From a Chicago's Northwest Side consumer, "THANK YOU!" for your lifelong commitment and dedication to -- and your absolutely essential participation in -- the long and complex planning and labor process that ultimately puts American beef in our urban stores and then on our family tables. GOD BLESS THE AMERICAN FARMER/RANCHER!
That sounds nice. 10 hour days. They got me on 15 pivots and 8 wheel line with busted wheels that run crooked. And everything that gose with it by myself. Plus feeding 500 head. Good job at explaining everything. You tell it how it is.
Thanks Hayden, I didnt realize the sleeves on that shirt were shorter than my normal sleeves until I started editing video, figured I'd go with it! -Mike
OMG this is one of the best farming videos I have seen. I have seen tons of planting/harvesting videos but a lot ignore bailing and they don't go into the detail this video does. I really appreciate it and to be honest I envy your lifestyle. It's one to be proud of.
Outstanding video. I've seen a number of farm process videos (some pretty good some not so good) but you have an excellent way of describing #1-why you are doing what you are doing, #2-how what you NEED to do is SUPPOSED to happen, #3-the pitifalls that keep what you are trying to accomplish from happening, and #4-the final result and whether you have accomplished your goal and/or what you may have to do (buy some more hay) to reach your ultimate goal of providing for all the critters. Some day my wife and I would like to operate a small (hobby?) farm in retirement in a rural area of the country. Keep the vids coming!
Hey Kerrin,. Thanks a bunch. Words of encouragement are awesome. You hit the nail right on the head of what we are trying to do. We watched allot of those videos also and thought we could tell a real story about where your food comes from. Thanks for watching and thanks for subscribing. -Mike
Say bro i really enjoy your channel my grandpa just recently passed away and this episode made me think of him he loved bailing hey he loved being in the pasture.
It's pretty much the same in upstate New York making hay for our 30 cow beef herd. Our biggest enemy is the weather, we generally get good crops of mixed grass hay, but getting three days of sunny weather can be really hard. It makes me feel bad seeing you cut that short thin hay. Love your videos, thank you for promoting cattle and farming in general. I will subscribe.
I have just recently discovered your channel. I'm finding it very educational, and appreciate the straight forward presentation of what it's actually like doing what you do. I'll even watch with my kids to show them how things work. I think alot just don't understand how non glamorous ranching is.
I've got somewhat of a Sunday morning ritual thanks to y'all. If I'm not on the road I grab a cup of coffee and watch your video. I was worried that y'all wouldn't have gotten enough rain.
Thanks Logan, just not enough rain, I just finished baling a field that I got 100 bales off off a couple of years ago and I only got 24. Its better than last year but I was also hoping to have more. Thanks for making us a part of your Sunday morning! -Mike
Found this channel while watching Guy in Wy, already like it and subscribed. I grow wine grapes in Oregon, so this hay cutting and baling is very interesting to me. You do a great job with the narration. Especially like the tractor and machinery vids.
Thanks Roger, we should have more machinery vids coming up....Erin talks about growing grapes, I think its on her wish list. Thanks for watching! -Mike
At 5:55, you said there wasn't a market for the stones. You are right/wrong. Polish them in a rock tumbler. Over time, any rock is polished. Then, you can drill tiny holes, and thread silky-bamboo through the rocks. Customize them. etc 😂
Making Hay at Front Porch Farm in Arden WA is a good overview of haying. They do some really good work there with about 300 acres of hay. I must have driven by them a thousand times. Anyway, their site is worth checking out.
My family farms 3000 acres and runs 1500 cow calf pairs in southern idaho. These videos hit way to close to home. We do 3 to four cuttings of hay on about 800 acres. Add wheat, barley, corn, beans and it makes for some long summers. I love the break down of your videos. Life on the ranch is great but the never ending broken equipment, and ever building to do list does get overwhelming sometimes. Keep up the good videos.
Good man Nubby. It's cool to hear about that neck of the woods. I once lived on my family's Snake R. valley ranch, just north of the Snake R. on the way from Bruneau to Mountain Home, east side of the road. (Dairy, beef, alfalfa, gophers). Life in PA is much different, as far as hay, we have 80/90% humidity and knowing when to cut and drying are a real art. Here, you pick which future day you think there won't have been rain, humidity will have been right enough to bale without mold/fire, and if you really feel lucky, you try to pick a window that will minimize the number of times you have to ted it. BTW Mike, this O.W.L. channel is sweet. Keep growing it and maybe you could host a couple dude ranch hands a year, and merchandise some hoodies with a western logo or something, if you want. Laters.
driving down a country road my son would say pole, tree, pole, tree, and then he said chickens im like there is no chickens he said yeah poletree lol my daughter used to say the hay with the white plastic on it looked like gigantic marshmallows hugsssssss from Ontario Canada
Love the videos. I love learning about this stuff because it's part of what Id like to do with my life, as I'm only 16, and live in NY. Keep up the amazing videos and work!
Here in New England where the hay tends to grow thicker, tedding can also be a part of the process. I feel so bad for you having to do all that work with such sparse hay. But you also have a lot more acreage. Praying for more rain for you!
Thanks for sharing. I do this on a smaller scale and still have a 5 day a week job away from the farm. It can get stressfull enough for me even tho my living doesn't entirely depend on it. Factor in the weather, time restraints, breakdowns, etc. It can get perty hectic quickly if things don't go just right.
Mike can you plant 200-300 acres of rye in the fall and then bale it in the dough next summer. We do,it all the time and really extends the hay and cows love it to we also have planted heavy seeding of oats and bale it,I carry three times as many cattle as the former owner and only bought hay the first year in the beginning.
Great the way you share your information. I'm about to start sustainable projects..you, and several other folks I love watching (Bill Morrison and Geoff, etc.) are the future!
