I have a question for all you "hayseeds" out there, why all the huge round bales of hay? It used to be you always saw the square bales, now every hay farm I see all have the round bales, every once in a while I see them making the small square bales but mostly just the round ones, I think that the large round bales would be hard to throw up into the hay loft, do cows eat more than they used to?

Scott- FJ is more qualified to answer...as my farm experience has been grain farm only....though we did bale our own wire tied bales when I was a kid.

Around here they have mostly gone to the huge round bales. Saves labor...just stab them and move them.around with a loader. You can bale them with a protective plastic wrap as well.

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Round bales are much faster to make , the baler pretty much just rolls the hay or straw inside a set of 6" wide rubber belts until the full round bale is formed , then wraps twine or mesh around it and drops it on the ground.

The small square baler has a reciprocating plunger affair to compress wads of hay into a rectangular but it is much much slower

People with horses like the small square bales for ease of handling and transporting small amounts to rodeo's etc , and the high end thoroughbred farms demand the highest quality hay and pay accordingly.

Farmer Jim is our resident hay expert .... he is ficking amazing .... he can turn grass into gyro's. Sometimes he even puts the grass through a cow , sells the cow , and then buys stuff with wheels and engines and propellers

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Funny Jake turns gyros into grass.. Small world !

Silly city folks....

The answer is the same as anything....MONEY! or time...which is still MONEY!
I can buy round bales (the equal of 30 square bales) for less MONEY. Currently, 30 x 5.00/square bale = 150.00 or 1 round bale for $50.00.
Why? Because it takes less effort to make one round bale...less effort, less labor and equipment time..less MONEY.

I would also rather move 1 round bale into a cage once a week than 30 square bales. Oh..and yes...it is much easier to lift a square bale...unless you have a TRACTOR. Running cattle or most kinds of farms without one is a lot like running a mechanic shop without wrenches.

There is a secondary issue. Round bales weather better. The rain rolls off the sides and they stay dryer, even uncovered. Plus, the outside layer weathers and protects the inside. I have seen round bales last 2 or more years inside after you peel off the junk around the outside.

I wonder if it is my musical persona or my computer nerd persona that makes people forget I raise longhorns.

Thanks Jon, I was wondering if the weathering better had anything to do with it...
OK another dumb question, what are longhorns good for? Beef, leather jackets? or hood ornaments?
and where can I get a good grass fed steak here in the south?

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No kidding Jon Carleton , I did not know that , cool

This place is full of fickin farmers and ranchers.

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Elwood: Longhorns have always been beef cattle. Not the best, but not bad. They are fairly disease-free and problem free (which is why they are my choice). They sell primarily for beef, leather, taxidermy (heads for steak restaurants, such as Longhorn Steakhouse), and sometimes as breeding stock to "fix" a sickly heard of another breed.

Where can you get a certain grass-feed steak? Other than "grow your own," I can't guarantee anything. Everyone in the beef business is so Angus-centric and the Angus-centric folks are all money-centric, so they feed the cheapest swill that will put weight on a cow. Only way I know is buy one, feed it up on grass for a season and take it to the butcher.

Arnie: It is the lazy Accountant in me that got me into cows. I hate to mow pastures, de-weed fence lines and trim trees. Cows do that for me. I also get a discount on my real estate for "agricultural use." Goats would do as well, but they are escape artists and don't do nearly the job that a nice longhorn bull does for intimidating humans and keeping them off my property.

Also, the round baled with plastic 'stew' and turn all stinky and disgusting (silage), and the cows love it ,,,, to them, it is like getting chocolate with a gooey center

While on the topic of cows,,,, if you have a longhorn cow and cut off its horns.... is it still a longhorn?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silage

I would imagine yes...just no handlebars.

That would make it a steer....no wait, that is when they cut something else off..

I don't cut the horns off the cows. It tickles me for people to ask me how "all those bulls get along together in the pastures." I just point out the udders and suggest they rethink their position.

...as to steers...yes...we have an emasculator. My wife (who is a veterinarian) wields it with a frightening flourish. I make her keep it in the barn. It makes my eyes water just to look at the thing....had to be invented by a woman.

You raise cattle and your wife is a vegetarian????
Oh wait sorry, my dyslexia was acting up again.

You fickers are good ! Just saw this thread now, and am really enjoying it. I could tell you lots of stories, yes, perhaps share some 'knowledge' - BUT YER ALL FICKERS , AND I'M BUSY !

fj

ps

Need some advice from this mob - if a person works his azz off 1 month per year, and the other 11 months he works 20 hrs per MONTH, what would be a fair yearly income, hmmmm ??

It depends, if He is an airline pilot, chances are he makes a whole lot more than I do working 40 hours a week all year!!!

Norm runs his fishing lodge for 3 months out of the year, and the rest of the time He is in hibernation, But I don't think Norm uses money, he trades whale oil, animal skins, and rotax parts.....Maybe pans for a little gold in his spare time....

I think you guys should grow medical marijuana, the profits are probably more than the cow grass you are growing now....

FJ:

One of the first and most infamous "fair income" cases to go to the Supreme Court happened in the first bit of the 20th century. It was a dispute between Edison Electric of New York and General Electric for consulting services provided by a GE engineer to Edison Electric.

Edison Electric had a GE electric generator with a fault. It was a huge device that would require the removal of the power plant roof and months of expensive crane work to disassemble and repair, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. GE sent in an engineer who spent the night on a cot in the power plant beside the generator. In the morning he had drawn a chaulk circle on one of the panels of the generator casing.

The engineer told Edison technicians to cut the casing at that point, and they would find a section of burned-out wiring that would be easy to repair. They did. It was so. The repair was completed with minimal effort the next day and is alleged to have lasted for the life of the facility.

The collections lawsuit was because GE charged $30,000.00 for the engineering work (a ton of money in the 1920's). Edsion complained that the man only worked a small portion of the night and demanded a detail of the charges. The now legendary invoice listed the following:

One piece of white chaulk .... $1.00
Knowing where to draw the circle ... $29,999.00

GE won the lawsuit and Edison eventually had no choice and paid the bill.

It isn't about how many hours you work or how much you sweat. It is about the overall value of the work you do.

"Fair" is whatever you are comfortable with I would guess...I mean who couldn't use more money...

Green Laser Toner....I'm just sayin.....

I know a guy with a printing press......shhhhhhh...

Medical Marijuana -

Hadn't heard of it til today, googled it and grew some this afternoon.

Makes one's backfeel ENTIRELY DIFFERENT !!!

fj. yrs