This afternoon we mowed the last 13 acres of bermudagrass we'll harvest this summer. Ideally it would have been harvested about 10 days ago, but silage chopping ALWAYS takes precedence above any other field work on the farm. The hay will be a little on the mature side and therefore the quality will suffer a little bit, but our heifers and dry cows will be happy to eat it this winter. Even without the 50+ acres we lost to fall armyworms a couple of weeks ago, we've had a productive forage season with both hay/baleage and chopped silage.We still have a little fixing to do before we actually bale this hay. The tractor we generally rake hay with, a Ford 6600 (as made infamous here), will need its radiator repaired if we expect to use it. We also have a torn belt on our baler that will have to be patched or replaced within the next couple of days.
The only other haying I foresee the season is a few acres of sudex we'll probably cut and harvest as baleage next week. After that, all of our field work will probably be focused on our fall-planted, spring-harvested cool season forage crops.
If you would like to watch me talk about this week's haying instead of just reading it above, click "play" on our latest MooTube Minute below.
2 comments:
This may seem like a crazy question but is your milk marketed to say that it is from your particular dairy farm? Of another way of phrasing this question would be: how can I support your farm through my milk purchases? Will I know that the milk I by at the local grocery store will support your farm?
Buying any milk in the state will help our farm because it will help support the state's overall dairy economy.
We market our milk through a cooperative which generally ships it to a Dairy Fresh plant in Dothan for processing and bottling (sometimes Barbers in B'ham). If you buy milk that was bottled in either of those facilities, there's a chance you're drinking some of our cows' milk.
To know you're buying milk that was bottled at those plants, look for the code stamped on the jug or label. The Dairy Fresh code is 01-3801 and the Barbers code is 01-0104.
Thanks for your question and your support!
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