Select a location in full sun. Firm, tightly tied hay or straw bales make a quick and easy-to-use organic raised bed for growing strawberries. Check the temperature of the bales on the 11th day.
Only so many bales can be produced per hour, and even when they're off the fields, they still need to be stored in a weather-protected area. Start as Early as Possible To anyone who has ever baled hay, this is obvious but it bears repeating—the process...
Easy Access Hay-bale gardening may be the perfect choice for elderly gardeners, folks with back or knee issues, or anyone interested in an easy-access growing medium. We've got a few things that might persuade you.
The least successful were root/underground crops like onions and potatoes.Although this method is commonly called “Straw Bale Gardening” not everyone uses or has access to oat, wheat, rice or other straw.
To feed a bale, push it over, twine-side up, and strip hay off in layers. Mom reuses plastic twine from big bales to braid ties for gates and such. You could, too! Try to buy big bales stored until you need them.
He started with cheap aluminum carabiners from the dollar store, but they wear out too fast, so as they break, he's replacing them with heavy-duty carabiners. Dad made one two whole panels long across the front of the Boer goats' paddock but used bolt...
Download a copy of Carol Ekarius's hay analysis charts>> Like our free downloads ? What's in the hay you feed your livestock? Learn more about the quality of hay you feed your animals.
Use the locks—always! • Avoid inviting strangers into your home. Barring that, securely lock farm implements, tools and equipment in sheds; set up lights with household timers to reflect your normal living patterns; and ask neighbors to pick up your...
These nets and bags pose another issue, though: A horse can get a leg caught in a net or bag and injure itself. The location of your hay feeding routine has an effect on how much hay your animals waste.
Throw in a fruit picker with a telescoping pole (something like this one ) and you'll be good to go. Aside from moving hay, transporting debris is definitely the most frequent use for my hay wagons.
They can grow up to 2 feet in height and spread up to 3 to 4 feet wide. They can also be found in meadows, fields and rocky slopes.Growing hay scented ferns are fairly easy because these ferns are hardy and quick to be established.
Your hay should be turned at least twice. In a legume-grass mixture, as the legumes are depleted, grasses take over and continue producing bumper hay crops for many more years. Frayed or broken adjustment cables need replacement.
Many beekeepers use nine. Queen excluder: A frame and grid that keeps the queen from entering the honey supers to lay eggs (not used by all beekeepers). Hive tool: A steel tool used to open the hive, scrape wax/propolis and handle frames.
Calculate your hay need for winter and test its quality before the grazing season ends. However, the timely rains diminished in July for some areas of the state and haven't returned in significant amounts in most places since then.
Alfalfa is the gold standard. Younger animals have higher nutrient demand relative to total intake, so the highest-quality hay available should be fed to them. She lives on a 10-acre hobby farm in northwest Indiana with her husband, Mark, 75 chickens,...
If storing small square bales, stack the bottom layer on their sides with the strings facing sideways instead of up. Hay can be bundled in three basic ways: Small square bales: Traditional rectangular-shaped, string- or wire-tied bales are generally 2x2x4...
Does the hay have a high amount of leaf material (which has higher nutritional value), or have the leaves mostly shattered during cutting and baling? Research what other haymakers in your region are charging per bale.
The New Holland 66 cost a mere $1,850 (the 77 model ran nearly $2,500). Most offer an optional quarter-turn bale chute that drops bales on their sides in the perfect position to be retrieved by automatic bale wagons.
Each grazing species reacts slightly differently to fescue toxosis. Mom says fescue is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of forage crops. Many have a rough hair coat, salivate excessively and experience multiple reproductive problems.
Bales are stacked in various methods or sandwiched between timber framing, sometimes requiring pins made from metal rebar to prevent bales from shifting. Stacking bales. Savings, however, come in reduced energy needs when operating the structure.
The highest quality hay will have few to no seeds, but some are inevitable. Instead, it will start to compost, creating a rich layer of nutrients for your plants. There is no need to till the soil or enrich it with topsoil.
You can't drive to your nearest machinery dealer and buy this equipment. Its patented grinding drum crumbles dry manure into tiny particles that decompose quickly once spread. It picks up a 33.4-inch swath and puts up 19.7- by 27.5-inch bales weighing...
Starting a straw bale garden is an inexpensive and viable option to working up the soil in a regular garden. Straw bale garden instructions direct you to water bales well for three to four weeks before using this method.Locate the bales in their permanent...
Expected Price: Rakes vary greatly in price, starting in the low thousands of dollars. Mower attachments for tractors start around the same price. Wagon Dwight Sipler/Flickr A farm “wagon” might be akin to the little red wagon you had as a kid.
A tractor able to handle a larger implement may be needed if acres completed per hour are a concern. My pull-behind rough-cut mower works as well behind my ATV as it does behind a compact tractor.
Obtain representative samples from each field and harvest date and have a certified forage-testing lab analyze them. This article first appeared in the January/February 2013 issue of Hobby Farms.
The recent shortage of hay and the spike in prices have forced many horse owners to re-evaluate their feeding strategies,” says Krishona Martinson, U of M Extension equine specialist.