Mike, I love ya brother. I once heard that the rancher is first a farmer! You must first farm the grasses needed to feed the reason you are a rancher. Still watching the older stuff to get caught up! :-)
I got a great laugh from your humor. I see the Wyoming life isn't much different than the Appalachian hillbilly life, except for the scenery,.. I think it's safe to say, if a man owns equipment, he better know how to wrench and weld!
Hi Mike, haying were i live in Nova Scotia Canada is so much differant then the way you do it. After mowing it we would have to ted it out two or three times for it to dry enough to rake and bale. And if i tried to rake 30 feet in to one windrow it would be 6 feet high. Maybe rolling your fields to push the rocks into the ground would help save on equipment brake downs. I really like the videos thank you for making them.
Thanks Hans. It was a really dry year, normally we would have about 4 times of what we did and we wouldnt have to roll any additional windrows together. We are really dry here, most days we can bale a day or two after cutting. No tedding required. Thats a good idea on rolling. I might have to look into finding one. Thanks and thanks for watching - Mike
Best voice ever! You should record your voice reading books on the side I’m sure you’d make a killing. Great narration and descriptive language. Made this video amazingly awesome! Good job and thank you for your hard work.
Hey, Mike you should get a land roller and pull it over you hay field before you cut it and push em down so thar you swather and baler should miss most of em except for the bigger rocks
We have tried it, the problem is our soil is very sandy and topsoil is very thin, they seem to keep working their way up. grrrrrr Thanks Cody and thanks for watching - Mike
No problem. My sharecropper just burned up his combine Friday. Already behind, he had no insurance. Prolly going down. I may be drilling hay, orchard grass and alfalfa...
Here in Australia, in order to make hay we have to plant a crop. Usually oats or wheat. Sometimes Lucerne which is very rich. And some vetch. Not having to plant it first would be amazing
We still have to reseed occasionally, alfalfa only lasts about 10 years and needs to be upped as well as some pasture grasses. Thanks for watching - Mike
We have to reseed every single time. But probably have an edge on Wyoming in other ways. Such as no polar vortex fourish months a year. We get the opposite- dry spells that last for months and require our growing hay to last these times. I love your videos and seeing how different things are for you. :-)
ever try pulling a roller over the ground in spring to push down the rocks so they cannot damage your machinery ? also will trap moisture in the ground , and seal the top to keep from drying out ..
Our ground here is extremely sandy and loam. We've tried just about everything the topsoil is very thin and those darn rocks just work their way up. Thanks George and thanks for watching - Mike
Between this June video and November something crapped on your hat. Looking rough before it's time to burn it. I have never seen a cycle bar mower that big. Here in Tn we can normally get 3 cutting of grass hay per year. Sometimes alfalfa hay can be cut 4 times depending on rain. Really enjoy thanks
Hi Anthony, I'm sure many things crapped on my hat, also trampled it. Definitely time for it to go. I wish we could get mulitple cuttings, It sure would make things easier. Thanks - Mike
Mike I understand the love hate part of haying I'm the same way We froze in May and had no spring moisture I irrigate but because it was so dry I was 100 ton short on my first cut and then the wind blew the hay into piles. Erin and my wife could start a support group for hay widows. or the WOCHMR wives of cranky hay making ranchers
Now thats funny right there....I'm sure they would love to meet in Hawaii or something! By the way did you catch the manufacturer of our electric brands? -Mike
No I missed the brands my connection wasn't very good I've never seen irons work that good before I use a torch and in our wind I struggle to keep the temp right.
"Pet Rocks" used to sell for $4.00 each back in the 1970's, if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, sales lasted less than a year. But there is a new generation out there that may provide you with a new market for them. :-)
That is in the works, a little hard in the winter. I tried to get some footage of some critters this summer, I set up a camera on a badger den then had to sit through 3 hours of footage just to see him stick his nose out and go right back in. Exciting stuff. Thanks Cody! - Mike
Great explanation. I wanted to hear what all the equipment sounds like, but you have it on low. Most vids just blast country music. I wanna hear the machines.
Hey Lark, its all good. We have actually seeded into the prairie grass before. No till planting alfalfa and some other native grasses. Thanks for watching! -Mike
They can be a pain, if we had a roller it would help I'm sure. You also have to roll at just the right time around here, when the soil is soft enough to push those rocks back in. - Mike
Wow...also...your grass is really thin and short...our first cut is above your knee...sorry for you...this makes a lot of work covering a lot of ground to get what you need.
As I said, it was a drought year, our production was a 1/4 of what it normally is, if it would have been any shorter we couldnt have cut it at all. Thanks for watching - Mike
Do you have any irrigation to be able to plant pastures? In the Sonoran desert we have almost non existent rains so that's the only way to be able to feed cattle when the paddocks are dry. It will free you from so many headaches well, it will replace them
I know irrigation can be a huge pain as well. Unfortunately we dont have any irrigated pastures or hay ground. There are laws here that we cant irrigate from a well unless we pump it into a pond for livestock use first then you have twice the cost in pumping it. And even then you have to have the states permission. Thank you very much though, I know you have enough work of your own besides watching ours haha - Mike
@TheWyomingLife Have you ever took into consideration Winter Grazing Standing Corn. the quality of feed better than hay because you can relatively always depend on tonnage and it isn't as stressful as putting up hay.
We are currently looking at drought tolerant plants to add into our native grass, we have looked at doing corn but the landscape and climate are not really the best for corn. We have friends over in southdakota that have corn and lots of times the cows will end up with stalks which they love. Thanks. -Mike
I havent, that will be next year during harvest. Hopefully I will have some help and we are going to go do a few acres the old fashioned way. I hope you subscribed :) Thanks - Mike
Here in my NY hills it is a tradition to pick up the rocks before working the fields. Where else would all these stone walls come from? I got enough rocks I just say We lower the level of the field.
