Baler upgrade!!!

Well, this is the baler that I purchased last spring.  When I purchased it I was expecting to make between 200-300 bales per year.  I made around 1500 bales last year and at least 1000 so far this year.  If we hadn't had a drought that number would be closer to 2500 at this point this year.  So I have been looking at newer balers and finally found one that caught my eye!

I found the new baler at Minor Tractor Sales about 45 minutes north of here.  They had a great price and gave me a really good trade in value on my old one so we made the deal!  The new one is a New Holland BR740A Silage Special.  It has net wrap and twine.  My old one only had twine. 

The silage special means that there are some major differences in the way the baler is set up in addition to the upgrades it has being a new model.  First of all a lot of the rollers are not smooth but instead have spiral bumps on them to knock any hay off the belts that may stick to them.  That keeps it from building up on the rolls and making the belts go off track like my old one did when baling wet hay.  Another upgrade they made was making all the bearings on the baler grease-able.  My old baler had around 11 grease fittings, this baler has over 50!!  It also has an auto oiler for all the chains! 

 You will also notice the lack of hay catcher wheels (the big rubber finger wheels on the old one) on the pickup head.  That is because the newer model has a pickup that is two feet wider than the bale chamber.  The old one was the same width as the bale chamber and missed a lot of hay when baling.  There is also a stuffer between the pickup teeth and the bale chamber to push the hay into the baler instead of letting the belts and rolls pull it in.  This drastically cuts down on plugging and speeds up the baling process due to more rapid intake of hay into the baler!

 A pic of it hooked to the tractor!

 

Another feature that my old baler did not have was a bale command monitor!  This baler has an on-board  computer that runs off the battery of the tractor.  It took me about two hours to get all the wiring run and secured and everything mounted how I wanted.  There are no levers or gauges to watch, everything is on the monitor.  For example, on my old baler, if the gate did not close fully the marker on the front could still look like the gate was closed.  The new one has sensors that check after every bale to verify that the gate closed completely.  It also counts every single bale electronically and stores in in the memory and cannot be reset so there is no way to cheat on how many bales it has made when trading in.  Furthermore, if someone steals the baler...they cannot use it once they get it home without having the monitor from the tractor.  You cannot plug this monitor into another baler and go bale.  They have to be mated!

Now, when I was a kid and went to the tractor dealership there were always racks of toys behind the parts counter.  There were all scale models of the tractors they sold there at the dealership and I always dreamed of having all of them.  Well, nowadays, when you go to get parts, that is all they have.  No more do you see toys at the dealership.  Now that I am old enough to buy the ones I want they don't have them anymore!  However, as soon as you walk in the front door of Minor's Tractor Sales, there is a whole wall of just scale model tractors just like I used to see when I was a kid!!!  Now, you know as a father (and a kid at heart) I couldn't resist to bring some home to give my kids the same joy that I had as a child.  

When I was a kid I had a scale model Ford 9700 Dually tractor with a cab.  They don't have that model any more or any Kubota's but they do have the new version of what I had as a kid as well as a scale model of the newest round baler New Holland makes. 

So, I hid them in the new baler to bring home and let my son find them while he was checking it out after he got home.  Then, Sunday morning the kids came and drug my into the living room to show me that their tractor had a passenger seat in it and that they packed a cooler (lego block) and me (the lego driver) and them both in the cab to go bale hay!!

 Now onto some yummy business!!  I love it when we start getting fresh veggies from the garden.  My wife cooked this for supper Saturday night.  We had fresh yellow tomatoes with basil and vinegar sauce and pasta topped with Hot Italian sausage, Swiss chard cherry tomatoes, and onions.  It was awesome and short of the pasta, all grown here on the farm!!

While out checking the cows the other day I noticed Thunder strutting his stuff.  He is getting quite large now, probably about #1800 lbs now and solid muscle.  He is getting older and is getting much bolder in his actions.  I will have to be much more aware of him and more cautious when in the pasture with the cows.  As a bull gets older their instincts drive them to "take over the herd".  In nature they would have to fight the leader of the herd for the right to breed with the females.  He doesn't need to do this as he is the only bull we have right now.  However, the cattle all look at me as the dominate leader of the herd, including him.  When I enter the pasture he has always backed down.  However, he is now starting to stand his grown and is deciding if he needs to defend his right to breed.  You always have to respect a bull and be aware that no matter how nice they are, at some point, he will challenge you for the right to run the herd! 


