat, I guess they would eat it, but it wasn't their first choice.

[00:00:51]This is actually dried pretty well.

[00:00:54]I just flipped the swaths over, threw two into one, so each one of those is about an 18-ft swath.

[00:01:04]I guess I'm going to try rolling that up. I got some more in the yard that's not going to be ready because [snorts] that location it doesn't get the wind to dry it, plus it's super extra heavy crop.

[00:01:18]I flipped it over just a half an hour ago, and there was green stuff on the bottom of the swath, so I don't think I'll be putting that into a bale.

[00:01:27]Now, if it doesn't rain tonight, maybe tomorrow.

[00:01:31]Roll it up. That's it for today.

[00:01:33]I think we'll just go with what I got here.

[00:01:36]Should make another bale or so.

[00:01:41]Another thing I found about this native prairie wild hay, it's pretty tough cutting. The old Well, the old hay baler is really 50 years old, I guess, so you can't expect miracles, but it was complaining a bit putting this stuff through, so Anyway, finish up the raking here and move on.

[00:02:06]This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about.

[00:02:09]It's not bad in this spot, but some of those heavier patches I know I could see green stuff coming up as I raked it barely an hour ago.

[00:02:20]But, uh a lot of hay there.

[00:02:24]Little history on this spot here.

[00:02:26]Right about here, I'll try to throw in a still photo from I believe 1944 or 45, my grandfather and some neighbors they had set up the thrashing machine to thrash wheat, oats, etc. And they naturally the thrashing machine blows out a huge straw pile.

[00:02:47]So, some of this ground here had a lot of straw and organic matter gradually worked into it. Well, I shouldn't say worked because this ground has never been worked.

[00:02:58]But, uh it's also not native prairie grass. This is I don't know if I don't think it's twitch grass. It might be broom grass.

[00:03:06]Whatever it is, it's pretty nice hay, but it's a real challenge to get it dry.

[00:03:11]Being down here in the yard where the wind doesn't get in like right here you can barely feel the wind blowing.

[00:03:17]The ground is wet cuz it's a low spot.

[00:03:19]Water tends to accumulate here. In fact, when I was cutting over there the other day, the tires were getting wet on the tractor.

[00:03:26]So, yeah, I see some green stuff right here.

[00:03:32]Not bad. It's drying fast in this sun.

[00:03:38]Oh, yeah, that's quite quite green and wet. You wouldn't want to put that much of that into a hay bale.

[00:03:47]But, we'll still see. Maybe it won't rain tonight and it'll be good to go by tomorrow.

[00:03:52]So, yeah, that's basically the history on this piece of ground.

[00:04:00]And check out what else we got here.

[00:04:05]A pretty decent crop of wild saskatoons this year.

[00:04:09]Although I shouldn't say everywhere is like that. This is just one spot here on the lane going down to the south pasture.

[00:04:20]Yeah, there's more here.

[00:04:24]Nothing much on this one.

[00:04:30]Nothing here.

[00:04:32]But, the worst part about saskatoons this year, you got to fight the mosquitoes to pick them.

[00:04:41]And this has got to be one of the worst years for mosquitoes that I can remember. So, they're getting at me right now even in the 85° heat.

[00:04:50]Used to consider when it was that hot, the mosquitoes weren't as bad, but well, maybe they're not as bad, but they're still a definite pest.

[00:05:00]Lots of dead evergreens going on here, too.

[00:05:05]Anyway, I think that'll be the end of this one.

[00:05:08]I'm going to find something else to do.

[00:05:11]And uh hopefully when the sun goes lower in the sky and the humidity comes up a little, I will bale some of that hay. I don't think that stuff in the lower pasture there is going to be ready.

[00:05:27]But, the uh stuff I was just raking in the old oats north pasture, that's dry enough right now.

[00:05:38]But, I see it where when it's too hot and dry, your chain baler will not start a bale. It will build up and on the front of the pickup in front of the chain.

[00:05:51]Won't feed in and eventually you got a massive cleanout.

[00:05:59]I've done that more than once and I don't want to do it again, so anyway, I'm going to call that quits.

[00:06:06]>> [snorts] >> So, thanks for watching the Rusty 6 channel and and I'll catch you next time.