They have nice machines to pick the rocks up and carry them out of the fields. Here in Kentucky we sale hay for $30.00 pr. roll. Better quality than what you're feeding.
They don't cost that much. I've seen many of them at the auction at London, Ohio. They have an auction the last Thursday every month. It would save on down time and equipment repairs. I own a farm and I know how much downtime costs, and repairs.
Thanks Mike for another informative video! I use to hear of rattlesnakes getting bailed up. Have you ever found any Prairie Rattlers' in your bales? Better luck with hopefully a second cutting!!
Hi Deb, we have baled plenty of rattlesnakes, the most interesting is when they are half in and half out of the bales swinging their heads around as there tail is locked tight in the bale. I imagine I'll do another haying video, I'll try to get some rattlesnakes in that one. Unfortunately in this area we dont get the rain for a second cutting, I wish we did. Thanks for watching! -Mike
Deb Carpenter I like to collect little tiny buzzy baby rattler snakes and put them in a shoe-box on a table we put outside our front door. With a sign on it saying "Our door bell isn't working. Please tap the shoe box instead.". Most people are puzzled at first but eventually end up tapping the box. We can't hear the buzzing from inside but we can hear the yelling that goes on when the buzzing starts and the box starts vibrating off the table.
why do you use a sickle mower vs a disk mower? I'm form Missouri and most farmers from there seem to think that disc mowers handle rocks better. l like you videos. they make me miss farming.
I have never used a disc mower although I would like to. My father in law, who ran the place up until a few years ago, always used sickle mowers and the basic though process here is that they are better at cutting thinner grass. Thanks for watching -Mike
look up farmtec they have builds and everthing in its owen builing and the nicething is you set it up so you dont do any thing . any way good Luck god with you
pretty amazing only a handful of people can do all this on a farm themselves. do you know how many people might have had to work on medieval farms or before industrial machines?
With our swather we can cut about 10 acres per hour, but back in the olden days hay was originally cut by scythe by teams of workers, as far as I can tell one person could cut an acre a day with a scythe, now those would be long days! Thanks for watching - Mike
I don't know anything about farming. Here in Pennsylvania I see a lot of bales of hay wrapped in the white plastic. Yours, I notice, are not wrapped like that. I was wondering, considering the massive amounts of snow you get in Wyoming, wouldn't wrapping it in plastic preserve some of the hay better than being exposed to the elements? (As I said, I don't know anything about farming but am curious about a lot of it. And I deeply respect those who farm and ranch...) Thanks for any info on this...
Great question Ronald, before I forget, Thanks for watching, I do appreciate it. Lets see how well I can explain it. The plastic wrap isnt there to keep moisture out but more to keep oxygen out. In wetter climates they hay is put up while it is still wet and by wrapping it in plastic it protects it from getting moldy. I think at that point its called baleage. Because we are a much dryer climate we are putting up hay that is dry already to the point that its very rarely going to mold and the net wrap that we wrap our bales in actually sheds most of the moisture of the snow and rain we do get on it. Oddly enough the inside of the bales dont get wet and the netwrap preserves the outside layers. For a quick comparison, hay that I put up is usually about 14% on the moisture scale when I bale it, and hay that needs to be plastic wrapped is about 40% I hope that answers your question. Thanks again! -Mike
Its mostly natural prairie grass. It does have some alfalfa in it that we have seeded into it and occasionally you do have to reseed fields to keep production up, but only about every 5 to 10 years. We don't have any irrigation here, i wish we did but no rivers or big lakes to irrigate out of. -Mike
The state of Wyoming regulates irrigating from a well. Confusing that irrigating 50 acres can take up to a million gallons a week we can't get permitted from our aquifer. Thanks -Mike
Just a thought i had never really thought of the rules and regulations. I work on a ranch just outside of Douglas all our irrigating is done off the river.
I would love to try it, we havent done it yet. Mostly its a cost thing at this point. We spent a bunch a couple of years ago on reseeding and we are still getting that paid off. Its tough because rain and drought has been an issue the past few years and buying hay has really put a dent in things. Thanks and thanks for watching - Mike
2017 was the biggest headache where I live when it came to making hay, nothing but rain for weeks older equipment wanting to die. And perhaps the biggest headache of all is trying to get the contractor in to bale before rain comes in !! Only their busy baling others and when theyd finished doing their customers it RAINS Arrrrrrhhhhh, oh well plenty bale silage. By the looks of your place Mike it looks sooo easy to make hay where you live I'm jealous of your hay making season weather Lol. how long do you leave the cut hay out for before raking and baling Mike ? Nice interesting vid 👍🚜
We have hay if we have rain, over the last 5 years we have had 3 with no hay, so its still rough. We are dry enough here that I can cut one day and usually bale the next. Thanks Calum! - Mike
Just curious, how come you don't invest into a rock picker? I mean I know it would take days upon days (upon days upon days) to derock the field (your giant ranch) and I know that they are a bit pricey but if you worked at it (again I know it's a huge property) it would probably save you down time in the long run and I would imagine you could write off the machine on your taxes and when you're done you could probably sell it as I would imagine Everyone in Wyoming has rocks, I think the whole state is tiny rocks. Anyways your channel is great, I am trying to escape So Cal for greener pastures and I am heavily doing my homework your channel is very informative.
They get most rocks, but not everything. We use a windrower to cut our hay, and that thing has a zero tolerance policy for rocks. A rock picker would help but we'd still be scouring.
we used to have to dig down about 2 feet and then redo the soil for grass. there are like 20,000 different soil types and you can odd different dirt. and other smaller rocks for minerals to get bigger yields. there is a science to it. i think uc davis and fresno state atually has a dirt museum. cattle are good but also different types will yield bigger pay offs. one year it was angus. another year it blue belgium.