 I put a junk bale out for the cows to root through and eat the good parts of last night.  He came running over as soon as I drove in the pasture and started beating on the bale and rocking the entire tractor!  Then after I dropped the bale he started pounding into it with such force that he rolled it across the pasture and spread it everywhere.  Then he ran over to the fence where my dads cows were watching and started pawing the ground and bawling!

I hope he calms back down or he may be leaving sooner than he expected!

I want to through in a couple of piggie pics.  This is tiger stripe.  He is one of Daisy Pigs piglets.  I am saving him as a boar for the customer who purchased Marshmallow.  He should make a great daddy!

 This is one of Pigs last piglets with a few of Daisy pigs latest.  He looks small in the pick but is getting close to two hundred lbs.

I want to wrap up with some pics of my son from last night.  He got dressed for bed in some shorts and a "wife beater", or as he calls it a " beef jerky"  LOL!!!   They are hand me downs from my daughter and are obviously too small for him.  However, my wife is trying to get every last use out of them. 

So, just for some good future humiliation graduation/marriage pics I handed him the tv remote and snapped a quick pic!   Now, the kids only watch a couple of hours of tv a week at most.  But he still knows to point the remote at the tv!

Thank you to all the customers who just purchased the last round of beef and pork and I am working on growing the next round for all of my valuable customers still waiting.  I will have plenty of meat ready to eat in January. 

Stay hungry my friends!!!

A picture of my injured truck and some other items

Well, to start off I wanted to show a picture of my injured baby.  While helping on a project at my parents house there was a little mishap that ended with the front right corner of my truck getting smashed.  In the end the only one hurt was my truck.  Gonna take $2500 to fix everything.  It doesn't look like much in the pic but the hood, fender, and light need replaced.  The front clip got shoved sideways so the drivers side fender is shoved out of line as well.  The bumper is not bent but it is scratched so it is all going to need repainted as well. 

Next up, we just sent a steer, three feeder pigs, and one of the youngest sows to the butcher shop.  We are sizing down the herd of pigs as we cannot afford to feed them for feeder piglets due to the drought causing prices of the corn, bean meal, and alfalfa meal we use to supplement their diet to soar!  I thought the sow was getting big even though she was only a little over two years old she was still bigger than the rest.  Turns out she was over 600 lbs. live weight!!  Two of the three feeders we sent were over 300lbs. live weight.  No wonder they were gobbling down so much feed.  I also really need to find an animal scale to weight the pigs with so I can keep from letting them get too big.  Once you pass about 280lbs. for a pig the amount of feed they eat sky rockets compared to the amount of actual muscle they put on.  A lot of it ends up being fat.  

So, I went to pick up the meat from the butcher yesterday to deliver to the local customers I have and prepare for a trip to Columbus next weekend with the rest.  While packing some of the pork chops in the freezer I snapped a pic of one of the packs of two chops from the sow we sent.  They are bigger than most porterhouse steaks!!!!  This was one of the middle sized ones, some of the chops are pushing one pound each!

While the kids were taking a nap today I headed out to spend some time with the cows and see how everyone is doing.  I am waiting on Prairie Fire to have her calf and have been checking daily.

I took this picture just because it has most of the calves in it.  It was only a few years ago that I was thrilled to have almost ten cows....now I have almost ten calves!!!

 I got a close up picture of the cousins!!  On the left is Precious and the right is Princess.  My daughter named her. 

My daughter also now wants to claim both of them for herself!  So, tonight we had discussion about why she only gets one calf and I get all the rest of the cows.  I explained to her that I have purchased and fed and raised all the cattle here.  I am giving her one to start a herd with.  I will also give my son one to start a herd with.  I will run them all with my herd till she gets old enough to run her herself and the same with my son.  I am going to use it to teach them how to run a business and be accountable and have responsibility as they grow up.  It will be able to provide them with income and food for when they get married and start their own lives.  It will also allow me to give them something financially that will grow itself over time.  If, down the road they decide it isn't for them they can sell their herd, or continue on and grow it for their children!!

Here are a few more pics of Princess.  That is Legacy behind her and her sister Precious in the background.  Legacy is doing well for a little man without a momma.  He is growing much much slower than he should be but he also didn't have any of the milk that he should have gotten.  Shortly after letting him back lose in the pasture this spring he quit drinking the milk I was bringing him and he has been of a full grass diet ever since.  I know he will be fine though and it will make him even stronger in the long run! 

