Earlier this week, I took advantage of the fact that I had few moments to take some pictures. So, out to the alfalfa pasture I went to take some photos of them mowing.
Making alfalfa hay isn’t quite as simple as making regular grass hay.
Sure it gets cut and raked and baled like regular hay, but to properly bale alfalfa it’s got to have some moisture in it, whereas with regular grass hay you’d prefer it have no moisture in it when you bale it or it’s likely to catch on fire and make a mess. Not to mention it gets moldy that way and I’m gonna say if I were a bovine or an equine I’d just as soon not eat moldy ol’ hay!
When baling alfalfa, typically it’s done in the middle of the night into the early morning (when there’s dew on the ground), and since I’m not that gung-ho about taking photos when I should be sleeping I don’t have any of them baling it. But that’s ok, because there will be some photos of them baling hay later this year, when they’re baling during normal business hours.
First, we’ll look at the the rake. This particular rake is called a dump rake. I believe this is a 40 foot rake.
It pulls behind the tractor, of course, and you rake up the hay, until the rake is full, and then dump the rake, making “windrows” of hay.
It is really green in the alfalfa pasture.
And like most years around here, we didn’t get the alfalfa cut before it bloomed. No worries. It’s still yummy.
We also do our absolute best to cut each patch from the inside-out. The reason you do this is to give any animals that have made their home in the cover of the grass, a chance to get out, instead of being chased into the middle, which is what happens as you cut from the outside-in.
Here’s what “windrows” look like:
And here’s what has been cut today next to what has been cut and raked from the day before:
I love that alfalfa is still always green after you cut it, because there’s little off-shoots that are too low to the ground to be cut by the mowing machine.
See the bits of green under where it’s been raked, as opposed to what hasn’t yet been raked?
Ah, the smell! There’s nothing quite as yummy as fresh cut alfalfa!
Isn’t it purty?
It’s not amber waves of grain, it’s tall grass with purple flowers!
And let’s don’t forget that we bleed “Green” around here!
The mowing machine sits out to the right of the tractor and cuts as you drive by. Maybe I’ll get some close up photos of that in action this year!
I hope you enjoyed our little adventure!
Happy Trails and Happy Friday!
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I just came across your blog today and LOVE IT! Great photography and always nice to see another lady from the Midwest. Looking forward to keeping up with you through your blog!
Hi Adreinne- thanks for the compliment! I’m not actually a Midwesterner by birth. I’m a Texas girl who has moved north. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’ll say hi again!
Love it! I know you’re in South Dakota, but your photos reminded me so much of Kansas, which I miss a lot. You remind us of how beautiful this country is.
Hello from a fellow South Dakotan!(Sioux Falls) It was good seeing your hay field article link on Shepler’s fb page. Nice job!
Always interesting to view production from another region of the States. I have never seen a rake like that pretty cool. And ya’lls equipment looks much simpler to work on than our haybines and rakes. I usually just through my hands in the air and call mercy when some thing breaks because there are too many parts.
I love alfalfa, the purple blooms across the pastures, and the smell, but we have none in Arkansas. I guess it’s too warm. While in Wyoming I did get to walk the alfalfa fields everyday during my irrigation rounds. So much fun.
this looks just like the Sandhills of Nebraska. We’re in the middle of haying season here, too. Actually, we’re about two weeks behind normal as we got our spring rains too late. No rain in May, 7″ in June then another 2.5″ two weeks ago…that doesn’t make for good thick hay. We use the same 40 ft dump rake, JD tractors and baler for us, too! Have had really hot weather here (as you all have too) so makes for good hay drying days…just wish there was more of it. Guess we’ll be looking for bales to buy this fall.
Interesting about the alfalfa. It is big to grow grass and timothy hay around here. It has to cure and dry out a bit and our weather has been cooler and wetter than normal so that can be an issue, but the first cutting of timothy was okay. Most of it is bought and shipped out overseas for the Asian markets (race horses, dairy farms.) Crazy!