Very true, one service that we use occasionally is the web soil survey websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm which is put up by NRCS and USDA. Very interesting info about your area and the soil conditions. Thanks a bunch and thanks for watching - Mike
Hi Conor, thanks for watching. A cow will eat anywhere from 25-30 lbs of hay per day. My bales weight about 1400 lbs so one bale should feed a cow for about 45 days. She will waste some, laying on it or whatnot unless its in a feeder so I would say probably about a month. -Mike
They do make tractors that steer with GPS but we don't have any. I have to steer and pay pretty close attention to make sure I don't run off course. It can get tedious. Thanks Wesley. -Mike
Thanks for the answer. Being a city cop in Florida this stuff is so far removed from my every day life that it is just fascinating. Keep up the awesome videos.
Hi Mike, You deal with so many variables and have to wear so many hats. It seems like unless you have a machinist skill set, you could not survive paying to have your machinery fixed as often as it has issues. I have a general question related to ranching. Do you have huge swings in income every year, or is it relatively predictable within a small margin of error? Not trying to be personal or pry looking for numbers...just wondering if most years even out by the end of the year?
I'm not sure I'm much of a mechanic, but over the years I've figured out how to fix things. Probably not by the book but well enough to get you up and going again. Income wise there are huge swings. All depending on the price of calves that year and the hay harvest can make a huge impact on that. Consider this, we need about 400 tons of hay per year to feed the cows for the winter at a price of around 150$ per ton delivered. Thats $60,000 in hay alone. Now if calves continue to sell low at around $750 each then we are raising 80 calves just to pay for hay for the coming winter. If we dont have a hay harvest we have no profit, which in a huge circle, we continue to fix equipment ourselves instead of buying a new machine or fixing it completely. Its a vicious cycle. Thanks for watching -Mike
From a Chicago's Northwest Side consumer, "THANK YOU!" for your lifelong commitment and dedication to -- and your absolutely essential participation in -- the long and complex planning and labor process that ultimately puts American beef in our urban stores and then on our family tables.
GOD BLESS THE AMERICAN FARMER/RANCHER!
Thank you very much and thank you for watching :) - Mike
I love how calm you are about the mechanical problems while you bail hay , I'd loose my mind and go crazy 😂
Its one of those things, if you get all riled up then its not going to do anyone any good. Trust me, I have my moments lol Thanks - Mike
That sounds nice. 10 hour days. They got me on 15 pivots and 8 wheel line with busted wheels that run crooked. And everything that gose with it by myself. Plus feeding 500 head. Good job at explaining everything. You tell it how it is.
Alex Gardner that’s cause you rock!
When I was a kid my job was to run the sickle bar, rake, buck rower and the ole New Holland small square baler..
You have a voice perfect for radio or TV announcing! I really like this video.
Thank you very much and thanks for watching ! -Mike
nice farmers tan in intro
Thanks Hayden, I didnt realize the sleeves on that shirt were shorter than my normal sleeves until I started editing video, figured I'd go with it! -Mike
OMG this is one of the best farming videos I have seen. I have seen tons of planting/harvesting videos but a lot ignore bailing and they don't go into the detail this video does. I really appreciate it and to be honest I envy your lifestyle. It's one to be proud of.
Thank you very much. Glad you found us. I hope you subscribed cause we have a lot more coming. Thanks again. -Mike
Outstanding video. I've seen a number of farm process videos (some pretty good some not so good) but you have an excellent way of describing #1-why you are doing what you are doing, #2-how what you NEED to do is SUPPOSED to happen, #3-the pitifalls that keep what you are trying to accomplish from happening, and #4-the final result and whether you have accomplished your goal and/or what you may have to do (buy some more hay) to reach your ultimate goal of providing for all the critters. Some day my wife and I would like to operate a small (hobby?) farm in retirement in a rural area of the country. Keep the vids coming!
Hey Kerrin,. Thanks a bunch. Words of encouragement are awesome. You hit the nail right on the head of what we are trying to do. We watched allot of those videos also and thought we could tell a real story about where your food comes from. Thanks for watching and thanks for subscribing. -Mike
Such a great sense of humor. Hopefully it's what keeps you going at what looks to be an exhausting life!
It helps, thats for sure - Mike
Very informative. Love this channel.
I am new to your channel and really enjoying it! You have a good voiceover-tv-type style of narration. Very educational!
Thank you Paul, that really means alot to us. Thanks for watching - Mike
Say bro i really enjoy your channel my grandpa just recently passed away and this episode made me think of him he loved bailing hey he loved being in the pasture.
It's pretty much the same in upstate New York making hay for our 30 cow beef herd. Our biggest enemy is the weather, we generally get good crops of mixed grass hay, but getting three days of sunny weather can be really hard. It makes me feel bad seeing you cut that short thin hay. Love your videos, thank you for promoting cattle and farming in general. I will subscribe.
Mike, thanks for this video. I used to see all that equipment at farms and always wondered what it was used for. Now I know!!
Thank you very much for watching :) -Mike
I have just recently discovered your channel. I'm finding it very educational, and appreciate the straight forward presentation of what it's actually like doing what you do. I'll even watch with my kids to show them how things work. I think alot just don't understand how non glamorous ranching is.
I've got somewhat of a Sunday morning ritual thanks to y'all. If I'm not on the road I grab a cup of coffee and watch your video. I was worried that y'all wouldn't have gotten enough rain.
Thanks Logan, just not enough rain, I just finished baling a field that I got 100 bales off off a couple of years ago and I only got 24. Its better than last year but I was also hoping to have more. Thanks for making us a part of your Sunday morning! -Mike
Found this channel while watching Guy in Wy, already like it and subscribed. I grow wine grapes in Oregon, so this hay cutting and baling is very interesting to me. You do a great job with the narration. Especially like the tractor and machinery vids.