At this point she was getting interested in my phone and what I was doing with it!

She finally got up the nerve to come within arms reach and gave me a nice pose before trotting off to play with the other calves!

To finish off the night we decided to cook out on the wood fire.   I was headed from the house to the fire pit to get this started and found two visitors in my lawn.  They are two of my dads calves that are supposed to be in the pasture behind the trees in the background.  However, due to the drought the electric fencers is not very effective due to the lack of conductivity of dry soil.  So, all the calves are taking turns trimming my lawn.  Apparently they feel the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.  They better not get the same idea about my wife's garden that they have been walking right past!!

 Lastly, a pic of dinner as I was starting to cook it.  I put some hickory wood on just before cooking for some smoke flavor in the meat.   Man it was awesome.  These are some T-bone and Porterhouse steaks and some sausage stuffed hot peppers from the garden.  It was quite a yummy supper!!!

Well, I need to get to bed.  Another very hectic and long week ahead.  My daughter starts kindergarten this week.  Seems like it was just yesterday that I held her for the first time.  Now she is starting school already and it will seam like a few short years and she will be getting married......I am so not ready for that yet!

Goodnight everyone!!

Kenny

Update ... Sorry for the delay!

Well, it has been quite hectic around here the last week and a half.  On July 30th both Pig and Daisy Pig had their litters on the same day while I was at work.  Pig had her entire litter with no problems.  Daisy pig however did not.  When I got home she was still in labor and had been since about 9am.  These where the ones running around in the pen.

Here were Pigs piglets.

After talking with the vet we came to the conclusion she had one breach.   So, the only way to help her was to be the doctor and manually go in and get it unstuck and out.  It was not fun for me and I have no idea how she coped but I managed to get it and two others that were stuck behind it out.  Unfortunately they were all still born.  So, very disappointed, after spending two hours helping her, I headed to the house to clean up for dinner.  I came out afterwards to check on everyone and was overjoyed to find two more happy little babies eating with the other seven.  That made it all worth it!

Above is pig the next day with her litter of 11 and Daisy pig below with her litter of 9. They are all growing faster than any litter before and look great.  I think we are finally getting the pig thing dialed up and we are ready to roll!!!  Now we just need this drought to end and we will be great!

I mowed and square baled my big field across the road last week as well.  I didn't mow the smaller one as it hasn't grown enough to bother.  The bigger 7.5 acre field normally gives me 150-200 bales of third cutting.  This year ... 21.  Last year I couldn't get a wagon load of dry hay due to the rain.  This year I can't get a load of dry hay due to the lack of rain!  So, as every farmer will say, " Next year will be better!"

After finishing unloading I took the kids and dog for wagon ride to give the chaff to the cows. 

Everyone enjoyed the treat as they don't have a lot to eat in the pasture right now either.  I am starting to feed round bales already.  Good thing I planned ahead and made sure I have more than I need!

Then, I found out that I could borrow a lift this past weekend.  I have wanted to limb up all the large trees in the lawn since we moved in but haven't had a way to get that high up in the trees as they are 60+ feet tall.  This lift was a life savor and made it very easy to do the job.  This is one of the six large maples on one spruce I had to prune.  The limbs were drooping low enough to hit the equipment going in and out the lane as well as getting into all pines along the drive.

While I was pruning my kids were collecting the old shells of the locusts that were all over the spruce tree.  My daughter then put them in a container and labeled it "The Bug House"!

A pic of the big maple along the drive way after I finished.  Shortly after taking this photo I went back up and took off the two limbs hanging lower than the rest on the left and right.  I lifted all except the spruce about 40' each.  They look awesome and we can see the sun come up in the morning in our kitchen again!

I had four pigs and one steer to take to the butcher last night.  I did not originally have a divider gate in my livestock trailer so I spent part of my weekend installing one.  This made life a lot easier for hauling as it allowed us to load the pigs and pen them in the front and then put the steer in the back without losing anyone or having them fight on the way there!

Lastly I wanted to put in a pic of Prairie Fire.  She is not quite a year old yet and is almost as big as her momma already!  I can't wait to see her calves!

Well, I need to get to bed.  Another long day tomorrow as after work I have some custom baling to do followed by helping my parents dig some foundation footers for their house remodeling project!

Goodnight everyone and have a great week!

Kenny