Thanks Roger, we should have more machinery vids coming up....Erin talks about growing grapes, I think its on her wish list. Thanks for watching! -Mike
I was waiting for you to mention step 4. :) Our equipment is a little older, so it seems like we spend even more time on repairs than most.
haha, seems like it doesn't matter how old it is. Haying is just hard on equipment! Thanks -Mike
I like this guys videos. Keep them coming.
Thank you very much and thanks for watching - MIke
At 5:55, you said there wasn't a market for the stones. You are right/wrong. Polish them in a rock tumbler. Over time, any rock is polished. Then, you can drill tiny holes, and thread silky-bamboo through the rocks. Customize them. etc 😂
Thank you for the high quality videos!
Thank you very much, thanks for subscribing and watching - Mike
Making Hay at Front Porch Farm in Arden WA is a good overview of haying. They do some really good work there with about 300 acres of hay. I must have driven by them a thousand times. Anyway, their site is worth checking out.
Cool thanks - Mike
My family farms 3000 acres and runs 1500 cow calf pairs in southern idaho. These videos hit way to close to home. We do 3 to four cuttings of hay on about 800 acres. Add wheat, barley, corn, beans and it makes for some long summers. I love the break down of your videos. Life on the ranch is great but the never ending broken equipment, and ever building to do list does get overwhelming sometimes. Keep up the good videos.
Thank you very much and thanks for hanging out with us! - Mike
Good man Nubby. It's cool to hear about that neck of the woods. I once lived on my family's Snake R. valley ranch, just north of the Snake R. on the way from Bruneau to Mountain Home, east side of the road. (Dairy, beef, alfalfa, gophers). Life in PA is much different, as far as hay, we have 80/90% humidity and knowing when to cut and drying are a real art. Here, you pick which future day you think there won't have been rain, humidity will have been right enough to bale without mold/fire, and if you really feel lucky, you try to pick a window that will minimize the number of times you have to ted it. BTW Mike, this O.W.L. channel is sweet. Keep growing it and maybe you could host a couple dude ranch hands a year, and merchandise some hoodies with a western logo or something, if you want. Laters.
Hey Mike. Funny video. Love your sense of humor. I imagine that'll keep you going for a long time. Mike
driving down a country road my son would say pole, tree, pole, tree, and then he said chickens im like there is no chickens he said yeah poletree lol my daughter used to say the hay with the white plastic on it looked like gigantic marshmallows hugsssssss from Ontario Canada
Nice Tan there Mike!
Ha ha. Yeah I noticed too. The other wonderful thing is the farmers tan. Guess it goes with the territory. Thanks for watching! -Mike
Love the videos. I love learning about this stuff because it's part of what Id like to do with my life, as I'm only 16, and live in NY. Keep up the amazing videos and work!
Here in New England where the hay tends to grow thicker, tedding can also be a part of the process. I feel so bad for you having to do all that work with such sparse hay. But you also have a lot more acreage. Praying for more rain for you!
Thanks
Thank you :) - Mike
Thanks i really enjoy these videos
Thanks for sharing. I do this on a smaller scale and still have a 5 day a week job away from the farm. It can get stressfull enough for me even tho my living doesn't entirely depend on it. Factor in the weather, time restraints, breakdowns, etc. It can get perty hectic quickly if things don't go just right.
great channel.....keep posting
Andrew Sanders thank you. We plan to :). Thanks for watching -Mike
Our wyoming life I know this video been out for awhile but I enjoyed it
Our hay is great this season. Very strong fields. We are having a problem with the weeds though. But it’s part of the job
That it is, thank you very much Cody - Mike
Besides the weeds a lot of rain. Fields too wet to mow couldn’t get any in for like a month
God bless. Hope y’all do great
Mike can you plant 200-300 acres of rye in the fall and then bale it in the dough next summer. We do,it all the time and really extends the hay and cows love it to we also have planted heavy seeding of oats and bale it,I carry three times as many cattle as the former owner and only bought hay the first year in the beginning.
Great the way you share your information. I'm about to start sustainable projects..you, and several other folks I love watching (Bill Morrison and Geoff, etc.) are the future!
That's the cleanest 8200 hesston I've ever seen!
Haha. Low hours. It's for sale lol. Thanks for watching! -Mike
what's the most important thing you can have to be a good rancher? ............................................. a sense of humor, thanks for sharing
I totally agree...you just have to keep laughing at some things! -Mike
I like your rocks. I had a farm in Western NYS. Took a trip up to the Canadian Shield and saw where those rocks came from.
Mike, I love ya brother. I once heard that the rancher is first a farmer! You must first farm the grasses needed to feed the reason you are a rancher. Still watching the older stuff to get caught up! :-)
Don't forget we will be live soon! Thanks for watching -Mike
I got a great laugh from your humor. I see the Wyoming life isn't much different than the Appalachian hillbilly life, except for the scenery,..
I think it's safe to say, if a man owns equipment, he better know how to wrench and weld!
Hi Mike, haying were i live in Nova Scotia Canada is so much differant then the way you do it. After mowing it we would have to ted it out two or three times for it to dry enough to rake and bale. And if i tried to rake 30 feet in to one windrow it would be 6 feet high. Maybe rolling your fields to push the rocks into the ground would help save on equipment brake downs. I really like the videos thank you for making them.
Thanks Hans. It was a really dry year, normally we would have about 4 times of what we did and we wouldnt have to roll any additional windrows together. We are really dry here, most days we can bale a day or two after cutting. No tedding required. Thats a good idea on rolling. I might have to look into finding one. Thanks and thanks for watching - Mike
Best voice ever! You should record your voice reading books on the side I’m sure you’d make a killing. Great narration and descriptive language. Made this video amazingly awesome! Good job and thank you for your hard work.
Hey, Mike you should get a land roller and pull it over you hay field before you cut it and push em down so thar you swather and baler should miss most of em except for the bigger rocks
We have tried it, the problem is our soil is very sandy and topsoil is very thin, they seem to keep working their way up. grrrrrr Thanks Cody and thanks for watching - Mike
Your voice 😂 I could hear it on a tv or radio ! Nice ! & thanks for this video 😊
Thank you :) and thanks for watching - Mike
5th step picking up and storing the bales
No problem. My sharecropper just burned up his combine Friday. Already behind, he had no insurance. Prolly going down. I may be drilling hay, orchard grass and alfalfa...
Oh wow. Sounds like a day! Thanks - Mike
Here in Australia, in order to make hay we have to plant a crop. Usually oats or wheat. Sometimes Lucerne which is very rich. And some vetch. Not having to plant it first would be amazing
We still have to reseed occasionally, alfalfa only lasts about 10 years and needs to be upped as well as some pasture grasses. Thanks for watching - Mike
We have to reseed every single time. But probably have an edge on Wyoming in other ways. Such as no polar vortex fourish months a year. We get the opposite- dry spells that last for months and require our growing hay to last these times. I love your videos and seeing how different things are for you. :-)
All the heat, breakdowns, fuel and threat of rain in haying. All to feed it out in the winter.
Exactly - Mike
ever try pulling a roller over the ground in spring to push down the rocks so they cannot damage your machinery ?
also will trap moisture in the ground , and seal the top to keep from drying out ..
Our ground here is extremely sandy and loam. We've tried just about everything the topsoil is very thin and those darn rocks just work their way up. Thanks George and thanks for watching - Mike
Round bales beats stacking little square bales on a flat rack then putting them in the barn. The old timers talk about hay loaders.
I bale 2000 bales each summer I feel your pain
Between this June video and November something crapped on your hat. Looking rough before it's time to burn it. I have never seen a cycle bar mower that big. Here in Tn we can normally get 3 cutting of grass hay per year. Sometimes alfalfa hay can be cut 4 times depending on rain. Really enjoy thanks
Hi Anthony, I'm sure many things crapped on my hat, also trampled it. Definitely time for it to go. I wish we could get mulitple cuttings, It sure would make things easier. Thanks - Mike
I realy like your videos!
Thank you - Mike
That's why farmers never get rid of swathers, balers or rakes!! Always needing parts!!
Mike I understand the love hate part of haying I'm the same way We froze in May and had no spring moisture I irrigate but because it was so dry I was 100 ton short on my first cut and then the wind blew the hay into piles. Erin and my wife could start a support group for hay widows. or the WOCHMR wives of cranky hay making ranchers
Now thats funny right there....I'm sure they would love to meet in Hawaii or something! By the way did you catch the manufacturer of our electric brands? -Mike
No I missed the brands my connection wasn't very good I've never seen irons work that good before I use a torch and in our wind I struggle to keep the temp right.
lhbrandingirons.com/ L&H Manufacturing. I really like them, they always stay hot and mine have lasted for years. -Mike
"Pet Rocks" used to sell for $4.00 each back in the 1970's, if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, sales lasted less than a year. But there is a new generation out there that may provide you with a new market for them. :-)
I think now days it would have to have bluetooth! Thanks George - Mike
The squather broke a #8 bolt? It’s tuff out there in the hay field!
The swather broke the wobble assembly, the dog bone broke as well. Thanks for watching - Mike
If you aint braking it you aint working it. Dam rocks
Very true! Thanks Rick - Mike
Mother Nature beats up even steel - gracious!
Mother Nature is the great equalizer!
hi Mike we have the opposite problem here in NY won't stop raining everyone is way behind . do you grow any alfalfa?
Good morning. We don't grow any straight alfalfa but we do have some mixed in. Does it look like it's gonna stop anytime soon? -Mike
Y’all should do an episode or two on wildlife or prairie rattlers or something along those lines.
That is in the works, a little hard in the winter. I tried to get some footage of some critters this summer, I set up a camera on a badger den then had to sit through 3 hours of footage just to see him stick his nose out and go right back in. Exciting stuff. Thanks Cody! - Mike
Why don't you you a front and a back discmower and what kind of N fertalizer do you use?
We really work with what we have. Thanks - Mike
Great explanation. I wanted to hear what all the equipment sounds like, but you have it on low. Most vids just blast country music. I wanna hear the machines.
I will remember that, thanks - Mike
Never mind - saw the answer further down! re: Is this grass you planted or is this natural growth on the prairie?
Hey Lark, its all good. We have actually seeded into the prairie grass before. No till planting alfalfa and some other native grasses. Thanks for watching! -Mike
Great documentary, you did a fine job of explanation. You have to have farming in your blood to understand why you do it.. Thanks
Thank you Dean, and thanks for watching! - Mike
I thought it was going to be a video of rescuing little critters. I remember my dad finding giant toads in the garden while tilling
would heavy rolling sort those rocks out mike they look troublesome
They can be a pain, if we had a roller it would help I'm sure. You also have to roll at just the right time around here, when the soil is soft enough to push those rocks back in. - Mike
This guy has a perfect TV voice
Thank you -Mike
Wow...also...your grass is really thin and short...our first cut is above your knee...sorry for you...this makes a lot of work covering a lot of ground to get what you need.
As I said, it was a drought year, our production was a 1/4 of what it normally is, if it would have been any shorter we couldnt have cut it at all. Thanks for watching - Mike
Do you have any irrigation to be able to plant pastures? In the Sonoran desert we have almost non existent rains so that's the only way to be able to feed cattle when the paddocks are dry. It will free you from so many headaches well, it will replace them
I know irrigation can be a huge pain as well. Unfortunately we dont have any irrigated pastures or hay ground. There are laws here that we cant irrigate from a well unless we pump it into a pond for livestock use first then you have twice the cost in pumping it. And even then you have to have the states permission. Thank you very much though, I know you have enough work of your own besides watching ours haha - Mike
Our Wyoming Life it's always good to have perspective, thanks for the update
Could u do a bale silage
@TheWyomingLife Have you ever took into consideration Winter Grazing Standing Corn. the quality of feed better than hay because you can relatively always depend on tonnage and it isn't as stressful as putting up hay.
We are currently looking at drought tolerant plants to add into our native grass, we have looked at doing corn but the landscape and climate are not really the best for corn. We have friends over in southdakota that have corn and lots of times the cows will end up with stalks which they love. Thanks. -Mike
Just found your channel, Living in San Francisco; Love it.
Gotta ask, have you made a video on how the old timers did this before technology?
I havent, that will be next year during harvest. Hopefully I will have some help and we are going to go do a few acres the old fashioned way. I hope you subscribed :) Thanks - Mike
Great video, darn rocks haha!
Those rocks! lol. Thanks for watching! -Mike
What brand of tags do you put in your cows
We use cal Tags. Thanks Lee - Mike
Here in my NY hills it is a tradition to pick up the rocks before working the fields. Where else would all these stone walls come from? I got enough rocks I just say We lower the level of the field.
I do like the stone fences those are very nice, thanks for watching - Mike
I dig the NASA shirt Mike.
Thanks Justin, thanks for watching too! -Mike
They have nice machines to pick the rocks up and carry them out of the fields. Here in Kentucky we sale hay for $30.00 pr. roll. Better quality than what you're feeding.
Oh yeah. I've seen rock pickers too bad trucking would kill me. Thanks for watching. -Mike
Don't you know how to use rock pickers? Yea haul bill would be a little bit of a problem.
Hi Henry. I've seen them. I don't own one. Maybe that would be a good investment. Thanks-Mike
They don't cost that much. I've seen many of them at the auction at London, Ohio. They have an auction the last Thursday every month. It would save on down time and equipment repairs. I own a farm and I know how much downtime costs, and repairs.
Thank you. You don't see many of them in these parts but I'll keep an eye out. -Mike
Thanks Mike for another informative video! I use to hear of rattlesnakes getting bailed up. Have you ever found any Prairie Rattlers' in your bales? Better luck with hopefully a second cutting!!
Hi Deb, we have baled plenty of rattlesnakes, the most interesting is when they are half in and half out of the bales swinging their heads around as there tail is locked tight in the bale. I imagine I'll do another haying video, I'll try to get some rattlesnakes in that one. Unfortunately in this area we dont get the rain for a second cutting, I wish we did. Thanks for watching! -Mike
i would like to see rattlesnake stuck in a hay bale.
Deb Carpenter I like to collect little tiny buzzy baby rattler snakes and put them in a shoe-box on a table we put outside our front door. With a sign on it saying "Our door bell isn't working. Please tap the shoe box instead.". Most people are puzzled at first but eventually end up tapping the box. We can't hear the buzzing from inside but we can hear the yelling that goes on when the buzzing starts and the box starts vibrating off the table.
@@ravenfeather7087 That is a good one! I'll have to remember that for future pranks.
why do you use a sickle mower vs a disk mower? I'm form Missouri and most farmers from there seem to think that disc mowers handle rocks better.
l like you videos. they make me miss farming.
I have never used a disc mower although I would like to. My father in law, who ran the place up until a few years ago, always used sickle mowers and the basic though process here is that they are better at cutting thinner grass. Thanks for watching -Mike
We us both in Montana. The sickle on rocky areas and disk on the pivots and non rock area due to worry about fire.
Do you listen to music on those 6 hour rides? Podcasts? Great video
Actually I've started on audio books. They tend to kill the time. I have also listened to some of Kevin Smith's podcasts. -Mike
HI can I ask you why you dont feed Fodder sys the cost is alot less and you dont have the cost that you have with feed.
Fodder for this many cows would take a pretty big inside area, and operation. Hopefully someday we can suppliment with fodder. Thanks - Mike
look up farmtec they have builds and everthing in its owen builing and the nicething is you set it up so you dont do any thing . any way good Luck god with you
pretty amazing only a handful of people can do all this on a farm themselves. do you know how many people might have had to work on medieval farms or before industrial machines?
With our swather we can cut about 10 acres per hour, but back in the olden days hay was originally cut by scythe by teams of workers, as far as I can tell one person could cut an acre a day with a scythe, now those would be long days! Thanks for watching - Mike
I don't know anything about farming. Here in Pennsylvania I see a lot of bales of hay wrapped in the white plastic. Yours, I notice, are not wrapped like that. I was wondering, considering the massive amounts of snow you get in Wyoming, wouldn't wrapping it in plastic preserve some of the hay better than being exposed to the elements? (As I said, I don't know anything about farming but am curious about a lot of it. And I deeply respect those who farm and ranch...) Thanks for any info on this...
Great question Ronald, before I forget, Thanks for watching, I do appreciate it. Lets see how well I can explain it. The plastic wrap isnt there to keep moisture out but more to keep oxygen out. In wetter climates they hay is put up while it is still wet and by wrapping it in plastic it protects it from getting moldy. I think at that point its called baleage. Because we are a much dryer climate we are putting up hay that is dry already to the point that its very rarely going to mold and the net wrap that we wrap our bales in actually sheds most of the moisture of the snow and rain we do get on it. Oddly enough the inside of the bales dont get wet and the netwrap preserves the outside layers.
For a quick comparison, hay that I put up is usually about 14% on the moisture scale when I bale it, and hay that needs to be plastic wrapped is about 40%
I hope that answers your question. Thanks again! -Mike
Fascinating! Thank you for the info Mike, I appreciate it...
You're welcome.
4 steps: rock picking, mowing, raking, baling. Wouldn't it be great if there was an attachment to the tractor to pick up rocks?!
New stones are brought up whenbuts frosty
Mike does the hay grow naturally or does it have to be seeded? no supplemently irrigation?
Its mostly natural prairie grass. It does have some alfalfa in it that we have seeded into it and occasionally you do have to reseed fields to keep production up, but only about every 5 to 10 years. We don't have any irrigation here, i wish we did but no rivers or big lakes to irrigate out of. -Mike
Ever thought of using a well
The state of Wyoming regulates irrigating from a well. Confusing that irrigating 50 acres can take up to a million gallons a week we can't get permitted from our aquifer. Thanks -Mike
Just a thought i had never really thought of the rules and regulations. I work on a ranch just outside of Douglas all our irrigating is done off the river.
Oh I'd love to have a River lol
Do you throw Nitrogen/Lime/Potash or any other growth stuff on your hay to make it Yield better or is it just not economical?
I would love to try it, we havent done it yet. Mostly its a cost thing at this point. We spent a bunch a couple of years ago on reseeding and we are still getting that paid off. Its tough because rain and drought has been an issue the past few years and buying hay has really put a dent in things. Thanks and thanks for watching - Mike
Sitting on a tractor bailing hay is where I learned to sing. Although my girlfriend says I need to get a refund 😂
2017 was the biggest headache where I live when it came to making hay, nothing but rain for weeks older equipment wanting to die. And perhaps the biggest headache of all is trying to get the contractor in to bale before rain comes in !! Only their busy baling others and when theyd finished doing their customers it RAINS Arrrrrrhhhhh, oh well plenty bale silage. By the looks of your place Mike it looks sooo easy to make hay where you live I'm jealous of your hay making season weather Lol. how long do you leave the cut hay out for before raking and baling Mike ? Nice interesting vid 👍🚜
We have hay if we have rain, over the last 5 years we have had 3 with no hay, so its still rough. We are dry enough here that I can cut one day and usually bale the next. Thanks Calum! - Mike
Just curious, how come you don't invest into a rock picker?
I mean I know it would take days upon days (upon days upon days) to derock the field (your giant ranch) and I know that they are a bit pricey but if you worked at it (again I know it's a huge property) it would probably save you down time in the long run and I would imagine you could write off the machine on your taxes and when you're done you could probably sell it as I would imagine Everyone in Wyoming has rocks, I think the whole state is tiny rocks.
Anyways your channel is great, I am trying to escape So Cal for greener pastures and I am heavily doing my homework your channel is very informative.
They get most rocks, but not everything. We use a windrower to cut our hay, and that thing has a zero tolerance policy for rocks. A rock picker would help but we'd still be scouring.
I want this guy to narrate my life.
we used to have to dig down about 2 feet and then redo the soil for grass. there are like 20,000 different soil types and you can odd different dirt. and other smaller rocks for minerals to get bigger yields. there is a science to it. i think uc davis and fresno state atually has a dirt museum.
cattle are good but also different types will yield bigger pay offs. one year it was angus. another year it blue belgium.
Very true, one service that we use occasionally is the web soil survey websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm
which is put up by NRCS and USDA. Very interesting info about your area and the soil conditions.
Thanks a bunch and thanks for watching - Mike
www.caes.ucdavis.edu/news/articles/2017/03/secret-life-of-soil
Thanks Randy. -Mike
How many cows will 1 bale feed and for how long?
Hi Conor, thanks for watching. A cow will eat anywhere from 25-30 lbs of hay per day. My bales weight about 1400 lbs so one bale should feed a cow for about 45 days. She will waste some, laying on it or whatnot unless its in a feeder so I would say probably about a month. -Mike
YOU DO A GREAT JOB HANG IN THER . A LOT OF PEAPLE LIVE THUE YOU AND WISH THEY COULD BE YOU .
subscribed :)
Thank you very much, glad you found us and thanks for watching - Mike
do you have to actually steer or is even this part driven by GPS?
They do make tractors that steer with GPS but we don't have any. I have to steer and pay pretty close attention to make sure I don't run off course. It can get tedious. Thanks Wesley. -Mike
Thanks for the answer. Being a city cop in Florida this stuff is so far removed from my every day life that it is just fascinating. Keep up the awesome videos.
How many acres are you on? Looks like a ton lol
Hi Mike,
You deal with so many variables and have to wear so many hats. It seems like unless you have
a machinist skill set, you could not survive paying to have your machinery fixed as often as it has issues.
I have a general question related to ranching.
Do you have huge swings in income every year, or is it relatively predictable within a small margin of error?
Not trying to be personal or pry looking for numbers...just wondering if most years even out by the end of the year?
I'm not sure I'm much of a mechanic, but over the years I've figured out how to fix things. Probably not by the book but well enough to get you up and going again. Income wise there are huge swings. All depending on the price of calves that year and the hay harvest can make a huge impact on that. Consider this, we need about 400 tons of hay per year to feed the cows for the winter at a price of around 150$ per ton delivered. Thats $60,000 in hay alone. Now if calves continue to sell low at around $750 each then we are raising 80 calves just to pay for hay for the coming winter. If we dont have a hay harvest we have no profit, which in a huge circle, we continue to fix equipment ourselves instead of buying a new machine or fixing it completely. Its a vicious cycle.
Thanks for watching -Mike
Wow. Sounds like you should be in the Hay business. :)
I've actually known a few ranchers that were forced to sell all their cows and go into the hay business, not sure its for me lol -Mike